Type and Design Tips for self- and small publishers

Self-publishing and niche press publishing is going through an explosion right now, thanks to the ease with which modern tech lets us produce digital books and connect with the readers for those books.

However, a lot of folks, both writers and small presses alike, are pushing forward producing books with only a vague idea of the rules and standards for design, typesetting, and other elements of production that formerly would have been farmed out to a trained professional.

A lot of what I see going around is some re-invention of the wheel. Plus I see a lot of rookie mistakes being made that are just ignorance of the principles of type and design. All too often I see POD books that look, sadly, like they came from someone who didn’t know anything about making physical books. I’m not talking about the manufacturing, which has gotten to the point you really can’t tell a POD book from a traditionally printed book. I’m talking about basic errors in typesetting and design.

The thing is, these things aren’t that hard to fix if you know what they are, so I got the idea to do a series of blog posts on the basics. This’ll not only help people do it themselves, but will also help tremendously those who go the route of paying someone else to do it for them. Because how are you going to know if your designer is good and worth the money or if you might as well have done it yourself? I’ll tell you how.

I didn’t get into the book biz intending to be a book designer. But when you run your own press, sometimes you’re everything, from publicist to janitor. So I’ve had to learn the basics of book design and production. (I also had a class on the subject at Northeastern University many summers ago when I first started working in book publishing…)

So, forthwith, I begin here a series of short blog posts with Clues on book design and production that You Might Not Know.

The biggest question for me is always how much am I going to do myself, and how much am I going to farm out for a price? Sometimes it really is easier and more cost-effective to just pay someone to do, other times it makes more sense to pay “sweat equity.”

At this point, at Circlet Press, we pay Jim Brown of JimandZetta.com to do all our ebook conversions, as it reached the point where it was more efficient and cost-effective to pay him to do it rather than muddle through it ourselves anymore. But when it comes to Print on Demand books (or printed books of any kind) I’ve been keeping the design and production management in-house for the past several years for the simple reason that it wasn’t in the budget to do it any other way.

I’m guessing that most of you would rather invest a little time in learning how to do some things rather than shell out to a third party, and that’s why you’re reading this. But do remember that it is a legitimate (and fairly standard) business plan, too, to just Hire Qualified Professionals to take on that piece.

In fact, that’s where I’m going to start, with hiring out. But, I hear you asking, how much should I pay a book designer or freelance production person? That is the subject of this first post. (below) Then in the one after I’ll get into what to do if you decide to Do It Yourself with typesetting and design.

1. Farming Out to Professionals
2. Elements of Book Design
3. Page Layouts
4. Widows, orphans, and hyphenation
5. “Smart” quotes, section breaks, and fleurs
6. Ebook design versus print design

P.S. Comments are welcome! Please include pointers to other online resources for small publishers, as well!

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FARMING OUT TO THE PROS
Someone recently asked me “how much should I pay a book designer”? The short but frustrating answer is: it really depends.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.