You can do it yourself.
We have greatly enjoyed, and learned from, our contributions to the book design world. We’ve loved answering your questions and helping authors and designers on six continents produce the most professional-looking books possible.
However, in late October, we’ll be saying farewell to you all, and shutting down this website. We encourage you to reread the articles that have been most helpful to you. At the same time, we’ll be stopping all of our book and template sales. [Read more…]
We get plenty of queries about new editions of books. Are the changes enough to constitute a new edition? Or maybe a revised edition? Or is it simply a reprint?
The issue is partly a subjective one, but there are some conventional standards that govern the answer to this complex question.
Here’s our non-legal advice, based on experience and a bit of research. [Read more…]
We all expect to see a copyright notice in every book. But where the notice appears and how it appears can vary tremendously. In this article we present a gallery of creative copyright notices for you to admire and maybe emulate. We’re hoping to inspire you while also saving you hours of browsing time at the library! [Read more…]
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…]
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.
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…]
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.
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…]
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…]
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…]
