• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Self-Publishing
  • Author Blogging
  • Sitemap
  • Fonts/Typography

The Book Designer

Practical advice to help build better books

by selfpublishing.com

COACHING


PUBLISHING


WRITING


PRODUCTION


FREELANCE


WRITING JOBS

  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Contact
  • Shop
You are here: Home / Book Design / Free Print Book Resource for Authors

Free Print Book Resource for Authors

by Joel Friedlander on July 5, 2013 21 Comments

Although you’re reading this on July 5, I’m writing it on Independence Day here in the U.S. and there are parades, barbecues, and family gatherings going on all over the place. I’ll be leaving to head out to one of those myself—with a nicely marinated flank steak—in just a few minutes.

But I couldn’t go without telling you about a free resource I created in conjunction with BookBaby, the ebook distributor.

Since BookBaby also produces short-run print books for their customers, they asked if I would put together my best tips for print book authors, and that’s exactly what I did.

(By the way, if you’re a committed do-it-yourselfer, you can get great results from BookBaby’s printing with our predesigned, preformatted book design templates for Microsoft Word.)

The designers at BookBaby have turned it into a beautiful PDF, and it’s completely free. Just click the image below and it will take you to the page where you can download your own copy now:

Printed Book Design 101

(https://www.bookbaby.com/campaigns/request-printed-book-design-101)

Here’s the copy from BookBaby’s website:

Let self-publishing guru Joel Friedlander help you prepare your next printed book.
BookBaby asked self-publishing expert Joel Friedlander to write the definitive guide to producing a great printed book. The result is our new guide: Printed Book Design 101. Friedlander provides step-by-step advice and tips to help you create a retail-ready book. Friedlander covers topics such as:

  • Picking the perfect typeface
  • Enhancing the readability of your book with interior design
  • Catching the reader’s eye with cover design tips from the pros
  • The most common mistakes made by self-publishing authors and how you can avoid them
  • …and much more

So head over there and get your own copy, it’s well worth the download.

I hope this resource helps you declare your own “independence,” because that’s one of the things I like best about self-publishing.

See you here on Sunday for our regular This Week in the Blogs feature.

Filed Under: Book Design, Book Printing Tagged With: book design, bookbaby.com, print books, self publishing

journal marketing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. S. R. Vincent says

    May 5, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    unable to download can be the result of a minor technical problem, perhaps overlooked earlier. Now given to know of it, can be expedited, before more frustrations pour in.

    Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      May 6, 2015 at 11:04 am

      S.R. I just checked the links and they seem to be working fine.

      Reply
  2. Nathan Sisk says

    July 10, 2013 at 11:09 am

    Thanks for the resource, this will come in handy.

    Reply
  3. Alexa says

    July 9, 2013 at 6:18 am

    Thanks, Joel – it’s good that there’s some free stuff out there!

    Reply
  4. Alexa says

    July 6, 2013 at 1:45 am

    I downloaded it fine, thanks, Joel.

    Bookbaby require you to give an email address – they don’t say what they’re going to do with it – before you can download the PDF. There’s no click-through or anything involved to confirm your address; personally, I use a spam-catcher email address for this sort of thing.

    Very interesting info in the PDF, Joel, thank for doing that. I’m very new to this and hadn’t previously noticed that books use different fonts for text and headings. You mention using a ‘display font’ for headings rather than a ‘text font’. I hadn’t realised there were two different kinds. Do you have any suggestions for any good display fonts bundled with Word that would look good with, say, Garamond?

    Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      July 7, 2013 at 11:12 am

      Alexa, you don’t have to be limited to the fonts that came bundled with Word. Check this out: 5 Great Fonts for Book Covers

      Reply
  5. Diane Tibert says

    July 5, 2013 at 6:34 pm

    Thanks. I was able to download the first time.

    Reply
  6. M.M. Justus says

    July 5, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    The direct link doesn’t work, either, alas. It just directs me back to this comments page.

    Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      July 5, 2013 at 12:43 pm

      M.M. I just clicked the link and it opened the PDF in a new tab perfectly, sorry you had difficulty. I’ll email you the PDF directly.

      Reply
  7. Joel Friedlander says

    July 5, 2013 at 11:56 am

    The links have now been corrected, let me know if there are any further problems, and thanks to all for your patience. I think the download is worth it.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Jennifer Lewis Williams says

      July 5, 2013 at 1:02 pm

      Thanks, Joel… your direct link works great and this is very useful information to have!

      Reply
      • Maria Grace says

        July 5, 2013 at 1:43 pm

        Thank you. I was able to get the direct link to work. I am sorry for all your hassles with this, but it is also nice to know that I’m not the only one these things happen to.

        Reply
  8. Jennifer Lewis Williams says

    July 5, 2013 at 9:17 am

    It did not work for me, either. I entered the information and hit submit…then nothing.

    Reply
  9. Bill Peschel says

    July 5, 2013 at 6:01 am

    Yeah, got the same response. No notation of what to do next. No answer.

    This doesn’t fill me with confidence about BookBaby’s abilities, if they can’t handle a simple download.

    Reply
    • Tricia Ballad says

      July 5, 2013 at 8:17 am

      Same here – it looked like an interesting, useful resource. This just underscores how the little things can destroy confidence in your product. I’m not sure I’d trust their information, if they don’t take care to test their download system.

      Reply
    • Joel Friedlander says

      July 5, 2013 at 4:17 pm

      Bill and Tricia,

      The problem was a miscommunication between the Bookbaby editorial staff, technical staff, and me. It has been corrected, and thanks for your concern, I really appreciate it.

      Reply
  10. Maria Grace says

    July 5, 2013 at 5:26 am

    I went to the BookBaby site as you suggested, followed their directions, submitted the information and the download did not become available. I’m sure it’s just a small technical issue, but thought you would like to know.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Free Print Book Resource for Authors – matthewrosencrans says:
    March 13, 2016 at 9:30 am

    […] Free Print Book Resource for Authors describes a new free PDF by BookBaby.com for print book authorshttp://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/07/printed-book-design-101/ […]

    Reply
  2. Interior Design | Books by Yael Politis says:
    September 20, 2013 at 7:35 am

    […] Free download of Printed Book Design 101: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/07/printed-book-design-101/ […]

    Reply
  3. Joel Friedlander’s Printed Book Design 101 | Story Arcs says:
    July 10, 2013 at 11:02 am

    […] had a post on the 5th announcing his Printed Book Design 101 on BookBaby. It is a simple PDF he’s put together detailing all the little things to look […]

    Reply
  4. Writing Resources 06 July 2013 | Gene Lempp ~ Writer says:
    July 6, 2013 at 11:56 am

    […] Friedlander: Free Print Book Resource for Authors. Excerpt: “I couldn’t go without telling you about a free resource I created in conjunction […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Get the Advanced Publishing Kit

Topics

  • Audiobooks
  • Author Blogging 101
  • Book Construction Blueprint
  • Book Design
  • Book Printing
  • Book Production
  • Book Reviews
  • Cameras
  • Contributing Writers
  • Cover Design
  • E-Books & Readers
  • Editorial
  • Guest Posts
  • Interior Design
  • Interviews
  • Journey of a Book
  • Legal Issues
  • Marketing
  • Podcasts
  • Project Focus
  • Reports
  • Reviews
  • Samples
  • Self Publishing Basics
  • Self-Publishing
  • Social Media
  • Training
  • Video
  • Webinars
  • Writing
Self Publishing Platform
Self Publishing School

COACHING

Self Publishing

PUBLISHING

The Write Life

WRITING

The Book Designer

PRODUCTION

Make a Living Writing

FREELANCE

Freelance Writers Den

WRITING JOBS

Footer

  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Self-Publishing
  • Author Blogging
  • Sitemap
  • Fonts/Typography
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Comment Policy
Guest Author Guidelines
Why?
"Writers change the world one reader at a time. But you can't change the world with a book that's still on your hard drive or in a box under your bed. This blog exists to help you get that book into people's hands."
—Joel Friedlander

Copyright Self Publishing School All Rights Reserved. © 2022