If you’re like a lot of authors planning to self-publish, you probably haven’t given a ton of thought to designing your book cover, let alone your book interior. So, let’s talk about that.
As soon as you have finalized your book’s title (and subtitle if you have one), I would urge you to hire a book designer to come up with a cover. Not only will this help spread out your publishing-related costs, but having a cover will make your book seem a whole lot more real. And that’s going to motivate you to finish writing your book.
Please note, I did not suggest that you design the cover yourself. And I specified that you would want to hire a book designer. Why? Because your cover will have a direct and huge impact on your book sales. You can’t afford to get that wrong. So, you will want to find a professional, experienced book designer who understands what makes a cover work.
While having your book’s interior professionally designed is optimum, it’s not critical. So, this is one of the few aspects of self-publishing that you can actually handle yourself. The caveat here, of course, is that your interior book design has to look professional. Formatting your text in Microsoft Word and using that for your book interior is not going to cut it. Luckily, there are tools to help you achieve a look that will be a big cut above.
Any of the tools you try will likely involve a learning curve. And each will likely have its own type of glitch(s). But put in a little sweat equity, and you can make them work.
To be honest, this is not something I’ve tried. So far, I’ve been able to hire a pro, which I prefer. But plenty of writers have gone that route. My friend and client Morri Stewart, for example, used Vellum to design the interior pages of her fantasy novel Faltofar. If you click on the link and go to Amazon, you can “look inside” and check out her book interior. While you’re at it, you might even want to buy a copy and indulge in a splendid escape.
You’ll find plenty of book design programs to choose from. Your selection will likely be based on reviews, options, ease of use, and cost. Before you get to that point, however, you will want to do a little formatting of that Word document you’re working on. If you’re like most writers, you probably haven’t set up your pages in an optimum way. I would suggest you read my “Writer Mistakes: Formatting” post. I also like the pointers in this post about the formatting you can do while still in the writing stage.
You’ll also need to make decisions about trim size (your book’s dimensions). Check out https://incubationpress.com/book-formats/ for information on common book sizes as well as which are associated with specific genres.
Good luck! If you decide to DIY your book interior, let me know how it goes.
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