Publishing Issue: Fonts

[I. J. Parker]

I'm learning about print formatting.  Those of you who have already mastered this, do you have preferences for fonts?  I've been trying to compare Century Schoolbook (12), Baskerville Oldface (14), Garamond (14) and Palatino (12).  I think Palatino may be a tad too modern for me, but all of them are clear at the sizes above.

Is there a "best" font and size?  And how seriously do they affect page counts?

[I. J. Parker]

There is nothing to be gained from signing free books the author has paid for.  In fact, any form of signing is greatly overrated.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

?????

What, buy books and sign them and give them away free???? 

Who would do that?

And I don't understand why you would write off "any form of signing".  Have you tried "every form of signing"?  

I dropped by a skateboard shop for an hour or two, sold 50 books at a profit of $6 each, split with the store, made some friends, got a mention in the newspapers, met some fun lunatics,  and had a lot of fun.

Should I not have done that?

I'll tell you what my publishers told me about signings.   "Just do them anywhere other than a bookstore".

Now maybe that's something you haven't tried?  Because it makes a lot of sense to me.

This is the second time in a week I've had somebody tell me something "won't work".  The other one was advertising books.

Well, I happen to know for a fact that advertising can pay off big.

Just not the kind big publishers do.

You spend $75 on a sponsorship on Kindle Nation  or ENT and you get your money back, is what I am seeing.

The only explanation I can come up with for this is that people with a background with major publishers, and particularly a minor aspect of major publishers,  have certain ideas about how things are done, and what does and doesn't work, but those ideas don't necessarily play out in the way we try to sell books these days.  

My "book" is a joke, really. But it's published while I am working on other projects.  And I learn a lot from it. Having a multi-writer signing at a skateboard event is a joke.  But I have a really hard time seeing why it's not a good idea.  

[Pepper Smith]

Yes, that's what I've been told. Have book signings anywhere but at bookstores. At a book store they totally ignore you as they walk by headed for the book they came for. Elsewhere it's unexpected and you may get some attention.

At least, that's what they say.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, Temple.  Garamond is one of the fonts that needs a larger size. I didn't like it at 12. It looked ok at 14. But maybe Bookman is better.

[Liam Saville]

What I did to make my initial choice was to print off a couple of pages in a few different fonts and sizes, then compared these to a bunch of books on my shelf.  It helped me narrow it down, then once I had what I thought was good I set that one up in Createspace and ordered a proof copy.  Personally I found 14 to be a little too big, but I note the demographic of you target audience and I can understand why you'd use it.  I hope it works out well.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Simple but effective.  :-)

[Temple Storm]

Sorry about being gone so long. Son's a techie and changed our wireless to a different server. No 'net last night. ;D

Hope you've solved your font dilemma...

I checked the document for my story and it's at 12pt so I bet you're right. Thanks for this discussion because it gave me some things to think about.

Hope you have a great weekend!

TS

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks TS!

[Temple Storm]

You're welcome. BTW, I don't like book signings either... thought it was my Lurker Diva personality. ;D

TS

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, thanks again. Well, I tend to be shy and I prepared like crazy for the events.  All that effort and nobody much cared. My biggest problem is that I don't like to talk (beg) people into buying my books.  It's embarrassing.

I suppose just going to sign books would be better, but having seen the other poor souls sitting in book stores all alone and ignored that doesn't seem to be the answer either.  Book signings are for bestelling authors and a favor to their fans and to the stores. 

[Temple Storm]

"Book signings are for bestselling authors and a favor to their fans and to the stores."

;D I've only done one book signing. (for my other pen name) It was at the library with many other authors. When I told a mother my book wasn't suitable for 14 year old kids, she left with a disgruntled look on her face. After that no one came to my table. lol

TS

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Here's another thing "they told me".  And in my single signing experience it worked pretty well.  "Don't sit behind a table."

You don't want to be fenced in back there like and admissions clerk or something was their thinking.   You stand out front where you can engage people, move over to the table to sign the books.  

They also said to try having a dish of cookies or something to offer people.  (I didn't do that.  Those guys would have been more attracted to cold forties or switchblades.