Foreign Translation Editions

Deborah Crombie

Many traditionally published books are translated into other languages.

If you self-publish, is that option entirely out of reach? Not necessarily. There are foreign rights agents: difficult, but not impossible to connect with.

Another option is to pay for a translation. This is tricky. If you are unable to read the language, it is impossible to know if they have done a credible job of translating your fiction. Cost is one factor. You can expect to pay a good literary translator ten to twenty-five cents a word. Cost versus benefit is another consideration. How much would you earn?

It is crucial to hire a professional translator. Do not rely on Google translate. Artificial intelligence translators lack nuance. It's fine for a blunt instrument such as product instructions, but not poetry. In addition to a translator, you might also require a new cover design. It is possible to keep the original cover artwork and change the title. If you did not design your own cover, however, the changes can lead to additional expense.

When I traveled Europe, I found most book stores carried American novels and our best selling lists were represented there, especially Young Adult, Mystery, and Thriller.  In most stores, the books were  in English rather than German or French.

Switzerland Book Store Shelf

With those cautions, here are resources and articles on the topic:

Selling to Foreign Language Markets (Which languages?)

Kindlepreneur: A complete guide to finding the right translator for your book (and your budget!)

Foreign Rights Agents: Everything You Need to Know 

Foreign Market List

Selling Books Internationally by Jane Friedman  

Trident Media's Foreign Rights Department 

Publishing Interviews, The Foreign Rights Agent

The Creative Penn: Translations

Translating Your Self-published Book (additional resources to contact)

Translation services you can contact directly: 

Alconost To get a binding quote for the cost of translation please send your material to alpha@alconost.com.

Altalang

Mnemosyne

My Translation Service

The Translation Shop

Ulatus.com

Upwork

Book Interior Designers: Hiring A Pro

susankayequinn.com/

The cost depends on the level of expertise and the complexity of the design. Do you want a basic book layout that doesn't look amateurish or do you want flourishes, fancy page numbering, and original chapter headings? Basic design can start at $200.00 and run toward $1500.  If you have a nonfiction project that is heavy in graphics, tables, etc. expect to pay considerably more, up to $3000+.

Interior designers work with your existing manuscript. Do not expect editing or corrections. The text you present is what you will have in the finished product: typos, omissions, and wrong words included. Proofreading and editing are separate jobs requiring additional pay.

Do they have permission to use the fonts? Ask. You don't want to be sued for using a font they provided but don't have the licensing to utilize. Worst case, look up the fonts yourself and see what their licensing permissions are. Many are free for anyone to utilize in any way, but not all.

Hiring a professional can take your interior design to new heights. The example provided is from Susan Kaye Quinn's Daughters of Dharia series which has unique chapter headers and page numbers to reflect the bollypunk theme of the book.

Make sure you know what you are paying for. Are revisions and changes extra? Most will not work up an entire project without pay. They may send you samples for approval. While you have the right to a design you like, don't ask for the impossible or impractical. The more elaborate your design, the more it will cost. Have an idea of what you want. Changing your mind twenty times will run up the bill considerably. It helps to do a little reconnaissance and find designs that appeal to you beforehand.

Do your research. Look at their body of work. Do you like their style? Ask for references with contact information.

Get the details in writing before you pay. Verbal agreements can sometimes be held up in court if you have emails, texts, etc. However, protecting yourself with a written contract is always best. If they have you agree to terms of service, make sure you read them before accepting ... yes the fine print!

As with cover designers, interior designers are not your employee. You don't get to make unreasonable requests or endless tweaks. They are professionals. Treat them with respect.

1. 99 Designs provides handpicked interior book designers. Give them the details of your project and you will get a list of candidates. Then you send them a request to work on your project. 

2. SelfPub.net offers their expertise to create a well-designed layout for your book that you can be proud of. They design books in a wide range of genres, including novels, nonfiction, poetry, illustrated children’s books, and cookbooks. Contact them for a quote. Basic layouts start at $149 (add eBook for $50). Custom layouts start at $375 (add eBook for $100).

3. Book Designers pricing runs $750 to $5500. Contact them for details of their options.

4. David Moratto breaks the pricing down based on the aspects of the design, which is good for comparisons. Custom designs start at $400 and typesetting/composition start at $3.75 per page.

5. Reedsy  is a collective from the European Union that provides quotes for specific projects.  They also offer an interior building tool.

6. Ampersand offers a questionnaire for you to fill out. They will ask followup questions if needed then provide you with a solid estimate. Prices start at $75.00 for a basic fiction interior and run up to $1000 for nonfiction.

7. Upwork matches you with the appropriate professionals based on the details of your project. You view proposals and choose who you want to work with.

8. Illumination Graphics  offers examples of their work for you to view. Visit their site for sample pages of books in your genre. Also good for researching ideas. Email them for rates. They can also create charts, graphs and sidebars for your nonfiction.

9. BookBaby is located in New Jersey and offers custom design professionals. They send you proofs to review and approve. They send you proofs of your designs to review and approve and advertise a 100% quality guarantee.

10. Book Cover Designer interiors are provided by designer Kerri Ross. Pricing for fiction begins at $4.50 per page, for nonfiction $6.50 per page, with additional charges for artwork, tables, graphs, etc.

11. Baker & Taylor offers standard and custom interior designs, typesetting, and art creation. Contact them to request a quote.

12. Columbus Publishing  quotes on a case-by-case basis. Most books cost $400 to $600 for a complete interior design, including export for both a printer and e-books.

13. Fiverr is an online marketplace for many computer related tasks from basic to expert, users vary in expertise. You describe the scope of and budget for your project and users bid for the job.

14. TLC Book Design provides custom interior designs. Email them to set up a free phone consultation to discuss your plans or fill out their survey to get the conversation started. They use your cover to create a unique look for continuity. Upon your approval of the initial page designs, they lay out the entire book, eventually saving to a PDF file that’s ready for proofreading.

15. Mill City Press  has a team of designers who offer their expert opinion on what options are best for your book. Contact for pricing.

16. The Write Place offers a questionnaire for you to fill out for a no obligation quote.

17. Design by Indigo offers custom designs based on the genre. Prices begin at five cents per page.

18. Book Interior Design offers custom interior designs. Contact them for a quote.

19. Jaad Book Design offers custom designs, no template. You work directly with the designer who will create a chapter sample that compliments and builds off the cover design of your book. The sample chapter establishes the fonts, line spacing, headers, chapter pages, as well as (for more complex layouts) the look of bulleted paragraphs, tables, and call outs. Upon your approval the design sample will form the skeletal framework for the rest of your book. Basic fiction starts at $400. Complex fiction $600. Complex books with images $800-1000.

20. Six Penny Graphics offers interior design as well as cover design. Contact them for a quote.  

Next week, we examine Audio Books.

Book Covers: How To Videos

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, and You Tube, there are many gracious artists and designers willing to teach you book cover design with How To videos.

Here are links to the top twenty tutorials. 

Checking out one usually leads to more. It is a glorious time sink. A few have annoying music. You can mute them.

1. How to Make a Book Cover in Microsoft Word 

2. How to Make Your Own Cover Using MS Word 

3. How to Use Create Space's Templates  (Note: Create Space's templates may be removed as CS closes down).

4. KDP Cover Creator Tutorial 

5. Foolproof Book Cover Designs 

6. How to make a cover on Photoshop

7. How to make a book jacket on Photoshop 

8. Book Cover Design Tutorial 

9. Book Cover Fantasy Tutorial 

10. Book Cover Design Tricks 

11. Five Tips for Great Design 

12. How to Make Book Covers That Sell

13. Foolproof Book Cover Design

14. Three Book Cover Design Mistakes to Avoid 

15. Book Cover Design Mastery 

16. Design a Paperback Book Cover with InDesign 

17. How to Make a 3-D Book Cover in Photoshop 

18. Udemy Learn Book Cover Design 

19. Corel How to Design a Book Cover 

20. PSD Box How To Create a Realistic Book Cover 

Next week, we explore interior design and ebook formatting.

Utilizing Fonts for Book Covers and Interiors

Typeface and fonts designers are protected by trademarks and design patents. It is crucial to understand the licensing for fonts you intend to use for your interior format as well as the cover. Fonts have rules similar to software. They are the creator's intellectual property.

Some fonts are free for personal use, even commercial use.  Many fonts can be used for personal projects only: letters, blog posts, scrapbooking, etc. Others require a license for use on the web, in print, and on items that are sold. Others require you to purchase a license to use it for print ads, covers, marketing materials, etc. 

The rules apply to the fonts you use on the cover as well as the book's interior. It is best to stick with simple fonts for e-books such as Times New Roman or Arial. Each e-book publishing platform has limitations to the fonts they will accept. E-readers allow the user to choose a font style and size. Specialized fonts would have to be embedded as images to translate.

To read more about licensing basics, view:

1. Font Licensing 101

2. Introduction to Licensing and Usage

When you download a font, there is usually a text document outlining the End User License Agreement (EULA) that comes with it.

If you are still not sure what the rights are, you can usually find it by searching for "XYZ Font license agreement" in your web search engine. Distributors and sellers of fonts often share that information under product details.

When in doubt, don't use it.

Once you dive into the world of font designs, the search easily turns into a passion. There are many resources for downloading fonts and most have useful articles on font licensing.

1. 1001 Fonts 

2. Design Roast 

3. Design Shack 

4. Fonts.com

5. Font Spring 

6. Font Space 

7. My Fonts 

There are even online sites with tools to design your own fonts.

1. Caligraphr

2. Fontself

3. Fontstruct

4. Prototypo

5. Your Fonts

Typography is an art unto itself. There is no way to cover all of the intricacies in a blog post. At the very least, font choices should reflect the tone and genre of the book. It helps to understand blocking, contrast, color, size, and placement. Poor font selection can turn great artwork into a dud cover design.


Here are a couple of articles explaining the importance of good placement.

1. Typography Mistakes 

2. Typeface Fonts 

3. How To Design Book Covers

4. Top 10 Fonts for Book Covers 

5. Book Cover Typography 

6. The Complete Guide to Choosing Your Book Cover Font With Examples 

7. How to Create a Standout Book Cover 

When creating a book interior, it is important to embed the fonts in the document.  You can choose to embed only the characters you used, for chapter headers etc., or the entire set. The entire set increases file size.

You can learn more about how to embed fonts from these sources:

1. Creating a PDF with Embedded Fonts for MS Word (PDF)

2. How to embed all the fonts in a PDF file (PDF)

3. How to embed fonts in Adobe Acrobat (PDF)

4. How to embed all the fonts in a PDF file

5. How to determine if fonts are embedded in a PDF file

6. Font embedding and substitution

Some font files on your system, or that you have downloaded for "free," have embedding permissions in them that may prevent you from using them. Unless you have purchased a license, it is best to substitute the font for another open use font.

As with any intellectual property, it is courtesy to offer a mention in the credits for the creator of your fonts. This can be done in a colophon section in the front matter on the page after the title page where you find the copyright information. It can also be located in the back matter after the author biography.

Crediting a type font

The same applies to images utilized in the interior or on the cover.

          This book is set using (font) designed by (designer) of (page or website).

          The cover was designed by (artist) of (page or website).

          Image used on page (#) was created by (artist) of (page or website).

          Illustration on page (#) was created by (artist) of (page or website)

If you use multiple specialty fonts, list each on a separate line.


Next week, we discuss book cover video tutorials.

Book Covers Using Stock Images

 If you decide to design your own cover, you must understand licensing for images.  Just because you can find an image on the internet or through a simple search does not give you the right to use it for your book cover, or any other purpose such as blog posts or other personal use.

There are some truly "free" images available for any use, but you need to make sure that is stated in writing somewhere from the artist. If they post on a site such as Deviant art, they may only ask that you for attribution.

Most professional image providers have different levels of permission and licenses for purchase.

It is also important to note whether you will have exclusive rights to the image or if they resell it. As you can see from the example on the left, this image was used for two different covers. It happens quite often in traditional publishing these days as well as self-publishing.

Royalty free (RF) images give you almost unlimited usage "in perpetuity." You are free to manipulate the images for your covers and marketing items for as many projects as you like. Some RF images are free, other providers charge for the image but do not require a licensing agreement.

Rights managed images (RM) come with restrictions on how and where you can use the image, the duration of use, type of usage, etc.

A standard license will cover a certain amount of books (say 500,000). You can use the image for promotion and giveaways but not for promotional items that are sold. To do that, you need an extended license from the creator of the stock image.

Stock Photo License has answers to most licensing questions.  

This primer from 99 Designs explains the legal aspects of licensing and protection from lawsuits.

You should consult the licensing data from each stock photo site you utilize.

You should also credit the artists, at the very least mention their name or username and webpage on your copyright page: "Artwork courtesy of Jane Doe at www.janedoe.com."

There are many exciting resources for stock images as well as illustrations.

1. Adobe Stock Images charges you for access with different subscription levels. 

2. Alamy offers book cover images. 

3. Deviant Art is one of my favorite sites. Artists from around the world upload their work. Many let you use their images for free as long as you credit them. You can search by keyword or genre. If you find an artist whose work you love, you can look at their entire gallery. You can also search "Book Covers" and find many talented book cover designs and original artwork. 

4. Deposit Photos offers book cover art as well as stock images. 

5. Dreamstime is another excellent source for stock images.

6. Fantasy Background Store features high resolution fantasy backgrounds and images. A few are free. Most are for sale. 

7. Free Images provides free stock photos, not necessarily for book covers but if you can use Photoshop or the like you can manipulate their stock images. 

8. Getty Images has high resolution royalty-free images. Image usage and cost depend on the license you purchase.

9. iStock has high quality images with different levels of licensing for purchase.  

10. NeoStock images start at $75 and up. 

11. Period Images is a wonderful source for costumed characters and other book cover art. The images are not exclusive to you.

12. Shutter Stock  has a photo manipulation tool in addition to different cost and license levels.

13. Stock Fresh offers book covers as well as stock images. 

14. Wallpapers Craft has wonderful high resolution background images you can download for free. Search by keyword like Fantasy, Fairies, Earth, etc. 

Can you use an old painting as a cover image?

There are many talented artists and photographers advertising their work on Facebook. A simple search for "book cover designers" or "illustrators" will bring up a wide range of image providers.

Next week, we discuss font licensing and how to utilize typography for your cover.

Book Cover and Interior Templates

Utilizing templates is the easiest way to create your own cover and interior. Bleeds, margins, gutters, spine location, bar code placement, etc. are calculated for you. All you have to do is place your art and text on top of the template, then delete or hide the template when you are satisfied with it.

You need to format the interior first so you know the number of pages. To do so, you need to select a trim size. Trim sizes have maximum page limits for printing purposes.  Step by step instructions on building a book interior are on the Kindle Direct Press  site.

Paper color makes a difference in the thickness of the book. Some printers offer white and cream. Cream is a heavier paper and increases your page count and spine size.

Standard paperbacks are 6 x 9 inches. It is easy to read and easy to sell and works with offset printers. For book lovers, they line up nicely with traditionally published paperbacks on their bookshelves.

Some use a smaller trim size to make the book seem bigger such as 5.25 x 8 or 5.5 x 8.5.

If you offer a large workbook or coloring book, you might wish to use an 8 x 10 inch trim size.

If  you utilize other POD companies, you must check with them to determine which trim sizes they support.

If you change your mind about your options, make sure you understand how it re-configures your cover dimensions.

Book Baby

Nook Press

Ingram/Lightning Source

Lulu

If you are reasonably competent with photo manipulation and understand fonts, designing your own cover is within your grasp. You don't have to have the professional Photoshop workhorse to design a cover. Any photomanipulation program that can create a PNG image can be used. Plublishing platforms accept either JPG, PNG, or PDF images. Make sure you know which one you will need.
From completely free to a slight expense, there are plenty of online tools to make that happen.

1. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a less complex version of Photoshop.

2. Adobe Spark is a free service that offers customizable book cover templates. Upload artwork and add text. 

3. Adazing allows you to choose a mock-up format, customize, and create an ecover. You can use your images or theirs. 

4. Book Cover Design Templates  site that offers templates for you to customize. 

5. Box Shot offers templates to create a unique cover. They have a barcode generator for the ISBN number. 

6. Canva is a free book cover maker for the novice designer. Choose from hundreds of layouts and customize.

7. The Cover Design Studio starts with templates for Create Space and Kindle. You choose a design, choose artwork or upload your own, and customize.

8. DIY Covers is a free template and design software.

9. Kindle Press has its own KDP Cover Creator. Note that Create Space has been merged into Kindle Press and their covers may not translate to the new platform.

10. Lucid Press offers "free" book cover design software but charges to join. The advantage is other people can give you feedback on your designs. 

11. Nook Press offers templates for you to customize to produce paperback covers as well as hardback covers with sleeves. 

12. Place It Cover Maker allows you to choose a premade image or supply your own for the template. Add the title, author name, etc. and it produces a file. Also useful for marketing materials. 

13. Poster My Wall offers a wide range of design tools including fancy fonts and stock images that you can download in high resolution. Also offers printing services.

14. Serif Photo Plus is an easy to use photomanipulation program. You can download a free trial.

15. Wattpad offers simplistic templates for you to design an e-book cover. You can utilize their artwork or upload your own. 

Once you have an interior template and cover template, it is time to source artwork for the cover design.

Next week, we discuss using stock images.

Premade and Custom Cover Designers

I have compiled an extensive list of providers. There isn't room in this post to list them all.

Pino Daeni http://pino-artist.com/

There are more individual providers on social media groups like Facebook and Deviant Art.  Feel free to nominate others in the comments section.

Whether dealing with custom or fill-in premade cover designers, keep in mind that they are not your employee. You are paying for a specific service. Do not expect them to make endless revisions free of charge. Know what you want and communicate your desires clearly and it will save you a lot of hassle. They may not be able to offer you an editable file due to font and image license restrictions.

 The most expensive option is professional cover artists. Like the above example, artists like Pino Daeni were hired to create paintings that were utilized for book covers. Painters have largely been replaced with digital artists using stock images and photomanipulation . However, if you visit sites like Deviant Art, you will find many talented painters, and digital artists, willing to design covers or offer their art for the purpose. A few are even free of charge. It is important to understand licensing and rights of stock images. We will cover those in a future post.

Note: prices were as of October 2018 and are subject to change.

1. Beetiful Book Covers offers premade and custom cover designs in the $100 to $150.00 range. The artist Stefanie uses photomanipulation. http://beetifulbookcovers.com/

2. The Book Cover Designer offers over 10,000 premade covers in most genres with a price range of $50 to $150.  The company is based in England. All book covers are exclusive and will only be sold once on a first-come first-served basis. 
https://thebookcoverdesigner.com 

3. Book Cover Zone offers premade and custom book covers in the $70-$90 range. Their designers have designed book covers for over 5,000 published books in a span of over 20 years. Once you choose the cover, it is deleted from their catalog so no one else will have it. License Duration: Perpetual. Regions of Use: Worldwide. Digital Use (websites, mobile apps, software, ebooks, etc.): Unlimited. Print Runs (in books/magazines, on posters, etc.): Up to 500,000. Out-of-home Advertising (tradeshow/conference signage, billboards, subway ads, etc.): Up to 500,000 gross impressions (views, not viewers).
https://bookcoverzone.com/

4. Cover Art Collective offers premade book covers starting at $30.
http://www.coverartcollective.com/

5. Creative Paramita offers premade ($100-$300 starting range) and custom book covers ($450+ starting range). Does not provide editable designs. http://www.creativeparamita.com

6. CP Book Cover Designs offers different styles and price range covers by Consuelo Parra. https://www.facebook.com/C.PBookCoverdesigns/

7. The Cover Collection is based in the UK. They offer premade and custom designed covers for multiple genres using stock photos.  You will own sole rights to the cover. http://www.thecovercollection.com/

8. Cover Mint is based in the UK and offers premade covers using stock images starting at $69. Custom covers start at $200. They offer both e-book and full covers. Images are 300 dpi. They will remove the cover from sale after you purchase it. 
https://www.covermint.design/

9. Cover Quill draws from stock images and will not provide an editable file. Rights to the cover belong to you, but they reserve the right to show it in their portfolios and for promotion.  http://www.coverquill.com/

10. Fantasy Book Design offers premade and custom covers starting at $100. The artist uses Shutterstock images. You can purchase your own stock images for her to use. Purchased images follow Shutterstock's standard license. Changes and revisions are extra.
https://fantasybookdesign.com/

11. Go On Write uses fully licensed stock images. They supply the final files at high resolutions to use on Amazon Kindle. Order the cover and supply your title, name, etc. They send a couple of proofs to choose from.  Prices start at $50. They will design the spine and back for an extra charge.
https://www.goonwrite.com/

12. Kingwood Creations is based in Europe and offers premade ($100+ range) and custom book covers. They use stock photography and issue a standard license. Once you purchase the design, they remove it from sale. Images are 3200 x 2000 pixels.
http://www.kingwoodcreations.com/

13. Melchelle Designs offers premade and custom covers by a range of artists. Covers are only sold once. They rely on stock images.
https://melchelledesigns.com/premade-ebook-covers/

14. Methyss takes your specifications then you pay for the package you want:  $170 for ebook book cover, $270 for print plus ebook cover, $350 for their premium package which includes: Print cover, ebook, Facebook image. Additional services are available for price quotes.  https://www.methyss

15. Paper and Sage produces premade and custom covers ($100 to 300 to start).  Premade covers are exclusive but they rely on stock images. They can produce series covers as the books are readied for publishing. They charge for all changes and revisions.
https://paperandsage.com/

16. Premade Book Covers is located in Europe and produces premade cover designs using stock images in the $70+ range.  Revisions and changes are extra.  Premade covers are removed from sale after you purchase them. You receive a standard license for use.
http://www.premade-bookcovers.com/

17. Robin Ludwig Designs is based in Palm Coast Florida. They offer premade and custom cover designs. They are a full time book cover, advertising, and printing company. Designs start at the $70 - 100 range. They use royalty-free stock photography and are licensed for unlimited, commercial use unless specifically noted.
https://www.gobookcoverdesign.com

18. Rocking Book Covers offers premade and custom designed covers. Premade covers start at $60.00 and are only sold once. Full covers start at $110. Multiple genres are offered. 
http://www.rockingbookcovers.com/premade-covers/

19. Self Pub Book Covers offers over 30,000 professionally curated book covers by designers from around the world. New covers are added daily.
https://www.selfpubbookcovers.com/

20. Seven Feathers from Alberta, Canada offers custom covers and artwork. All covers are original and will not be sold again. Prices include up to 2 minor changes. No charge for our original stock photos. Price may include resizing. eBook covers start at $199.00 CAD.
http://www.sevenfeathersstudio.com/ 

21. Vivid Covers  offers premade ($15 - $45) and custom covers. https://www.vividcovers.com/custom-covers/

22. Elena Dudina is a custom cover designer from Spain who also offers images you can utilize to make your own covers. Her gallery features both photo-manipulation and illustrations. For pricing contact her at: elenadudina72@gmail.com and view her gallery at https://www.elenadudina.com/

23. King's Custom Covers is a custom cover designer and book formats. The gallery includes illustration as well as photomanipulation. For pricing contact them on the website. 
https://www.kingscustomcovers.com/

There are two other sources with unique options worth mentioning. 

99 Designs is a site where you supply your specifications and notes. Designers submit their work and you choose the design and service level. All come with a 100% money back guarantee and full copyright ownership. $299 for Bronze: 30 concepts. $499 for Silver: 60 concepts. $799 for Gold:  90 concepts, mid and top level designers only. $1199 for Platinum: 60 concepts, top level designers only, dedicated manager, prioritized support.
https://99designs.com/book-cover-design

Fivrr is a marketplace for many tasks from simple Photoshop assistance to full cover designs. You post your project and people bid for the job. Prices and competency vary widely. But if you need an image cropped from a background or an image integrated into a background, you can pay for just those services as opposed to full cover design. https://www.fiverr.com/

Book Cover Gallery on Facebook has a lot of talented covers and design artists to choose from. Premade and customized covers. Various price ranges. 

Always read the fine print. Know what you are paying for. Be a good citizen. Know what you want. Designers are not mind readers and cannot spend months trying to please you. Do your research. Know what type of cover sells best in your genre. Wildly different covers may fall flat. Do not be afraid to change your cover (or book description) if the first one is not gaining traction.

Next week, we look at creating your own covers.