The Big Bad Book Blog

Stop the presses! Before you print your book, make sure you’re not committing a major packaging faux pas that will diminish retail buyers’ interest. We’ve all heard the statistic: 2,000 books are published every day. That means the competition for shelf space is fierce, so as an author, you have to make sure the physical presentation of your book is flawless or you don’t stand much of a chance.

We receive so many submissions that, despite having great content, have one part of the packaging off, which makes it hard for us, or any distributor, to effectively sell the title. Interior layout is one facet of packaging that can be easily overlooked but remains essential to the professional presentation and readability of a book. I spoke with managing designer Sheila Parr, who’s won numerous awards for her book designs, about common layout errors, and she offered some simple advice to anyone looking to produce a book on their own.

Font and Typography

For fiction and general nonfiction, serif fonts are easier to read on the printed page than sans serif fonts. Size depends on font, but in general text should be somewhere between 10 and 12 points. Stay away from bold type, underlined type, all-caps type, and exclamation points to emphasize a point—this can come across as unprofessional.

SP: When picking a serif font, don’t use Times New Roman. Times has become a sort of default font,and it can have an unfinished look about it when printed. For a more polished, professional look, try something like Caslon or Garamond. To emphasize a point, italics can be a better solution than bold or underlined text.

Margins

In general, margins are about .75 inches on the bottom and sides, and about 1 inch at the top of the page, though the .75-inch margin can be as small as .5 or as large as 1 inch. For longer books, the margin along the spine, known as the gutter, may be larger. Leading, the space between lines of text, should be several points larger than the text itself.

SP: Margins and leading are usually determined by factors like genre and page count. For example, a dense business book may have a looser layout with wide margins and leading to help the reader better absorb the material, while a novel typically has a tighter layout that keeps the reader moving and engaged.

Words per Page

Too much or to little text per page makes a book difficult to read. Like margins, the number of words per page varies based on genre and page count, but there are usually about 35 lines of text.

SP: In general there should be about 350 to 440 words per composed page. Nonfiction and books with illustrations and graphs are on the lower end of that scale, and novels are on the higher end.

Chapter Headings and Running Heads

Chapter headings and page breaks should match the book’s genre and style and should be appropriate for the target audience. A business book, for example, should have fairly simple chapter headings as opposed to the headings of a fantasy novel, which may have more elaborate fonts or design. When there are other headings within the chapter, create a hierarchy by using varying sizes.

Running heads are the text at the top of every numbered page of a book. They often consist of a combination of the author’s name, the chapter title, or the book title. The important issue here is to be consistent—if you decide to use author name on the left and title on the right, stick with it throughout.

Graphs and Illustrations

If you are using graphs or illustrations, make sure they are high resolution and easy to understand. Try to keep visually presented information simple and relevant to the text around it.

SP: There are whole college courses based on information design—illustrating complex information in a way that is easily understood. My advice: hire an experienced professional to design your charts, graphs, and illustrations.

Front Matter

All of the information that comes before the first chapter of your book (e.g., your foreword, preface, or introduction) is called front matter. There are varying styles of organization depending on the genre or publisher. This content is frequently paginated with lower-case Roman numerals, while the pages that begin your first chapter—the content of your book—are where the Arabic numerals begin, though introductions frequently get page 1, not Roman numerals.

Thanks to Sheila Parr and our production and design teams for all of the great information.

We decided to bring back this old post from our CEO, Clint Greenleaf, because the points he brings up continue to be relevant. Wanting to rush publication is a common problem, but many authors don’t realize how detrimental rushing can be to the success of the book. Not taking into account quality issues, there is the issue of distribution. Distributors need at least 4-5 months lead time to pitch your book to buyers. Print publications also require long lead lines, sometimes as much as 6 months for everything from reviews to advertisements and profiles. Below, Clint discusses some of the other issues that arise when an author rushes publication:

Rushing a book to market without understanding all the consequences of your decision is about as bright as marrying someone you meet in Las Vegas after a fifteen-hour drinking binge. Even if the reasons behind the rush seem legitimate, beware of the beer-goggle effect—your book won’t look nearly as attractive when it comes off the press as it does in your head when you’re deciding to skip vital steps in the publication process. There are three areas where rushing will come back to haunt you with particular vengeance:

Editing
Your content has to deliver the goods. Editing isn’t just about making sure your book is free of typos and grammatical errors—it’s the part of the process that focuses on sharpening the reading experience for your customers. If you don’t invest the time and money to have experienced book editors work with your book, success in this industry will be an uphill battle. Don’t try to justify your rush by duping yourself into believing that you can save time-consuming editorial work for the second edition or the next printing. Crappy books don’t go into multiple print runs or second editions. It’s like not showering before a first date and thinking that you can always wash up for the second date—unless you’re meeting the Vegas drunk from the scenario above, there’s no way you’re getting the second date, stinky. It’s worth the delay in your book launch to work with an editor who can help you develop a rock-solid title, unique hooks, a smart structure, and a compelling voice. If you rush the editorial process, you’ll compromise the integrity of your work for short-term gains. Is a goal like having books in time for one event really worth that?

Design and Printing
While powerful marketing, a strong author platform, and compelling content are essential for a book to succeed, production quality is equally important. And yet there are countless articles that downplay the importance of quality, often making the obtuse argument that anyone with Photoshop or InDesign can throw a book together in no time, or that the difference between top quality and bottom quality is negligible due to advances in technology. Both assertions are appalling fallacies. The quality of your design and printing determines what kind of first impression your book will make. Retail buyers, book reviewers, and consumer make gut decisions based on this first impression, so while good quality costs money and takes time, this is not an area in which it is okay to be either cheap or hasty.

Sales and Publicity
Sometimes, we’re at the mercy of others. Pitching your book to retail buyers and media outlets is one of those times. If you want to sell your books in bookstores or other trade outlets like Costco and Wal-Mart, know that it takes almost twelve months to get your books ready for distribution. This time is spent setting up the title in wholesale and retail systems, presenting to buyers, and preparing the logistics for an on-time launch. And there’s similar time sensitivity inherent in a proper publicity campaign. You only have one book launch, and if you don’t get advance review copies to reviewers at least four months prior to publication, your print campaign has virtually no shot at success.

Deciding to produce a book on an abbreviated timeframe may be possible from a purely logistical standpoint, but you shouldn’t rush your book launch unless you’re prepared to have a product that isn’t set up to reach its full potential. So take a breath and slow down. The book of your dreams will wait for you. If you follow the rules and wait too, the launch will be much more special. If you know what I mean.

In case you missed it, the Internet went mad last week when IKEA, the design-savvy Swedish furniture manufacturer, switched the font used in its catalog from Futura, which it had used for over fifty years, to Verdana, a font that was created by Microsoft for reading on a computer screen—and which many contend does not work at all in print. Twitter and the blogosphere exploded with viral disgust over the decision, and design consultant Marius Ursache started a petition asking IKEA to drop the font, eventually gathering over 3,000 signatures. Today, Twitter is still buzzing with re-Tweets about the petition posted by font nerds and remarks like this one from @dvdwlsh: “This honestly HURT me to read. IKEA DESTROYS element of its identity.” (There is, however, a backlash to the backlash; @idrathernot says: “futura is a pretentious snob! long live verdana, the workers’ font! #ikea #iheartverdana”.)

IKEA has responded that it believes the backlash comes mainly from typography experts, and that the general public doesn’t really notice this type of thing. But that discounts how widespread the displeasure about the Verdana switch is, and the subconscious effect that design details can have even on typography illiterates. We’ve mentioned that this type of thing is important before. Here’s a great case in point. Your book may never achieve the distribution levels of the IKEA catalog (it is often advertised as the most widely printed book in the world), but do pay attention to font—and never, ever, ever use Papyrus.

In a previous post on Fonts That Make You Look Lame, we included Comic Sans in a list of five typefaces that are either played-out or just downright atrocious. And who doesn’t hate the goofy, amateurish font? The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about the man behind Comic Sans, Vincent Connare, and the couple who founded Ban Comic Sans, an organization with “global ambitions” to eliminate this ominpresent affront to aesthetic sensibility. Fortunately, Connare seems to have a sense of humor about his creation—according to the article, he and the founders of Ban Comic Sans are considering doing a picture book together. Good idea! I’d buy it.

However, Comic Sans is merely the most visible in a huge group of stale typefaces. Papyrus is a personal pet peeve and also has its own mockery cult. For an interesting debate on Comic Sans, other lame fonts (Souvenir is a “crime against humanity”), and whether anyone even cares about fonts, be sure to read some of the WSJ article’s comments.

Tip #1: Tweak Cover Design Conventions—But Don’t Discard Them Entirely

Business books don’t look like self-help books don’t look like fiction. This may seem obvious to some, but it is a common problem I see when we’re evaluating new books for publication or distribution. When consumers want to buy a business book, for example, they expect certain imagery, fonts, colors, and layout styles, whether they realize it or not. The best-selling business books often use large, simple fonts and bright colors to keep the focus on the title (like this or this).

If your book cover or layout doesn’t make sense for its genre, it could hurt your sales. continue reading