I Can Tell Your Book Was Self-Published
And That's Okay, But We Can Make it Better
Update: I’d like to make it clear—perhaps more clear than I made it initially—that just because I can tell your book was self-published, that doesn’t mean I think it shouldn’t exist.
Putting a book you care about into the world in any fashion takes enormous effort, money, and willpower, and I respect the hell out of that no matter what your book looks like.
For being someone whose job is ostensibly to make books look good, I have a perverse adoration for ugly, poorly-designed books.1 Though I almost never read them, seeing one in the wild gives me a thrill. These misguided things are wonky little triumphs that I can’t help but admire.
More often than not, these books are self published. And I can (almost) always tell.
Self publishing—or indie publishing, as some prefer to call it—is a fast-growing sector of the book world. The rise of print-on-demand technology, author marketplaces, and distribution networks like Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and Substack has allowed writers to bypass “traditional” modes of publishing in order to succeed or fail on their own terms.2
As is the case with other democratizing forces—accessible design software in my career, for instance—this new level of access brings forth an absolute deluge of material. Some of it is good; a lot of it is bad. And in a medium like books, there are several aspects that may be independently good or bad. You may have written a good book, and it may have a bad cover.
Recently, I read a newsletter about how to create a logo in Canva in five minutes. As a professional graphic designer, I find this a bit depressing. But as a budget-conscious person who runs a freelance business and is inordinately anxious about money, I also understand. My thoughts are thus:
I think the same can be said for book covers. When you self-publish a book, you’re essentially a business owner. For your business to grow, you should invest in design. But if you’re not yet ready for that investment, here are some notes I hope will help you on your way to self-publishing success.
Self publishing does not need to mean badly-designed books.
I can tell your book was self-published because …
Front Cover Fonts
Your book has Papyrus on its cover.
Your book has Impact on its cover.
Your book has Amsterdam or whatever font is currently popular on Canva.
Your book has Comic Sans on its cover (unless your name is Ben Denzer).
Your book has more than three fonts on its cover.
Front Cover Typesetting
Your book’s title has default 0 letterspacing.
This is also called tracking. Kerning is the space between two letters.
NOTE: Letterspacing should be more generous when the title is in all caps. Not necessarily if there is lowercase text, or god forbid, a script font. Too much tracking on lowercase type or a script font is also how I can tell your book was self-published.
Your book uses default leading, or the spacing between lines of type, on its cover.
The right amount of leading depends on the book and title. But bad leading feels wrong and is a dead give away.
The author name on your cover looks like a visual afterthought.
It can be small—but space out those letters a bit and integrate the placement into the design.
Further Reading
Back Cover Typesetting
Your book’s back cover has rivers of text.
Your book’s back cover has too little text.
Most book covers have some combination of synopsis, author bio, and/or blurbs.
Your book’s back cover has too much text.
It’s crammed with no room for any other design elements.
Your back cover synopsis is completely centered.
It’s okay if you have centered blurbs. But your cover copy should be left aligned or justified.
Your back cover has little to no typographic hierarchy.
The basic building blocks of hierarchy are scale, weight, and space. Using two typefaces can also help but is not always necessary.
Interior Layout
Your interior looks like a high school term paper.
You used 12pt text, Times New Roman, or whatever your word processor’s default font is. Default looks DIY.
Your book’s margins are the same size all the way around.
The interior margin needs to be wider to accommodate for the book’s gutter.
If your book has running heads or feet, that margin also needs to be wider.
Bad hierarchy, again!
Imagery
Your book’s main image has low contrast; muddied text and image.
The cover uses what is obviously a stock photo.
Modify it. Use something less generic.
There is obviously AI-generated cover imagery.
This is particularly criminal when paired with bad typography.
Low-resolution imagery. Your image should be at least 300 DPI for a printed book. If you don’t know what that means, you might want to consider hiring someone.
Effects
Your book’s cover has excessive, dark drop shadows.
More than 40% is (almost) never needed. Trust me.
If you don’t need one to improve contrast, maybe rethink that choice.
Your book has bevel/emboss or outer glow effects on its cover.
If it’s a canned effect, beware.
Credibility
Your book has a front cover blurb from someone with no attribution.
Blurbs works best when the reader recognizes the name or the person has credits relevant to the book.
There’s no publisher logo on your book’s spine.
You can even write “your name books” and turn it 90 degrees—readers expect to see something there, and every professional book will have an indication of who published the book.
There’s a sparse copyright page, or one missing pertinent information and credits you would usually find there.
Production
Your cover’s paper has a waxy, matte coating that is indicative of Print on Demand.
POD itself isn’t a crime—big publishers use it too—but when it’s clearly a POD job and you have any of the above characteristics, it gives you away.
If you used KDP, there’s also going be a barcode printed on the last page of the book. Not a bad thing—just know it.
Your book’s interior paper is stark white.
OK, this one is also not a crime—white makes sense for some books with lots of images. But generally, if your book is mostly prose, I advise choosing creme. Most of the professionally-published books will be using it.
Read More
That’s probably enough for now.
What do you think? Did I piss you off? Did I miss anything? Let me know with a comment or reply to this email. Did you find this useful? Consider buying me a coffee here.
Thanks to book designers Jason Arias, Rachael Brandenburg, Jazmin Welch, and Stephanie Shafer for their contributions to this list.
Until next time,
Nathaniel
I throw “traditional” in quotes here because “self” publishing was once the norm—it’s how Virginia Woolf, among others, published her books.
This one might be okay. But it’s probably going to look like a 1990s Oscar bait movie.
You executed this fine balance perfectly. You did not shame the self-published, self-designed books; instead you provided actionable information and support, while also not diminishing the value of good design and professional designers. 👏
We get a lot of self published authors trying to sell us their book and it's hard to say that just the writing alone isn't going to sell a book, it also depends on design and there's not enough thought around that. Great read!