Decisions need to be made about how your book will look on
both the inside and the outside.
The most important factor when designing a book is your target
audience. Be very clear on who you hope will purchase your
book; your book must appeal to your target audience if you
want them to pick it up off the shelf.
The features of a youth-oriented novel are very different than
a children's early reader or a book targeted at older eyes.
The best way to help us design your book is to find a book
that caters to the same target audience you are appealing to,
and also meets your high standards for design. Showing us a
chapter title page and an interior page or two will greatly
reduce our time spent designing your layout, and your cost!
Spend an hour at the library or your favourite book store,
and watch for the following design elements:
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- size of the book (books are typically smaller than a standard
8.5" x 11" piece of paper.) Common sizes are 5.5"x8.5",
6"x9", 7"x9", 7"x10". The genre of your book will also help
determine its size. How big are other books of similar topic?
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- line spacing: is there a lot of 'white space' on the pages,
or is the text fairly close together?
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- do you like extra spacing between sections, or perhaps
between paragraphs? Note the fine differences between the
books you are looking at and which method you prefer
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- chapter title pages: do you like a lot of white space on
the first page of a chapter; does each chapter start on a
right-facing page only, or perhaps there aren't any chapter
title pages at all?
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- headers and footers. Headers are at the top of the page,
footers are at the bottom. They are a line of information
that may include page numbers, author name or chapter titles,
book title, etc. How would you like your headers/footers
set up?
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- front pages: are there any blank pages at the front of
the book, is there a prologue, map, title page, images, table
of contents, etc.
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- are there any colour pages inside the book
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- are there any photos inside the book, or diagrams
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- will there be an index or glossary?
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Webb Publishing is happy to lay out your book at our hourly
rates. Doing some research ahead of time reduces your cost
and helps us create a layout you will love.
Designing your book cover is discussed
in a separate section.
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