Your interior book design is critical when it comes to making your book presentable and, even more important, readable. Designing a book's interior might not seem like as much fun as choosing a book cover design, but 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.
Here are a few more general tips in addition to those covered in the last chapter to inform your interior book design:
Sometimes it's best to go with the tried-and-true and choosing your font is one of those times. Unless you're working on an illustrated or artsy book, such as a book of photographs, study the fonts in books you've read and enjoyed yourself. There is a reason why Times New Roman, Garamond, and Bookman fonts are so popular.
Again, unless you're working on a special edition or writing highly experimental fiction, use a standard 11- to 12-point font size. It might be tempting to use a large typeface, especially if you have trouble with small print yourself. However, you should reserve large fonts for "large print" books printed specifically for those with vision problems.
The start of a new chapter is one place where you can play with font. It is perfectly acceptable to choose a unique typeface for the number and/or title of a new chapter. In fact, using a drop cap for the first letter of chapter text provides a visual "new start" and can improve readability. If you choose to write chapter titles, printing them in larger, bold, or unique fonts sets them apart and adds to the reading experience.
A running head is a part of your interior book design. It's the line of type that occurs at the top of the book page, to help orient the reader to their location in the book. This navigational aid most commonly consists of the book title on one side, and the chapter title on the other—but there are many combinations. Be careful not to put too much text in your headers and footers. You must include page numbers, so consider the length of the book title and chapter titles before deciding if and where to place them. The right combination for your book depends on the structure of the book. Running heads aren’t found as often in novels, while nonfiction books are more likely to include them.
Generally, running heads don’t appear on “display pages,” which are things like the title page, the copyright page, the chapter opening pages, and other section opening pages. Having useful running heads, appearing in the right place, signals a thoughtfully designed print book. Refer to books you have read in the past to see what works well and what you like.
Make the bound, or gutter, side of the margins wider than the margins on the outer side of the page. This leaves enough room for the book to be bound properly, and makes it easier for the reader to bend pages and read all the text comfortably. It can be difficult to read at a steady pace if a book's inside margins are too close to the binding.
“Special” pages include title pages, dedications, acknowledgements, indices, copyright, Foreword, Afterword, and others. Make sure you place special pages in the proper place as well. For example, title pages, copyrights, Forewords, introductions, and dedications belong in the front of your book, and Afterwords, acknowledgements, book club discussion questions, and bibliographies belong in the back. While some of these elements are optional, two pages you don’t want to exclude are the title page and the copyright page.
Title Page
A title page is usually the very first page of the book, always appearing on the right side—unless blurbs have been placed in front of it. The title page includes the following information:
Sometimes a book will include a half-title page in addition to the full-title page; if so, the half-title page includes only the book title. (The half-title page is often cut to save on pages.)
It’s best when the title page has a unique design touch—some creative element or echo of the book cover design. Think of your book’s title page as an opportunity to make a good first impression on your reader.
Copyright Page
The copyright page should appear immediately after the title page and is extremely important, as it will contain legal protections that reserve author rights and provide a shield against potential lawsuits. It may include any of the following:
There isn’t a strict rule about the order of this information. One of the best things you can do is open up a few books to their copyright page, and pick a model that will work for the information you need to include.
Whatever you select for each element of your interior text design should remain consistent throughout the book. If you start with a 12-point typeface, with the exception of chapter pages or perhaps the dedication page, stay with a 12-point typeface through the end of the book. And whether you begin writing your masterpiece adhering to the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Stylebook, be consistent with that as well. Lack of consistency is one of the hallmarks of a poorly written and/or produced book.
The first step for creating interior bleed is determining the trim size of your book. The trim size ensures each page of your book is exactly the same size, making it look neat and professional. The interior bleed area ensures that images always go to the edge of the page, and that trim size and trim edge both stay as consistent as possible. Interior bleed also decreases distractions such as white bars on the edges of pages where you don’t need them and ink smudges on page edges where text or images were cropped.
In a standard book, you will want a bleed of 1/8 of an inch (0.125 inch) at the top, bottom, and outside edges of the pages. Do not add additional area to the page gutters, as this leaves room for distractions such as the ones just mentioned. Additionally, mind your trim edges. The trim edge is on the top, bottom, and right sides of each odd page and the top, bottom, and left sides of each even page.
The next step is to determine your page layout. This will vary depending on your trim size and trim edge needs. The standard formula is: bleed height = bleed (0.125 inch) + height of book + bleed (0.125 inch). A similar formula exists for bleed width: bleed width = width of book + trim edge bleed (0.125 inch).
We recommend using half-inch margins for your entire book. However, margins can and should be adjusted according to the bleed area your book requires.
If you're completely overwhelmed as to where to begin, don't be shy about seeking help from a book design tool or professional designer. You've done the hard work of writing the book; maybe interior text design is just not your thing, and that's okay.
Be creative and brave, albeit not too brave, with the interior design of your soon-to-be-published book. While there are many other details that affect people’s perception of your book, these areas account for a few of the first things that people will look at. Be intentional in crafting them.
This chapter was compiled from the following posts on the IngramSpark blog:
Book Design: 4 Details That Help Your Book Look Professional by Jane Friedman, editor of The Hot Sheet
9 Tips for Interior Book Design by IngramSpark Staff
How to Set Up Interior Bleed for Your Book by IngramSpark Staff
