Book Design

The Ultimate Guide to Master Your Book Cover Design

Find out how to make your book cover design stand out! This complete guide includes book cover design tips, trends, ideas, and examples to help you create the cover of your dreams.

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Why Should I Use Groundwood Paper for My Book?

Why Should I Use Groundwood Paper for My Book?

IngramSpark first released groundwood paper in 2020 as an alternative to crème and white paper during a time when the latter two were in short supply. It was only available for certain trim sizes in the U.S. Since that time, we’ve expanded our groundwood paper offering to include most small trim sizes in all our print facilities, including those in the United Kingdom and Australia.  

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IngramSpark's Book Building Tool for Ebooks

IngramSpark's Book Building Tool for Ebooks

What is IngramSpark’s Book-Building Tool?

For some authors, the hardest part of writing a book might be the twisted plot or character development. For others, it’s the outline and organization of chapters. It turns out that designing the book can prove an unexpected challenge for many authors. Several aspects must be considered, both technical elements and artistic features when designing a book. IngramSpark’s FREE Book-Building Tool will guide you through the design process specific to creating an ebook.

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Design a Book for Free with IngramSpark's Book-Building Tool

Design a Book for Free with IngramSpark's Book-Building Tool

One of the things that stands in the way of most writers' ability to self-publish is book design. Finding and hiring a book cover designer, formatting the interior, uploading your files to IngramSpark—it can all seem a bit daunting. What if we told you IngramSpark now offers a FREE tool to create your own book online? You heard that right—learn more about what you can do with IngramSpark's free Book-Building Tool!

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Book Cover Design Basics

Book Cover Design Basics

The purpose of book cover design is to draw the attention of your potential readers away from all those other tomes and novellas and sell them on the idea that your page-turner is the next book they need on their nightstand. But what makes a book cover jump off the shelves? Let’s take a look at the anatomy of a book cover and how you can create a cohesive look that appeals to your readers.

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Picking a Popular Trim Size for Your Book

Picking a Popular Trim Size for Your Book

Your book has been written, rewritten, beta read, edited and reedited to within an inch of its life.  Now it is time to design and layout the interior. One of the first decisions you will be asked to make is the height and width of the book. This is called the trim size. So you go to your bookshelf and pull down your favorite four books and notice that they are all 6x9. There! Decision made! But not so fast.

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5 Tips for Front Book Cover Design

5 Tips for Front Book Cover Design

Even before you are ready to publish your book, you have likely thought about how you want your front cover to look. However, before you can decide on the right book cover design you should have a complete and polished manuscript in front of you. Whether you design the cover and select a binding type yourself or work with a professional, you might want to become familiar with industry standards and guidelines, and take advantage of free tips offered by the experts. After all, the ultimate goal is to get your book into the hands of receptive readers who will be watching and waiting for your next book!

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Book Design: 4 Details That Help Your Book Look Professional

Book Design: 4 Details That Help Your Book Look Professional

In every profession, there are little details that reveal the time, attention, and care you’ve put into your work. For independent authors and small presses, paying attention to these details can make a favorable impression on potential customers, especially those inside the trade—booksellers, librarians, and others who are intimately familiar with book publishing standards.

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How to Print a Book with IngramSpark

How to Print a Book with IngramSpark

In the age of digital media, everybody and their brother has the capability of reading books online and on digital devices. But what if you want your books to exist in the flesh (or, in the print)? If you’re one of the many authors who dreams of holding their book with their own two hands, we’ve got the information you need to succeed. You can create and print a book, then make it available through online retailers such as Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and Apple, as well as local brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, by following these general guidelines:

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The Best Fonts for Books

The Best Fonts for Books

Believe it or not, there is a science behind choosing the best fonts for books. Think about all the places you see type today. Whether it’s a phone, a computer screen, a book, an ad, a magazine or a menu, almost every minute of the day is spent reading something. And—other than the menu at your favorite restaurant perhaps—much thought has gone into which font to use.

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File Requirements for Ebooks

File Requirements for Ebooks

Before your electronic content can be sold, it must first be uploaded into a portal so that it can be processed and then distributed to online retailers. There are a few rules that must be followed to ensure the successful processing of your content with IngramSpark.

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Book Illustration Styles and Techniques

Book Illustration Styles and Techniques

A well-designed book isn't just a collection of text and images; it's a work of art. And illustrations aren't just pictures interspersed throughout text, but crucial elements of decoration and style that bind a book’s theme and purpose. In this article, we ask you to take a moment to immerse yourself in the wonderful world where the illustrative magic begins.

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Top 10 Book Cover Ideas (and Examples!)

Top 10 Book Cover Ideas (and Examples!)

Books are definitely judged by their covers. Those with more compelling and impactful covers, quite simply, have a better chance of being purchased and read. Book cover design trends are constantly evolving, and they tend to affect the industry as a whole—but there are some tried and true examples of book cover ideas that can guide authors through the book design process. Let's take a look at some of the top book cover ideas and examples.

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Publishing a Hardcover Book with IngramSpark

Publishing a Hardcover Book with IngramSpark

Are you considering publishing your book in hardcover? Or converting your existing hardcover to IngramSpark’s new jacketed case laminate option?

Read on!

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New IngramSpark Products: Jacketed Case, Groundwood, and Digital Cloth™

New IngramSpark Products: Jacketed Case, Groundwood, and Digital Cloth™

IngramSpark has been hard at work to expand book options for indie authors. Over the last few months, we've launched three exciting new product offerings: groundwood paper, Digital Cloth™, and Jacketed Case Laminate! Learn more about the new product options.

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Paperback vs Hardcover

Paperback vs Hardcover

Writing comes with innumerable choices around characters, dialogue, setting, and plot. But once you finish your masterpiece, there is another set of choices with which you'll be faced. When you decide to print a book, those choices begin with paperback vs hardcover. And once you choose one over the other, there are even more choices that fall under those designations. They're all worth it to print a book that is worthy of the story within its pages, so let's review some of the most popular options available for these print formats with IngramSpark.

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What is Typesetting and Why Does it Matter?

What is Typesetting and Why Does it Matter?

The notion of setting type might belong to another era, but with the advance of technology, it’s more relevant than ever. Ironically, technology is the reason that typesetting matters today: increased exposure to (sometimes) beautiful typography in books, magazines, and marketing materials, not to mention websites, has raised our collective expectations regarding appealing type. Even the uninitiated among us can easily pick out poor font choice and bad formatting. So, what exactly is typesetting—and why does it matter for self-publishers?

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How to Self-Publish a Coloring Book

How to Self-Publish a Coloring Book

Coloring books are a great way to relieve stress, have fun, and create a shared creative experience between the customer & artist. Behind the scenes of what goes into creating one is an art form itself, and we’re excited to share our experience. We hope to inspire future indie artists to bring their imagination to life and create that shared experience with others. Here’s our journey in creating Wandering: a coloring book of the unusual!

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How to Work With a Book Cover Designer

How to Work With a Book Cover Designer

The role of an author is to communicate stories, ideas, or facts to their readers in an engaging way. But sometimes, authors struggle to communicate their own intentions to those that are helping them publish a book. One area where this is most challenging is in working with a cover designer. Translating your ideas and mental images into a cover that attracts readers is already a challenging enterprise. And if your designer has trouble understanding what your book is like, who your audience is, or what you have in mind, you’re not likely to get the results you’re looking for—even from a top-notch cover designer.

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Ebook Formatting: How to Create Standard and Full-Color Ebooks

Ebook Formatting: How to Create Standard and Full-Color Ebooks

It isn’t as hard as it sounds. You don’t need to compose a query letter, secure a literary agent, or cut through miles of a traditional publisher’s red tape before the book is released to the world. You can create an ebook from the comfort of your officeor couchwith the right tools, information, and help from the experts. Here are some ebook formatting tips:

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Self-Publishing Services: The Best Tools to Publish a Book on a Budget

Self-Publishing Services: The Best Tools to Publish a Book on a Budget

Self-publishing is booming, and with this transition comes a plethora of organisations worldwide offering author services to writers. But what if your budget doesn't extend to a professional editor, typesetter, cover designer, and so forth? Does this mean your book will not meet industry standards, be of poor quality, or sadly never be published? Absolutely not.

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IngramSpark Ebook Conversion

IngramSpark Ebook Conversion

Considering converting your print book into an ebook? Offering your book in multiple formats is one of the easiest ways to reach more readers. While some readers prefer to read in print, some prefer to read ebooks only. Not offering your book in ebook format, is a guarantee your content will never reach them, so why limit your book's distribution?

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How to Create a Picture Book

How to Create a Picture Book

In picture books, words and pictures are equal partners. Even if your story is heart-warming, smart, and fun, if you don’t pair it with appealing visuals, readers won’t enjoy it. Normally, it’s not the author’s job to produce a great-looking picture book. But as an independent publisher, you are responsible for the content and the look of the book. Here are some basics to help you manage that:

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The Pros of Hardback Books

The Pros of Hardback Books

While choosing a paperback format is the most common route for self-publishers when releasing a new title or edition, it is important to remember the merits of hardback books as well. Here are a few reasons to consider printing a hardback book.

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How To Use Facebook Ads to Test Your Book Cover Design

How To Use Facebook Ads to Test Your Book Cover Design

Facebook remains one of the best social media marketing tools that authors and publishers have at their disposal. Just to rattle off a few obvious uses: you can find communities of like-minded authors to provide critical support, you can use it to set up a fan page, and even organize live events through it. Perhaps most critically, you can make use of Facebook advertising to target prospective readers based on interests, location, and any other demographic category you can think of. In this post, however, we will quickly look at how Facebook can help you perfect your book cover design in a data-driven fashion.

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What Your Book Cover Says About Your Book

What Your Book Cover Says About Your Book

I’ve recently gone through the book cover design process for my new novel, and it has made me more aware than ever of just how much information the cover has to communicate in a very short time. Although this is my second novel, it’s my first as an indie author, so it was the first chance I’d had to see the process the whole way through.

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9 Tips for Interior Book Design

9 Tips for Interior Book Design

Your interior book design is critical when it comes to making your book presentable and, even more important, readable. Some of the most common mistakes authors and publishers make when it comes to interior book design include omitting hyphens, incorrect margin size, imperfect justification, and allowing widow/orphan lines of text. Designing a book's interior might not seem like as much fun as choosing a book cover design, but it can be if you approach it in steps and follow a few practical guidelines.

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Ebooks vs Print Books

Ebooks vs Print Books

The ebooks vs print books debate is a very popular one within the publishing industry. There are loyalists on both sides. There are people who believe that print books are dead (which they've said for years now . . . definitely not dead; very far from dead). And with a normalization in ebook sales, some are saying it's time to ditch the digital format (also false). We believe in both formats and here's why.

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File Requirements for Print Books

File Requirements for Print Books

Before your print content can be sold, it must first be uploaded into a portal so that it can be processed, printed, and then distributed. There are a few rules that must be followed to ensure the successful processing of your content. Avoid paying a revision fee to fix unnecessary mistakes by using the below guidelines to get it right the first time.

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How to Set Up Interior Bleed for Your Book

How to Set Up Interior Bleed for Your Book

“Interior bleed” probably sounds like what happens on your favorite medical program when someone has an internal injury, however, bleeding is not something that only concerns the medical profession. Interior bleed gives your book a much more professional look and increases overall sales, and you can set it up yourself.

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Book Layout Basics

Book Layout Basics

The decision to ask a professional book designer to typeset your book versus typesetting it yourself is driven largely by a limited budget. However, once you realize the astonishing number of details designers must attend to in book layout, you may conclude that it’s best to spend your time marketing your professionally designed book rather than attempting to become a book designer yourself.

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3 Most Common Book Formats for Self-Publishers

3 Most Common Book Formats for Self-Publishers

The first thing to know when entering the book world is the differences among your book formatting options. There are three main book formats used to create and design your book, each offering a different set of pros and cons. Read about the benefits of each to decide the best option for making your book publishing dreams come to fruition.

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