book design

Stop the presses! Before you print your book, make sure you’re not committing a major packaging faux pas that will diminish retail buyers’ interest. We’ve all heard the statistic: 2,000 books are published every day. That means the competition for shelf space is fierce, so as an author, you have to make sure the physical presentation of your book is flawless or you don’t stand much of a chance.

We receive so many submissions that, despite having great content, have one part of the packaging off, which makes it hard for us, or any distributor, to effectively sell the title. Interior layout is one facet of packaging that can be easily overlooked but remains essential to the professional presentation and readability of a book. I spoke with managing designer Sheila Parr, who’s won numerous awards for her book designs, about common layout errors, and she offered some simple advice to anyone looking to produce a book on their own.

Font and Typography

For fiction and general nonfiction, serif fonts are easier to read on the printed page than sans serif fonts. Size depends on font, but in general text should be somewhere between 10 and 12 points. Stay away from bold type, underlined type, all-caps type, and exclamation points to emphasize a point—this can come across as unprofessional.

SP: When picking a serif font, don’t use Times New Roman. Times has become a sort of default font,and it can have an unfinished look about it when printed. For a more polished, professional look, try something like Caslon or Garamond. To emphasize a point, italics can be a better solution than bold or underlined text.

Margins

In general, margins are about .75 inches on the bottom and sides, and about 1 inch at the top of the page, though the .75-inch margin can be as small as .5 or as large as 1 inch. For longer books, the margin along the spine, known as the gutter, may be larger. Leading, the space between lines of text, should be several points larger than the text itself.

SP: Margins and leading are usually determined by factors like genre and page count. For example, a dense business book may have a looser layout with wide margins and leading to help the reader better absorb the material, while a novel typically has a tighter layout that keeps the reader moving and engaged.

Words per Page

Too much or to little text per page makes a book difficult to read. Like margins, the number of words per page varies based on genre and page count, but there are usually about 35 lines of text.

SP: In general there should be about 350 to 440 words per composed page. Nonfiction and books with illustrations and graphs are on the lower end of that scale, and novels are on the higher end.

Chapter Headings and Running Heads

Chapter headings and page breaks should match the book’s genre and style and should be appropriate for the target audience. A business book, for example, should have fairly simple chapter headings as opposed to the headings of a fantasy novel, which may have more elaborate fonts or design. When there are other headings within the chapter, create a hierarchy by using varying sizes.

Running heads are the text at the top of every numbered page of a book. They often consist of a combination of the author’s name, the chapter title, or the book title. The important issue here is to be consistent—if you decide to use author name on the left and title on the right, stick with it throughout.

Graphs and Illustrations

If you are using graphs or illustrations, make sure they are high resolution and easy to understand. Try to keep visually presented information simple and relevant to the text around it.

SP: There are whole college courses based on information design—illustrating complex information in a way that is easily understood. My advice: hire an experienced professional to design your charts, graphs, and illustrations.

Front Matter

All of the information that comes before the first chapter of your book (e.g., your foreword, preface, or introduction) is called front matter. There are varying styles of organization depending on the genre or publisher. This content is frequently paginated with lower-case Roman numerals, while the pages that begin your first chapter—the content of your book—are where the Arabic numerals begin, though introductions frequently get page 1, not Roman numerals.

Thanks to Sheila Parr and our production and design teams for all of the great information.

In a previous post on Fonts That Make You Look Lame, we included Comic Sans in a list of five typefaces that are either played-out or just downright atrocious. And who doesn't hate the goofy, amateurish font? The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about the man behind Comic Sans, Vincent Connare, and the couple who founded Ban Comic Sans, an organization with "global ambitions" to eliminate this ominpresent affront to aesthetic sensibility. Fortunately, Connare seems to have a sense of humor about his creation—according to the article, he and the founders of Ban Comic Sans are considering doing a picture book together. Good idea! I'd buy it.

However, Comic Sans is merely the most visible in a huge group of stale typefaces. Papyrus is a personal pet peeve and also has its own mockery cult. For an interesting debate on Comic Sans, other lame fonts (Souvenir is a "crime against humanity"), and whether anyone even cares about fonts, be sure to read some of the WSJ article's comments.

Let's be honest: there are some atrocious book covers out there. The really bad part is that often the creator of the cover is utterly blind to its faults. Like proverbial faces beloved only of mothers, these covers make their designers' hearts swell—at the same time that they elicit snickers from the unbiased.

Here at Greenleaf, we believe in telling someone when they've got a big piece of spinach in their teeth. And we also know that—while it may seem shallow—nothing charms a prospective buyer more effectively than crackerjack packaging. That's why we created RateMyBookCover.com.

Upload your cover (it's absolutely free) and, much like Internet dinosaur HotOrNot.com, the crowds will let you know what they think of your image on a scale of 1 to 10.

Scientific? Authoritative? Kind? RateMyBookCover.com is none of these things, but we nevertheless think it will give you an invaluable glimpse into what people (other than your friends and family) think of your cover. Whether you're a seasoned designer or Joe Self-Publisher who came up with a great homemade concept in Microsoft Paint, RateMyBookCover.com gives you an objective perspective on the face your book will show the world.

Keep in mind that content is, as always, king. But if your cover doesn't reflect the quality behind it, you have crippled the title's appeal to a consumer—and drastically reduced your chances of getting in a bookstore in the first place. Check it out, and don't forget to let your fellow authors and designers know what you think of their ideas.

Being a "creative" is hard. I cringe at the label. I'm the first to admit that maintaining the level of inspiration needed to constantly churn out good—no, great—ideas and execute them well is really tough. So I thought I'd share some thoughts on my creative process.

Sometimes it feels like the planets are aligned and projects go super crazy well.

Everyone likes it when that happens. But there are so many factors that go into a great idea that projects often start more like this:

For me, creativity requires a fluid state of mind, a positive attitude, confidence in my talents, and the ability to let bright ideas come as they may. On a practical level, being well-rested, happy, fed, caffeinated, and hydrated is key.

I recently had the privilege of attending the HOW Design Conference in Atlanta, for which the theme "refresh" was perfectly suited. I was totally inspired by the speakers, and reassured that other designers (probably all of the 3,000 attendees) struggle with the balance of creativity–which is often on its own timeline–and reasonable workloads and schedules. For me the most destructive thing I can do during my creative process is stare at a blank screen/canvas/sketchpad and tell myself, "Think of an idea. Think of an idea. Think of an idea. Now. C'mon. IDEA." (This soon degenerates into "WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? THINK OF SOMETHING NOW!")

I like this quote by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas." It's sort of what artist and author < title="Danny Gregory" href="http://www.dannygregory.com/" target="_blank">Danny Gregorytalked about at HOW. For a designer, if you only do one drawing, it better be really good. That's quite a bit of pressure if you're not a super master illustrator. But if you draw every day, just draw anything, you suddenly have this well of ideas to choose from, and some of them are probably great. So I do a lot of image research and make tons of word lists, even of seemingly irrelevant things so I hopefully never feel discouraged.

Everyone's favorite part of the creative process is THAT MOMENT.

It usually happens a few times for any given project (since the goal is several great ideas, not just one). When it does, I know I've done my job and the project will be the best it can be. I design books, but whether it's writing, drawing, cooking, painting, or any other creative field, don't forget that your ideas are in there. You just have to find them. And when that happens everyone's happy.