Learn how to make a simple book signature (group of pages) by hand and have some fun at the same time. Once you try this, you’ll understand how book signatures are put together. And you’ll quickly see how a stack of signatures can become a complete book. [Read more…]
Special signature inserts in books
Have you ever wondered why some books gather all of their photos and other images together into a few pages in the middle? These groups of pages are called special signature inserts. We’ll explain why this is practical in traditional printing on paper, and why there are also reasons to do it even with print-on-demand. Plus we’ll show you how to set up your own book this way.
Designing a book title page
Every book needs a title page. Whether it’s in a printed book or an ebook, the title page shows the official title, author, and publisher that will go into the Library of Congress database—or the equivalent database in your country.
Also, it’s supposed to be the first, or almost the first, page that a reader sees. As such, it has the potential to set the tone for the rest of the book, and with a good design, add marketing value.
So here are some ideas, starting with the basics. [Read more…]
Self-publishing services compared
Are you ready to find a self-publishing service for your masterpiece? In this article we hope to help you discover the right one for your needs, whether it’s a full-service shop, simply a printing press, or an ebook conversion. Even though—as we always say—you can do it yourself, everyone needs at least a little help getting their book out there.
Possibly the majority of new publishers go straight to KDP, but many folks prefer to avoid Amazon for their own reasons. We will focus here mostly on other well-known self-publishing services. Aside from the ones we mention, there are many more to be found online and even advertised on television. Please read our words of caution at the end of this article about all self-publishing services.
Creative book cover treatments
Does your printed masterpiece deserve a special creative book cover treatment? Maybe some silver or gold, or the book title sticking up? How about the title pressed below the surface of the cover? Or some parts of the cover design being shinier than other parts?
We’ll explain how the printer produces all of these creative book cover treatments, and more, for hard (casebound) covers, book jackets, and paperbacks. We’ll also mention how you could actually fake some of these effects yourself. [Read more…]
Designing book running heads
What are running heads, anyway? And running feet? And should you care about how they are designed? Yes!
You might know a running head as a “header,” and a running foot as a “footer.” In fiction books, the running heads announce the author and book title on each spread. In nonfiction and anthologies, they help readers find their way around. [Read more…]
InDesign book template by Book Design Made Simple
What exactly is an InDesign book template? It’s a blank InDesign document that has all the background work done for you. When you open a template, you’ll see an untitled document that’s already set up with InDesign preferences, trim size, margins, and styles.
Our InDesign book template is a companion to Book Design Made Simple, the only book that guides you through every step of designing your own book using Adobe InDesign. We believe that anyone can learn to craft a well designed book, and now we’ve created an InDesign book template to get you started more quickly. [Read more…]
Self-publishing and book marketing: A success story
In this post we feature a self-published author, Joel Rubano, who has found remarkable success through book marketing. Not only is his book selling well, but he’s made an interesting career shift, too. We hope you find encouragement and inspiration from his story, no matter what your own book project looks like. Here is Joel’s account: [Read more…]
Crop marks and other printer’s marks
Crop marks and other printer’s marks appear in the PDFs you send to the printer. In Book Design Made Simple, we mention crop marks exactly once and never define what they are, so we think it’s about time that we did so.
Simply put, crop marks are chop marks—they indicate where the printer will chop around the edges of the stack of printed pages to make them the correct size, and a nice, neat package for binding. [Read more…]
Book endpapers: A gallery of ideas
Book endpapers (also called endsheets) are probably the least noticed part of a hardcover book. But the endpapers are literally what hold the pages and the cover together. And they can add value to your book if you use them well.
If you’re publishing a paperback, take a look at the examples in this article for ideas anyway; you’ll find that the same principles can apply. [Read more…]
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