Beyond the Cover – An Introduction to Effective Interior Book Design

If you’re a self-published writer, you understand the power of a great cover design for your book. The cover design grabs the prospective readers’ attention. The adage “a picture says a thousand words” is true in this instance. The cover design gives the reader subtle and not-so-subtle clues about the content, building expectations.

Unfortunately, the book’s interior often doesn’t receive the same attention from the author. The novel might have an amazing, compelling cover but a terrible content structure. It’s like going to McDonalds. The picture on the menu looks tasty, plump, juicy, and inviting. Then you open the burger box and see a flat bun with lifeless meat and synthetic cheese poking out of the side. Talk about overhyped expectations.

A well-balanced book interior satisfies the eyes in two important areas: the layout – the columns, margins, artwork, and illustrations. The typesetting (Type size, font, spacing, hyphens, and line breaks. 

Understanding Typography Basics

The typeface is a critical component of effective interior book design. Books feature traditional typefaces in serif fonts such as Caslon, Garamond, Goudy, and Baskerville. However, art books and guidebooks use sans-serif for a modern look and feel and for easy reading.

Choose a legible font well-suited for your book layout. Ensure the font includes features like italics, small caps, semi-bold, and bold. Commercial novels like mysteries and thrillers are usually set with larger fonts due to the audience being an older demographic.

11pt is a comfortable font for most books. The “leading” or white space between lines is equally important to include in your interior design best practices. Leading ensures readers get a better reading experience without all your lines jammed together.

Because it costs more money to publish books with more pages, some authors feel there’s an incentive to get as many lines as possible on the page. This strategy might save a few dollars, but the book’s readability suffers tremendously. As a general guideline, look to build 33 to 36 lines on a page.

Use the Correct Trim Size

Selecting a trim size is the next step in effective interior book design. Standard sizes like 5.5 x 8.5 or 6×9 are best for chapters in memoirs or novels. Or maybe you’re designing an art book with small text captions on each page and plenty of room for large images or illustrations?

If the book is more than 250 pages, use a smaller trim size of 5 x 8 or under, or you’ll create a thicker book, turning off prospective buyers. When writing poems with long lines, you’ll benefit from choosing wider formats, so you don’t break the lines.

You’ll also need to decide on a paperback, a hardcover with a dust jacket, or a casebound book with art printed on the cover. Hardcover and casebound books have higher production and logistics costs, adding to your publishing expenses.

Use Margins

While it’s a use of blank space, margins are one of the most important design aspects for book interiors. A page has three margins (top, bottom, and outside) and a gutter. The gutter is the inside margin where the pages are sewn or glued.

Each margin has a specific task. The outer margin gives room for the reader to place their thumbs when holding the book. The top margin features the author’s name, the book or chapter title, and the page number.

The bottom margin provides white space supporting the text block, and the gutter ensures the text doesn’t fall into the glued or sewn area.

Traditionally, the top, outside, and bottom margins are close to each other in size. Typically, they’re around half an inch each, with the gutter being the largest, usually 0.75 to 0.9 inches.

Use Running Heads/Feet

The running heads are the lines featured at the top of the page. They give the reader information like the book title, author’s name, and page number. Occasionally, the page number might appear in the bottom margin, making it the “foot.”

They assist the reader with charting progress through the book and finding their way back to their last point of reading. Typically, they’re placed slightly to the left or centered in the text margins. 

Feet and running heads also provide a visual frame to the text block. These elements must be clear and legible while small enough to avoid intruding on the text.

Effective Images and Artwork

If your book features illustrations, images, or artwork, you’ll need to adjust the layout to accommodate these content elements. Depending on your genre, the art and text interact in different manners. For example, in children’s books, the small amount of text on pages goes on top of the artwork.

In cookbooks, you’ll place the dish’s image on the left and your recipe in two columns on the right. A photography book may feature beautiful, large photos on every page. There’ll be room for captions under the images and an introduction from the photographer at the beginning.

Always ensure you provide enough room for the art to breathe. A single good photo is usually more visually effective than a collage. These small details “pop” the design visually, separating great interior design from cranked-out templates.

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