Custom coffee table books add effortless, subtle class to spaces while simultaneously being a fantastic marketing tactic.
Not only can coffee table books market your work and showcase your eye for design, they allow individuals to get to know a part of you…without you ever saying a word.
Word-of-mouth-marketing is widely considered the most effective type of marketing.
This is why something as simple as a custom coffee table book can level-up your business: it gets people talking.
Whether you want to elevate your office, impress your clients, or update your living room with a small touch, creating a custom coffee table book is the way to go. Your custom book is a type of product placement. It showcases who you are, what matters to you, and often takes the place of a first impression.
Let’s discuss how to create a custom coffee table book your customers will love.
What is a coffee table book?
Typically hardcover, people create custom coffee table books to display as a type of decoration, entertain guests, or showcase their own tastes and interests.
Due to the wide variety of subjects coffee table books cover, it’s likely that whatever subject you want to focus your book around, you’ll find a plethora of options to inspire your creative process.
For example, below are several topics custom coffee table book cover:
- Art
- Lifestyle
- Travel
- Culture
- Portraits
- Culinary
- Architecture
- Fashion
Think of creating a custom coffee table book as your opportunity to pursue your favorite subject matter in a way that is aesthetically pleasing.
The first impression
Individuals often peruse coffee table books rather than read them chronologically as they would a novel.
Because of this, any page could be their first impression. Therefore, designing the interior of your book is key to its overall reception.
Just as how you design your office or home showcases what you value, the books you choose to decorate with do as well.
Designing the interior of your book is key to its overall reception.
The reason for custom coffee table books
There’s a psychological reason people gravitate to displaying coffee table books. Dr. Paul Harris, who earned his doctorate in social psychology and his master’s degree in interior design, says that, “Identity display is the primary motivation for strategically displaying books.”
Every individual is unique, which is why coffee table books should be too.
Even in an era of Kindles and digital content, designer coffee table books refuse to go out of style. In fact, this type of book is a type of heirloom—something for your customers to invest in and pass down from generation to generation.
How do you make a custom coffee table book?
You can design a simple coffee table book using free services such as Canva or BookWrite (Blurb). However, making a quality, custom coffee table book usually involves working with a company who specializes in the process.
Use the following seven steps to ideate your book, create your design, and finally, publish one custom-made for your space and your customers.
1. Where will you display your custom coffee table book?
The first step to creating your custom coffee table book is choosing where you and/or your customers will display it: the office, living room, or somewhere else?
You’ve likely heard the phrase, “Read the room.” When you choose which room to display your book in, it’s crucial to understand this phrase.
Ask yourself, “Who frequents this room and will see the book?”
- Potential clients?
- Recurring clients?
- Family members?
- Friends?
These individuals are your target audience. Your audience is who you keep top-of-mind when designing your book.
For example, let’s say you are a real estate photographer and rent office space downtown. Sometimes clients show up a bit early and relax in your waiting room.
You can capitalize on this time by strategically designing a custom coffee table book that showcases your past work. In this way, your coffee table book could be a type of look-book that clients can purchase for their home.
But what if you are the CEO of a growing business and a public speaker? You’re on your way to becoming a thought-leader in your field, and audiences often request more material from you.
You may want to consider creating a custom coffee table book with:
- Images of your speaking appearances
- A brief caption detailing the venue where you spoke
- Your speaking topic
- Your key points
In this way, a custom coffee table book becomes a product you can sell to your existing audience. It meets a need and serves to further promote you via word-of-mouth-marketing.
For every individual who purchases your book and sets it in their home, you increase your potential for effective word-of-mouth-marketing.
Word-of-mouth-marketing is extremely effective due to its snowball effect. Investing in creating a custom coffee table book can help you reap dividends that far exceed your original investment.
For every individual who purchases your book and sets it in their home, you increase your potential for effective word-of-mouth-marketing.
2. What theme piques your interest?
Prior to moving to the step of coffee table book printing, you should identify which theme interests you. Just as fiction and nonfiction follow an underlying theme, so should custom coffee table books.
Take a step back for a moment and consider the following:
- What hobbies do you naturally gravitate to?
- What do people approach you about?
- What are you known for?
If your side hustle is travel photography, creating a coffee table book of your best shots could be a great way to supplement your income. If you love cooking, creating a coffee table cookbook around your culinary endeavors could sell well.
3. What size should a custom coffee table book be?
The size you choose for your custom coffee table book largely depends on the dimensions and number of images you want to use. Usually, coffee table books should be larger than a typical novel.
One caveat to the typical sizing for novels is if you wish to publish a novel as a custom coffee table book. Consider the first five books in the Harry Potter series, illustrated by Jim Kay.
The first in this illustrated edition is 10.5 inches tall, 9.1 inches wide, and 1.1 inches thick. While atypical for novels, this size presents as a captivating coffee table book.
Many custom coffee table books come in landscape formats (shorter in height than they are tall). If you want to include photos in nature (i.e., literal landscapes), this width may work well for you.
Photos with individuals as the focal point often do well in portrait dimensions (think of headshots).
4. How many pages is a typical coffee table book?
Smaller coffee books usually meet a minimum of 28 pages. However, as seen above, it is possible to convert an entire novel into a custom coffee table book.
Just as the Harry Potter series has been converted into numerous illustrated editions, including the more coffee-table-style Jim Kay version, you can do the same with your novels.
If you want a thicker book, you will want to size down in your dimensions. To continue with the Harry Potter example, these books have a high word count. Because of this, the illustrated editions come in at 10.5 inches tall, 9.1 inches wide, to avoid a cumbersome book.
When choosing dimensions, an important factor to keep in mind is the type of stitching you want your book to have.
For instance, smaller coffee table books may use a type of binding called perfect binding. If you choose perfect binding, your page count must be divisible by two. Saddle stitch is a type of binding that should be divisible by four.
5. Should you invest in hiring an editor?
Before publishing your custom coffee table book, you will want to consider investing in book editing services.
Work through the following questions and see if you resonate with one or more:
- Could your manuscript benefit from a bit more structure?
- Would some professional refining take your work to the next level?
- Have you had a final proofread yet?
Maybe you feel that you’ve edited your manuscript to the point where you don’t want to change a single word. You edited it over and over and now it’s exactly as you want it.
If this is the case, first of all, congratulations. Taking your manuscript from idea to final edit is a tremendous accomplishment. Second, to honor the hard work you put in, I would strongly recommend hiring a professional editor for a final proof.
Editors are trained to spot errors you miss (simply because you are so close to your work). Additionally, editors can conduct final formatting so when your custom coffee table book goes to print, it appears on the page as you hoped it would.
There are many freelance editors you can connect with online. You can also browse our book editing services.
Editors are trained to spot errors you miss (simply because you are so close to your work).
6. What is the best software to create a custom coffee table book?
The best book printing software for you is the one that meets your requirements and exceeds your expectations. There are many companies that print coffee table books and are just a simple online search away.
However, here at Firewire Publishing, we:
- Provide high-quality custom coffee table printing, both through overseas and domestic partners
- Work with a trustworthy book printing company that focuses on traditional craftsmanship and uses cutting-edge print technologies
- Take your idea to our presses, our binderies, and in a timely fashion, to your door
In addition, your custom coffee table book will arrive with true-to-life colors, a finish customized to your preferences, binding chosen specific for your project, and all with eco-friendly practices.
7. How much does it cost to make a coffee table book?
Pricing depends on who you work with, as well as the quality and quantity you desire. Ordering in bulk will help reduce costs overall, while ordering a small number of books usually heightens cost-per-book.
At Firewire Publishing, we specialize in offset printing runs. Our order minimums are usually 500 quantity. This ensures that you get the best product, receive the best price, and have enough inventory to meet your audience’s orders. We also have the capacity to do larger runs of 10,000+ quantity.
The price to create a custom coffee table book depends on several factors:
- How many pages are in your book
- Whether you choose full color or black and white
- Your choice of cover (hardcover, softcover, hardcover with a dust jacket)
- How many copies you purchase (typically the more copies purchased, the lower the cost per unit)
Remember that your custom coffee table book often acts as your first impression, so quality matters.
We want you to have the best product, receive the best price, and have enough inventory to meet your audience’s orders.
Create your custom coffee table book
You now know the seven steps for creating a custom coffee table book and are equipped to move forward. You decided where you want to display your book. You settled on what theme you want to focus your book around.
Articulating your answers to these first two steps is a big accomplishment because it shows you know which direction you should take. You understand the audience for your book and know what you want to use your book to communicate.
However, out of the seven steps, you may feel unsure on a few:
- Do you know what size your coffee table book should be?
- Do you know how many pages you should include?
- Do you know where to find an editor?
Here at Firewire, we have deep roots in both advertising and book design. Because of our background, we have grown into a full-service book printing and publishing studio and work with a team of world-class talent.
Our goal is to provide our clients with the highest-quality books in the industry, all while keeping your costs low. Thanks to our volume discounts, you can order 500 books plus, all for an affordable price.
Our goal is to provide our clients with the highest-quality books in the industry, all while keeping your costs low.
If you hope to work with an experienced and reliable printing company with affordable costs, you have come to the right place.
We’re here to help you spread your stories and ideas throughout the world.
Reach out for a quote and start the process of printing your custom coffee table book today. We look forward to hearing from you!