2-line Summary (128 characters)
Book Design Made Simple is the first comprehensive book to give novices and designers alike the power to design their own books.
Short Synopsis (48 words)
Book Design Made Simple gives DIY authors, small presses, and graphic designers—novices and designers alike—the power to design their own professional-looking top-quality books. It’s the first comprehensive book of its kind, explaining every step from installing Adobe® InDesign® right through to sending the files to press.
Medium Synopsis (98 words)
Book Design Made Simple gives DIY authors, small presses, and graphic designers—novices and experts alike—the power to design their own books. It’s the first comprehensive book of its kind, explaining every step from installing Adobe® InDesign® right through to sending the files to press. For those who want to design their own books but have little idea how to proceed, Book Design Made Simple is a semester of book design instruction plus a publishing class rolled into one. Let two experts guide you through the process with easy step-by-step instructions, resulting in a professional-looking top-quality book.
Long synopsis (488 words)
Book Design Made Simple gives DIY authors, small presses, and graphic designers the power to design their own books. It’s the only book of its kind.
After collaborating on the designs of several self-published books, Fiona Raven and Glenna Collett, both experienced book designers, realized they were answering the same questions from authors over and over again—What are all those numbers on an ISBN? How do I get one? Is it okay to grab photos from the Internet for my book? What printer should I use? Why can’t I just do the design myself?
Recognizing that authors and graphic designers need help, they wrote a book to answer all these questions. Book Design Made Simple explains to authors, students, nonprofits—novices and designers alike—exactly what book design is, and how to do it. This book guides the novice designer through the process of leasing and installing Adobe® InDesign® and then shows how to place the author’s text into real book pages right away. From there, the look of the text is refined, one element at a time, until it develops into a coherent design that complements the text. Every imaginable kind of text is shown, and meticulous instructions are given. Examples include chapter openings, part openings, headings, lists, poetry, tables, math, extracts, table of contents, and index. Multiple layout choices are offered for each element so that the reader can decide on a look and learn how to achieve it. By the time the book’s design is finished, the designer will have a cohesive design to be proud of, and will also understand how it was achieved.
Stressing their conviction that a front book cover attracts but it’s the back cover that sells, the authors devote an entire section to cover design—front, back, and spine—for paperbacks, dust jackets, and hard covers. With examples and illustrations, the reader is guided through decisions about typefaces, images, colors, and layout, and is given many choices and examples as to what to include on the back cover. Setting up an Adobe® InDesign® document to meet printers’ specifications is explained in detail. The result is a cover that will look entirely professional in the marketplace and attract readers.
Although print books are emphasized, ebooks are also considered throughout. Some design features that work well in print might not translate in an ebook, so cautions and instructions are given in each instance.
Together with thorough design instruction, all kinds of publishing advice is offered along the way, guiding the reader through some of the tough decisions that self-publishers face concerning trim size, what printing method to use, and how and why to get an ISBN and copyright, to name a few.
In short, Book Design Made Simple is a semester of book design instruction plus a publishing class, all rolled into one. Let two experts guide you through the process with easy step-by-step instructions, resulting in a professional-looking top-quality book.
