Okay, so we are on a role here. Remember, this is called “publishing victims.” Today’s victim is the writer or self-published author who either doesn’t want to spend adequate money to get their book professional done or believes they can do it themselves. We know, we know, we are going to get our throats cut for this one, but hey, we tell the truth here and we aren’t the only ones saying it. This blog is for those who are ready for the truth. If not, you are free to go look at the blog of someone else.

This blog post was written by our Book Designer Elisa Rivera

So it comes to the point where you’re ready to make your book look pretty. The question pops up, “Should I lay out my book myself?” Seems the easiest thing to do. You have MS Word. You know how to set the margins and you just picked and choose a font from the selection they provided you. You’ve even read the books that tell you how to do it by folks not trained in typeset. So, you decide you have all the tools and you decide to typeset your own book. Even better, you decide to pay people who have the same mindset as you to typeset your book.

Your book is then typeset and it comes out looking like crap or at least semi-professional. What happened? Interior book design is best left up to those who do it for a living. Why? There is more to page composition than picking fonts and setting margins.

Word processing software DOES NOThave the sophisticated justification and hyphenation controls that professional page layout software does. Word processing software limits you to default settings. Professional page layout software allows us to adjust the setting for better results, sometimes paragraph by paragraph, line by line and even word by word. Why? We are trained to see the difference.

This isn’t about the difference between word processing software versus professional typesetting software. Quality typesetting has never been about the tools. There are a dozen conventions to be followed in book design that may not be perceptible to the reader, but when followed, they give your book a professional appearance. It’s not only about knowing the rules, it’s knowing how and when to bend or break them on a case-by-case basis that makes the difference between an amateur layout and a professional one. These decisions must be made quite often when the words in the text don’t cooperate with the page geometry.

There’s the old saying, “you get what you pay for.” This is a true statement when it comes to typography. Only new self-published authors and even book publishing companies make the mistake in either typesetting the book themselves or paying someone money who has the same mindset as they do. Experienced self-publishers and book publishers wouldn’t think of producing the book in this way. They know that experienced book designers bring real value to the table, offering creativity and aesthetic judgment that only comes with training and experience.

It’s been clinically proven that quality typography improves reading comprehension. More importantly, an amateur job won’t satisfy the distributors, reviewers, and book retailers, the “gatekeepers” of the book industry, who will immediately spot a beginner’s efforts and reject your book as “self-published.” Many people think that converting a word-processed file to a PDF is all the printer needs. That’s true. But it’s not all that YOU need. Printers won’t turn away a PDF that was made from a word-processed document. They’ll print your book because that’s what they’re in business to do. They don’t care what the inside of it looks like. Their success is measured in how many books they print. Your success is measured in the number of books you sell.

Your book design, inside and out, establishes your credibility in the eyes of the buyer. Buyers may not be able to know exactly what is wrong, but without a professional interior design, your book will not measure up to those that are professionally prepared. Don’t underestimate your buyer, they know something is wrong and will not buy your book as soon as their eyes and brain register something is wrong with your book.

For the success of your new publishing career, please give this issue some serious thought, and choose an experienced book designer to give your book the professional look it deserves. Someone with a different mentality than you, experience and passion for making sure your book will look great.

Until next time!

ZLS