Tips to avoid confusion and make for a more rewarding process. Prepare before you meet for the most productive experience communicating with your book designer.  The time spent preparing helps prevent confusion and makes the design process more rewarding for everyone. By now, if you have been following my blog, you may have a good […]

A case where size matters. Often people ask me, “It looks good on my computer. Why are you telling me my file is too small?”  File resolution is one of the biggest problems I encounter when designing indy books. And it comes up most often with the author’s back cover photo. And for that, I […]

What the heck are they, and do they matter? Book signatures, also called sigs, are large sheets of paper (parent sheets) with multiple book pages printed on them.  These sheets are folded and then trimmed to create consecutively numbered bundles of pages that can either be glued or sewn into the book’s binding. The use […]

7 tips for getting accurate book design estimates.  Design is often the biggest investment you will make in your self-publishing project. To get accurate book design estimates, it is best to have a clean manuscript for your designer to review. As a contractor, your project is important. You want to have a design that serves […]

What editing level does my book need? The different tasks editors perform are called editing levels. There are many different names to the levels, but the editing level indicates the depth and focus that the editor performs their task. Everyone benefits from working with an editor. Not only will professional editing improve the project you […]

Hiring a book designer that is right for you. When you start work with a designer, understand that it is a relationship in which you both are vulnerable. You depend on each other to make the process run smoothly. This is why it is important when hiring a book designer that you find someone you […]

Avoid surprises and make sure you and your printer are on the same page. There is nothing more disappointing than to budget the production of your book project and to discover after you are in it up to your neck that it will cost way more than you budgeted.  This is why reviewing your book […]

Your book’s junk drawer—avoid making it an afterthought. There are three main sections of a book’s content, front matter, body, and end matter, also called backmatter. Each of these sections can contain various elements, some required and some optional. Although the components’ order can vary, there are typical conventions that most books follow. In this […]

The parts of a book—the book’s body Of the three main sections of a book’s content, the book’s body is the heart of your book. And at this point in your writing endeavor, your books’ body may be all that you have considered. However, much like the front matter, the body may also contain different […]

The order, content, and numbering of the book’s early pages. There are three main sections of a book’s content, front matter, body, and end matter. Each of those sections can contain various elements, some required and some optional. Although the components’ order can vary, there are typical conventions that most books follow. This section will […]