A Wee Guide to Interior Book Design
Written by Kate Gough
Before you can publish any book, you must make sure the text in that book is presented in a professional and eloquent way. No one bakes their favourite meal in a messy kitchen (unless that’s your thing). We want your manuscript to come out so polished, you could it from its floor. Or so to speak. If your kitchen is a mess, it doesn’t matter that the most delicious food is piled up in the cupboards, health and safety wouldn’t let you anywhere near it. So get your sponge out and scrub the pots. And while you’re at it, wipe that grime off the counters. Like those pans, the layout of your book requires to be polished, in a way that is easy on the eyes. If your book’s layout is a mess, your readers will skip straight to dessert (which is probably written by someone else).
But do you use bleach or vinegar to clean up that mess, we hear you ask? You use typesetting, my friends.
We already wrote a little about typesetting here, but today we are going to dive in a little deeper. What is typesetting, what determines the mark of a professional vs. an amateur, and what do you need in order to make a beautiful book? We’ll answer these questions, as well as determine how you can make sure you are typesetting your own work properly and with a unique voice.
What is Typesetting?
Typesetting is the process of setting text onto the page. In this stage of the publishing process (which occurs toward the end of book production) the typesetter puts his paws all over your book's interior to create the clearest and therefore most enjoyable reading experience.
They will determine the size of the margins.
Style the chapter starts
Pick the right font typeface and size for the content.
Essentially, typesetting is about visual communication. To underestimate its importance is to ignore the reader’s experience, the comfort and the quality of the reader, which thus impacts sales and growth. And if you didn’t want to be read, you wouldn’t publish a book. So it’s your job to make your readers happy, whether you like it or not.
The Difference between Typesetting and Typography
Typography is the art of text creation, the choice of font, the use of space, the addition of decorative elements such as drop shadows and embossing. Typesetting is the process of setting text on the page. It is less an art and more of a craft.
What does Professional Typesetting look like?
Typesetting succeeds when the reader is unaware of its presence. It isn’t obvious, it is subtle in its use of space. Everything on the page is part of a complex tapestry that is subliminally relaying information to the reader. Themes, genres, and metaphors can all be interpreted from typesetting.
The interior of a book is decided by a number of factors, including:
Trim size (note that there are standard book sizes for this)
Margins (the bigger the margins in a book, the more pages there may be)
Illustrations (if applicable)
Font typefaces and sizes (for the body text, chapter starts, captions, etc.)
Kerning: Adjusting the spacing between characters.
Orphans and widows: Precluding “widows,” which occur when the last row of a paragraph ends on the top of a page, and “orphans,” which are its vice-versa.
Drop caps: Stylizing the first character of the first paragraph in a chapter.
Book blocks: The block of text on each facing page of a book should end on the same row.
What does Amateur Typesetting look like?
Euan Monaghan, an art director and professional typesetter, addresses a few of the common problems with typesetting. These are things you want to stay away from, a bit like Voldemort should have stayed away from Harry so that he could just retire to the countryside.
A 'ladder' of hyphenated words. Not only is this painful to the eyes, it also throws the paragraph off balance.
Poor word spacing. Too tight, too loose, or sometimes both in the same paragraph. Creates ugly 'rivers' of white space.
Hyphens used instead of en- or em-dashes (we could write a whole other blog post about this).
Two spaces used between sentences.
Leading (inter-line spacing) too tight throughout. Text needs room to breathe (but not too much, caus ugly rivers of white space).
Word stacks: This occurs when consecutive rows of text start or end with the same word. Avoid it, again, ugly.
Typesetting, not Word Processing unfortunately
Microsoft Word has its fair set of challenges when trying to typeset your own work. If you are publishing a book that includes illustrations and photos, the interior of your book needs to tackle captions, footnotes, and tables. Unfortunately, the degree to which you can do these things on word-processing applications is limited, as Microsoft Office and Word were never meant to be typesetting software, but were created for business purposes.
How to Typeset a Book
To typeset a book, you must first choose between hiring a professional typesetter, or you can typeset yourself through DIY typesetting software. The choice depends on what type of book you’re writing, and the emphasis you wish to place on creating the best product possible. For example, If you’re publishing a book that compiles many illustrations, we recommend you turn to a professional typesetter. But first…
How to DIY Typeset
There are several typesetting formatting programs available, the following are two examples that will suit you depending on your needs.
LaTeX - This is a handy (and free) typesetting software that gives you advanced control over your typesetting. It specializes in formatting non-fiction books and documents that include cross-references, footnotes, tables, or figures. Be forewarned, LaTeX is an open-source system, so you’ll need to be a little bit of a nerd like us to get the most out of it.
Adobe InDesign (this is what we use to typeset those little anthologies of ours) - InDesign is incredibly powerful design software that professional designers use. You can use it too, though it’ costs $239. InDesign is capable of kerning, stroking, paragraph formatting, drop cap stylization — all things that might take you ages to carry out in Word. But the curve to master its functions is really steep. If you’re willing to spend that time (or if you’re publishing an illustration-intensive book), we recommend trying out its free one-month trial.
If this is all a bit overwhelming to you, don’t worry! Typesetting is a discipline that takes years to master. If you can’t commit the time that it takes to become a great typesetter, it might be a better use of your resources to work with a professional.
How to choose/work with a Professional Typesetter
Finding the right typesetter depends directly on the work you are creating and publishing. This is why we highly recommend hiring us, or us, or perhaps us. But only come to that conclusion after you:
Check out if a typesetter is familiar with the genre or market of your book.
Reviewed their previous work (buy all of our books just to be sure ;)
Ask Questions
KATE GOUGH is a Canadian based poet and a member of the online poetry community. Her work modernizes romantic literary sensibilities and explores recovery from chronic illness and trauma. Her philosophy is one close to the Danish “Hygge” which is, the celebration of cosiness. Warm socks, hot tea, and candlelight are her favourite writing tools.