Turning your manuscript into a physical book requires careful attention to detail. But the rewards can be well worth it! Book printing begins with creating a new file at the correct size. You’ll need to set up margins that your text and images will sit within. The Heading style is used for chapter titles and may be typeset in stylized or genre-specific fonts.
Design Your Book
From the cover to the layout of every page, many different factors make up a good book design. However, one element that should always be considered is legibility. It is incredibly important that your fonts and typesetting are easy to read so that your readers can enjoy the story you have written without worrying about their eyes hurting. The cover of your book is often the first thing your reader will see, and it is very important to get this right. The body should be designed with a clear focus that represents the theme and genre of the book. It can be done with a photo, illustration, geometric shapes or color. It is also important to ensure your cover is well-spent, as this can detract from the text and images.
A professional book designer is a great option for getting this right. They will know how to correctly size your cover and interior pages to be ready for printing. They will also have software that can compress files down to printer-specific sizes. Printing is costly, so you must ensure your information is correct and find the right book printing company. It includes the copyright page, table of contents and the front matter, all needing to be sized accurately.
Upload Your Files
There is nothing quite like holding a printed copy of your book. However, following the proper printing guidelines is important to ensure you have a quality, professional-looking book. It includes the file formats and minor formatting details like the size and form of headers and footers, page numbering, fonts, indentations, and line spacing. The first step in the book printing process is prepress, where all the files are checked and finalized for print. Once your print files are ready, they can be uploaded into a portal to be processed for printing and distributed to readers.
The choice of your final book format also plays a major role in how you prepare these files. Many self-published authors choose paperback for its lower cost, but others prefer the durability of a case-bound volume. If you decide to go with hardback book printing, you have to account for different cover dimensions. The spine width is usually larger, and the cover file needs extra space for the wrap-around edges. Knowing these specifications early helps you avoid layout mistakes before you send the final files to the printer.
Proof Your Book
After you’ve checked (and double-checked and triple-checked) the PDF files for your cover spread and interior pages, you are ready to get them printed. But before you do, always request a proof copy of your book. This step is vitally important, as it’s almost certain that a few stray errors will make it through the editing and formatting process. When you receive your proof, please look at it to ensure everything is as it should be. You should check that all chapters are in the correct order, that your “About the Author” and “Dedication” pages are where they should be, and that fonts used for chapter headings and paragraph text are consistent throughout the book.
Reviewing your proof line by line is also a good idea, looking for typos or grammatical errors that may have yet to be caught in the editing or proofing stages. A final review of the title and copyright pages is also necessary. Proofing your book is a tedious job, but it’s also an extremely important one. There’s nothing more disheartening than opening a box of books and finding a misspelled word or an obvious error that could have been avoided. The time and effort you put into your book deserves a careful, thorough review before printing.
Order Your Printing
There’s something special about seeing your book move from digital words and images on a screen to a real physical book you can hold. Print-on-demand services make this possible for self-publishers. They create a digital file containing the front cover, back cover and spine printed on each page of your book. Then, they squirt ink onto it to create the image. Some print-on-demand services also offer different paper types and covers and the option to get your book in hardcover. When planning this project, make sure to understand how these choices are going to affect the final cost. For example, factors like page count, paper quality, and the addition of color versus black and white pages can influence coloring book printing prices, or those of other formats. These elements can ensure you can budget and select the best options for bringing your vision to life.
To get a sense of the quality you can expect from a particular printing service:
- Check out some samples from the company’s website.
- Look for a copyright page with all the publication information, like where the books were printed and the publisher.
- Note the numbers at the bottom of the page, indicating how many copies were printed then. If you see a number that starts with 1, it’s the first printing.
If it’s 2, it’s the second printing, etc.
