Print and Digital Book Design

ALL PROJECTS will be assessed and given a firm quote BEFORE any work begins.

PRINT BOOK DESIGN

No templates used. We don't just toss your MS through a program, we go page by page with loving attention using our fifty years plus of experience and with professional design apps (Serif: Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher). Think, cabinetmaker versus "kit".

Page count includes blank backs, but author page with photo is treated as a regular page ($3.50).

If Crowe Creations has done the edit (see below), print design fee is $1.25/regular page; but still $4.75/page with graphics/photos. (We must individually massage all photos and graphics, not only for clarity, but for size and resolution.)

DIGITAL BOOK DESIGN (ePUB)

NOTE: if Crowe Creations has done the edit and print design, time is greatly reduced, ergo the fee for digital design is usually about $70, i.e., two hours.

If several graphics and photos are included in the project, time (fee) will increase. (Each graphic/photo must be re-massaged to reduce size and resolution for the digital edition. Usually a maximum of five hours, or <$175.)

NOTE: If Crowe Creations has not done the edit, an initial fee of $70 (two hours) will be charged to remove any and all hidden coding from the submitted file and to set everything up in Styles. ePUB does not like anything extra in there. Extras will cause validators to reject the file.

COVER DESIGN

We provide both regular and reduced-in-size JPEG and PDF versions to the client for their own advertising purposes of both the full cover and front and back covers.

We are not artists. We don't "draw". We have access to thousands of online graphics and photos, some of which are free. We will discuss with the client before final decision is made. If a graphic/photo has a fee, we will add that to the $55.

There are very strict "rules" regarding covers as to industry size (e.g., 5" x 8", 5-1/2" x 8-1/2", 6" x 9", 8-1/2" x 11", etc.), cover art proportions, etc. Also, "busy" cover art can create difficulties with reading any text (title, author, description, etc.) over it.

NOTE: The inside of a book is all about the author; the cover is all about marketing.

MANUSCRIPT READING

EDITING

$3.50/MS page (includes minor developmental editing, full copy editing, proofreading and Style setup).
Therefore, edited projects will be designer ready.
English only. (But smatterings of other languages will be OK.)

As per the client's wishes, projects will be set up in either Canadian Style, US Style or British Style. (If clients wish to submit their MSs to several countries' publishers, we can set up three separate versions. Fee will depend on which direction we are going in. Example: Canadian or British to US style is fairly quick; the converse is not.)

"Style" is not just spelling, it includes treatment of em dashes, ellipses, quotation marks, etc.

Please note: the Oxford comma is most comfortable in non-fiction, but is occasionally required in fiction, too. Commas help to communicate what is intended. The lack of commas, or their misplacement, confuses the reader. When we read a traditionally published book, commas tend to be "invisible"; when we read our own work, they look like shin-bruising hurdles. Breathe, Grasshopper. Commas are required. But not every whichway and gone.

NOTE: Crowe Creations has essentially retired from editing. However, current clients, and potential clients referred by current clients, will be considered. Reason? Sherrill Wark is our only employee. She is pushing 80. She has a teetering To Do Pile. She does not want to become a vampire to be able to get through her To Do Pile, because she deals with seasonal depression so would definitely not like having to stay out of the sunlight.

SHERRILL WARK

Sherrill Wark was a typesetter for 20 years until desktop publishing made her trade extinct.
In 1969, she started out working on a thing called a "computer" for Ottawa Valley weekly newspapers in Renfrew and Arnprior, then moved to Ottawa where she typeset for private companies for another fourteen years.
She has worked on everything from menus to scientific journals.
Typesetting and designing the scientific journals for eight years helped her to absorb even more nerdette-ish editing tips. Not to mention, garnering some great horror story ideas from some of the 18 different journals she worked on: mites, fungi, obscure diseases ...
At the newspapers, she did everything but run a press. In 1975, the computer she worked on required that she write code.
By the time the scientific journals came along, the industry had advanced to design on screen.
Sherrill is a published writer (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenplays) so takes great pride in producing the best possible she can for her clientele.