Give Your Book The Professional Look It Deserves
Topics: book design, book publishing, formatting, book layout, typesetting, internal design
After you have spent hours writing, editing, and revising your book, you have invested a lot of time, energy and passion into the project. You have also invested some money in a professional edit, cover design, and perhaps some coaching.
There is one last step to a successful book project. Neglecting this final step will lead to embarrassment and a poorly selling book.
This step has several names-formatting, layout, internal design or typesetting. In this step, however you name it; you prepare your manuscript for printing. You take your document and make it look like a book.
Looks matter. It is important to dress your book up in the appropriate attire before you launch it out into the world.
It is possible to do this yourself. I did my own typesetting for my first book. Yikes! It was difficult… OK, to be honest, it was a huge pain!
Unless you love tedious and exacting typing, I highly recommend that you outsource this task. Someone who has experience in typesetting can complete it quicker and with less stress than a novice can.
Whether you do your own typesetting or outsource it, follow these tips to ensure that your book looks professionally done:
- All chapters must begin on an odd numbered page.
- Do not use Times New Roman. It does print well in book format. Suggested fonts for the text include Bookman, Palatino, Garamond, and New Century Schoolbook.
- Create a nice looking title page that includes the name of your publishing house and logo as well as the information about your book.
- The page directly behind the title page should hold the copyright information, full contact information of the publisher, disclaimers, information listing where the book was printed, the ISBN, and Library of Congress Numbers, and any special information about recycled paper if appropriate.
- Be cautious with any graphics. Ensure that they are formatting in jpeg or other graphic program so they are crisp and easy to read. Watch your spacing so that inserting a graphic does not create big empty white spaces around it.
- Do not put double spaces between sentences. This practice is standard when writing articles or reports, but in book, there is only one space between sentences.
- Avoid using Microsoft Word. It does not have the features needed to create a professional looking book. - Watch out for widows and orphans. They are single sentences that are stranded at the beginning or end of a page.
- Watch your colors. Grey scale is OK if used sparingly. Avoid using white type on a dark background, as it will not print well. If you have website addresses, be sure they are in black ink, not the standard blue that your computer will create as you type.
Now you know the basics of internal book design! If you follow just these simple tips, your book will look great. You can further enhance the visual appeal of your book by carefully selected graphics, fonts, pull out quotes and text boxes. Just be sure that your graphics do not distract from the message of your book.
The goal of any book is to serve its readers. Good design will ensure that your readers enjoy the process of reading your book as much as they enjoy your content.
Want to create a successful book? Discover 8 book marketing blunders that you can avoid. Grab your fre.e ecourse at www.BookMarketingBlitz.com Lynne Klippel is a publisher, author and book shepherd who specializes in helping authors write business building books.
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