The Key Stages in Book Publishing Explained (Design)

Every book that we publish at Asteria Press is designed in-house. The book design process can look different depending on the publisher size and a designer's individual working style. That being said, there are key stages that most teams go through even if the individual steps may look different. In this short guide, Wendy will be explaining the key stages in publishing a book and what this looks like from a design perspective.

Getting to know the book

At the start of a project, it's all about getting to know the book we will be working on. Usually, this comes in the form of a design brief written by the editorial team (the people who know the book the best at this stage). Sometimes a design brief can be very detailed if the editorial team has a strong sense of what they are looking for, other times, design briefs can be more open to creative input, containing a synopsis of the storyline and some key elements that the team thinks would be great to include in the cover.

At this stage, a designer will want to know the following:

target audience
genre
the synopsis
how the team would like the book to be perceived (adjectives are great, for example: "sophisticated", "minimalistic", "fun")
key motifs (this could be repeated imagery, a setting, or objects of great significance)

It is up to the designer whether they would like to read the manuscript before designing the cover. A well-written design brief will usually be sufficient but a designer may choose to read the manuscript in order to get a deeper understanding of the book that will enable them to offer creative direction confidently.

Research and collating

Once we have the key information, it's time to put our detective hats on! What are other designers doing in this genre? What design styles are currently trending and what's on its way out? Initial research is important because it not only helps to spark your creativity, it will also give you an idea of what readers are expecting, and ways to stand out amongst competing titles.

This is also a good time to be a media magpie and start collating things that inspire you. I like to do this in the form of mood boards which I create and present to the author. I also like to ask for a mood board from the author in return too. It can be hard to communicate visual ideas and mood boards are the perfect tool to show and compare your perspectives.

Concept proposal

By now, your brain will probably be buzzing with a million half-baked ideas and abstract imagery. It's time to put those thoughts down onto paper (or screen). You're probably considering several different directions, take note of your reasoning for each concept, fleshing them out with the research you conducted and any rough sketches. You don't want to do any detailed designing at this stage as you need to agree on a concept first with the publishing team.

Your concept proposal can take the shape of a phone call, a PDF report, or a presentation during a meeting. Feedback from the proposal can lead to affirmations, edits, new ideas, or the merging together of two or more concepts.

Creating the first draft(s)

Once you've been given the go-ahead to explore one or more of the concepts you proposed, it's time to ideate. Try not to commit wholly to your first idea. Generally speaking, the more drafts you can come up with at this stage, the better, because you'll have a higher chance of settling on a good draft. You'll be mainly testing layout and imagery options at this stage and a potential colour palette. You'll find that oftentimes, you'll come up with more ideas as you continue to experiment.

Revisions and directions

It's time to go back for more feedback. If you have already presented your thoughts and reasoning in your concept proposal, this stage should be fairly straightforward. This stage is all about reducing down the options available and agreeing on a general direction. Details such as typeface and colours will be scrutinised more at this stage in the selection process. You may have a little back and forth before...

The final choice

Phew! We've made it. We've got several versions of a potential cover, and at this stage, we should be fairly happy with it. The final selection is one that will be made based on all of the previous criteria and the editorial team may want to invite the opinions of the marketing and sales teams at this point who can offer even more insightful feedback. There will be a lot of screen-staring from 3 feet away, and other strange quirks that helps us to consider things differently, but once a choice has been made, it's time to celebrate!

Production

Once we have a book cover, the next stage is to start thinking about production. How will the spine and back cover look? Will you want any special embellishments like foil and spot UV? These files will all need to prepped and provided for the printers so the work has only just begun!

We hope you enjoyed the first instalment of our new Guiding Star content series. Whether you're an aspiring author, a new indie publisher, or just curious about the publishing world, come along with us as we share each step of the indie publishing process for our next cosy fantasy title. Packed with our learnings, tips and insights on editorial, design, and marketing, you’ll even have the chance to guide us in our journey as we bring our next publishing project to life.

Asteria Press