Resources

The Interior

Finalizing your book

Manuscript should be final when provided to designer for full interior layout. This is very important to avoid extra designer costs for making changes and reflowing text once it’s laid out. Also, seeing the author’s final document is important for the designer to know exactly what they’re working with in terms of page designs, length and cost.

Interior page designs: If the manuscript is not quite finalized, it is possible to create page designs to be reviewed and agreed upon by author while final edits are being done aside from design. Then when manuscript is final, the layout can begin.

Editors and proofreaders can be crucial in the development and review of your book. I highly recommend having an outside professional assist with editing (before layout) and proofreading (after layout).

A word about software and submitting files

Authors mostly use word processing (wp) applications such as Word, to write their manuscript.

Designers typically use a layout program such as InDesign (Indd), to design, format and layout the cover and interior of the book, giving it that polished and professional appearance. The manuscript is imported into Indd by the designer. Once the book is in layout format, a pdf will be created for author proofing.

I’m often asked if I can provide the final file to the author so they can make changes to the book later on. The only realistic way to do that is if the author is also using Indd, and is very mindful of general formatting, master pages, styles, etc.  It is possible, but not ideal, for me to export from the Indd layout document back to Word (wp) format. There will be a lot lost in formatting here. This document may be helpful for author, post-printing, to have the final manuscript on hand.

Making changes to a book after it’s gone to print (or POD) are most easily handled by the designer, and often the time is minimal and fees are small to make minor edits and word changes after print phase.

Consistency in styles

Headings, subheads, bullet items, quotes, call-outs, and other uniquely formatted content should appear with consistent styling throughout the manuscript, so it’s clear what the hierarchy is when designer is assigning styles to the text of the book. It’s also necessary to know how many styles need to be created when calculating pricing. In writing, there should not be double spaces following a period, or other end of sentence punctuation. In other words, it’s very helpful if author’s manuscript uses single spaces following periods, question marks, etc.

Images

Images should be high-resolution, at least 300dpi and in tiff, jpg, eps format. Naming image files to match content or chronological order is most helpful.

Frontmatter

Frontmatter refers to all the pages that precede the text, as in title page, copyright, dedication, contents, foreword, etc. They’re typically set with roman numerals starting with “i” for title page. There is some leeway on when the regular (arabic) page numbering begins, though it’s usually at the Introduction. Pages prior to the Table of Contents (TOC) are blind folios, meaning the page number does not appear. (The term for page number is folio). Odd numbered pages appear on the right page (recto) and even numbers on the left (verso).

Copyright page

There are a few items of importance to include:

Author name, year of printing, copyright verbiage such as rights and disclaimer (samples can be found online if needed), ISBN, LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number), credit lines for: Cover and Book design, Editing, Illustrator, if applicable, or other professional you wish to credit, and contact info such as email or website address.

Backmatter

Backmatter refers to items such as footnotes, bibliography, appendices, glossary, etc. Folio style remains arabic here. It’s important to notify your designer of any of these sections which need to be incorporated into the book, in advance of estimating.