Page Layout

I have no desire to ever self-publish. That is because I need an editor. For those of you out there who are able to self-publish, then more power to you. As someone who self-publishes you have to wear a lot of different hats. (Unless you want to pay someone to do it for you, which is a valid choice.) Though I may not know much about setting up the various accounts to sell the novel, I do know something about document design. I’ve done page layouts for a lot of different types of books. Some of these only pertain to printed books while others are for both eBooks and paper books.

Font Size: Don’t go too small. You may think you are being clever and keeping your page count down by having small font. With eReaders people can increase the font size but if you are only concerned about eBooks than page count doesn’t matter. And as someone who prefers to read printed books, I hate trying to focus on small print and I don’t even need glasses to read.

Font Spacing: Give the words room. It doesn’t have to be double space but don’t go down below single space. If you have the lines too close together it makes it difficult to read. White space is good for documents.

Font Choice: Don’t go fancy. People don’t want to spend hours reading a fancy font. They want to read the story. Don’t let the font get in the way of the story.

Page Numbers: Two things. All books need them. Don’t move them around. If you have them in the upper outside corners, leave them there. You don’t have to have them on the first chapter pages, but don’t leave them out.

Headers: These aren’t as necessary as page numbers but a header is a nice way of putting your title and your name on the pages.

Margins: For printed books margins are important. You don’t want inside margins to be so small that the words are slipping into the spine, but it is nice to be able to hold the book open with my thumbs and not cover half a dozen different words.

These are just a few basic guidelines for doing page layout. The main idea is don’t let the text get in the way of the words. If you make your readers work at reading then they won’t enjoy the book as much.