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5 steps to hiring a book designer

You've invested months, perhaps years, putting together your manuscript. You've had it edited so that it is now ready to go to the next level - design and development. Now you need a designer to transform your manuscript into an eye-catching and readable book to send to your printer.

So how do you find this great designer? And how exactly do you go about contracting them for your book? Below are 5 steps you should follow when you are ready to plunge into designing your book:

Step 1: Find several designers

Although this step sounds simple enough, it can be a daunting task if you've never dealt with designers before. There are several methods you can use to find designers:

Referrals
If you are a member of a writer's group, or have a circle of published author colleagues, use them as a referral service. See who has recently published a book and ask who their designer was. Ask how happy they were with the designer's services - how were the prices, turnaround time, and final results. Your colleagues are your best resource as they can give you first hand accounts and will refer only positive working relationships.

Online
You can search for book designers online using Google or Yahoo. Simply type in search terms such as "book design" and perhaps your city to narrow down your options.

Step 2: Research the designers

Once you have put together a list of names, emails, and URLs gathered from the web and referrals, it's time to do some research. You will need to narrow down your choices to a minimum of 3 designers that you will ask for quotes from (you might want to keep an extra 2 on hand just in case one of the designers you want has a full schedule and cannot quote on your book).

The best place to research your designers is at their website, something all good designers have today. You should look for the following:

Where are they located? This will impact how you deal with them - if they are in another province, you will not be able to meet them and all your correspondance will be by email and phone. If they are in another country, the price you are quoted will be in another currency.
How much experience do they have? Although you will pay a higher cost for senior designers, you will gain from their publishing experience and they may offer you expertise and services such as printing quotes, help with trim size, pre-press, marketing, and other services that a junior designer would not have experience with.
Are they "book" designer? Designing a book is different than advertising or web design. You want to see if they have any real life experience designing books. Check their portfolio to see if they have samples of books and authors or publishing houses listed as clients.
Do you like their style? Take a look at their portfolio to see if you like what they have done in the past. Although the designer will give a client what they ask for, they will still have a specific style and if you don't really like it, you shouldn't get them to work on your book.

Step 3: Getting quotes

Once you have narrowed down your list to 3 (+2 spare) designers, it's time to start the quoting process. This will involve you contacting each designer with your project specs and then they will email you back with a professional quote. As with any contract job, you want 3 quotes so that you can compare the professionalism of the quote, the services being offered, timelines, contract details, and of course the price.

What You Should Provide
When asking for a quote from a designer, you will need to provide them with some information about your book in order to get an accurate price. The following is a list of some of information designers require:

Trim size
Hardcover or softcover
Cover: 2-colour or 4-colour
Interior: 1-colour, 2-colour, or 4-colour
How many pages estimated for final trim? If you don't know, how many pages is the manuscript?
Could I see a sample of the manuscript?
Are there any photos? How many? Will these be provided as hi-res digital or will they need scanning? Have permissions been acquired for them?
Are there charts/graphs? How many? Will these be provided as hi-res digital .eps or will they need to be recreated? Are they original or will permissions need to be acquired for them?
Do you have an image for the cover? If so, is it hi-res digital or will scanning be required? Has permission been acquired?
Will you require a lo-res PDF of the book for your website?
Will you need a barcode or will you be providing one?
When does the book need to printed?
Do you have a printer? If not, do you need printing quotes?

What Should Be in the Quote
If you have provided as much information about your book as possible, the designer should be able to put together a comprehensive quote. Below is a list of some of the information that should be in the quote provided to you:

Designer information - sometimes the designer or firm will give a brief intro about themselves and their experience (not necessary)
Project details - what will you get?
Timeline for the project - how long will it take to design and layout your book?
Costs - detailed breakdown of costs for design and layout
Additional costs - this can be a list of extras thay may come up such as scanning, printing, courier, etc.
Terms - this may include a breakdown of costs such as deposit and balance, as well as any interest due on overdue balances
Copyright - usually the designer will maintain copyright to their work but you will keep the copyright to your text and any other parties maintain their copyrights (illustrators, photographers, etc.)
Termination - not on all contracts, but this essentially allows both parties a time period to break the contract, usually 2 or 3 weeks

Step 4: Signing a contract

Once you have compared all the different designers and have chosen one to contract with, you will need to contact them to let them know that you are hiring them. At this point, they will request that you sign their contract in order for them to be hired onto the project.

Make sure that you have read all the quote and contract details before you sign and fax or mail it back to the designer. You want to note:

How many designs will I get to choose from?
How many edits will I get to the design before I am charged for changes?
How many edits will I get to the interior pages before I am charged extra?
How much are the extra charges?
What are the dates that I need to get materials to the designer to make the timeline? Are there penalties for missing dates?
Have I read all the legal information and am I comfortable with it?

You can always call the designer to discuss the contract before signing to make sure that you understand what you are comitting to.

If anything has been left out of the contract - such as copyright - you can discuss this with the designer and ask that it be added in before signing.

Step 5: Deposits

Once you have signed the contract, most designers will request a deposit in order to begin working. This deposit is usually due upon receipt and can vary from 15-30% of the total of the project. Most designers will bill you soon after receiving the signed contract but are also willing to negotiate the due date if you require more time to gather funds.

Congratulations! You have now hired a book designer who will work with you to transform your manuscript into a bound book.

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