regarding binding
Hey everyone,
If you plan on trying to get your book shelved in a brick and mortar bookstore, then you should never, ever use a binding like spiral binding. Especially if it is wire.
I used to work at a Barnes and Noble Superstore a decade ago and would occasionally see books with saddlestitching or spiral (plastic and wire) binding and shake my head at them.
To me, since most books do not get "faced out" but instead are showing their spines on the shelves, the spine is Much More Important than any cover art.
You are competing with other titles on a shelf and you want to make sure that your spine and your title stand out and scream, "pick ME off the shelf and look at me."
I also saw spines that were impossible to read, such as white background with pink script lettering. Please, use a bold readable font that has good contrast to the rest of the spine.
Otherwise, your book is doomed to gather dust on a shelf. It might not even get returned to the publisher for the mere fact that booksellers will have a hard time locating it when they have pick-lists for returns.
Athena