It can be a challenge to explain to new authors that they need to consider their marketing plans before making arrangements for book design and production. They want to know why they can’t just publish the book they want to publish and worry about the rest of it later? After all, many new authors have […]
book design
Project Focus: Long and Complex Books Demand Attention to Detail
Two recent projects have reminded me of just how much attention book designers have to pay to details. With a complex book, every detail counts. What makes a book “complex”? It could be very long manuscripts, books with footnotes, endnotes, annotations, massive amounts of front matter and back matter, separate text streams, lots of tabular […]
“I Hate That!” Book Design Pet Peeves
This is a story about bad book design decisions, and how to avoid them. Jill and I visited Copperfield’s Books in Sebastapol this afternoon. Copperfield’s is a small chain of independent bookstores here in California, and a favorite place to browse their curated selection. As an aside, when you consider all the books that are […]
New! The Book Blueprint: Expert Advice for Creating Industry-Standard Print Books
Announcing the publication of The Book Blueprint, Expert Advice for Creating Industry-Standard Print Books
Book Design: Chapter Openers and Part Openers
I have to confess that my favorite part of book design is creating the chapter opening pages. Ideally the display typography and any other pictorial or decorative elements you use on the chapter opening pages will reflect the type used in the rest of the book, including the title page. In indie books we have […]
Author Series Book Templates: Relive The Glory
Do you have literary heroes? Most writers do. I was thinking about some of my own literary heroes recently, and the books that had made such a big impresssion on me—and millions of other readers. That’s when I realized that I had a unique way to pay these authors and their books a kind of […]
Designing Genre Fiction and New Book Design Templates
Does design influence the readability of books? We introduce 6 new genre-specific pre-designed book templates at BookDesignTemplates.com
New! Full-Service Book Design and Production from The Book Makers
Announcing The Book Makers, a complete book design and production service
Book Design Templates 2.0: Upgraded Templates, Cool New Site, 25% Off This Week
Since we introduced our interior book templates in February, 2013 over 15,000 authors all over the world have created their books more quickly and at less expense than ever before. But nothing’s perfect, right? Tracy Atkins and I have been hard at work for over a year to change the way we sell our templates, […]
Working With Cover and Interior Designers
Almost every publishing professional advising self-publishers says the same thing: focus on editing and cover design. Those are the two most important elements of your book, the ones that will make the biggest difference in how your book is received and how it will sell. We’ve already discussed how working with a good editor can […]
