Design Details

My first stop is my bookshelf. Collections have some extra pages in them that a novel doesn’t usually contain. Pages like the introduction or forward (sometimes both!), a page about the publisher (when I’m not doing it myself), and more. There are also different ideas about which side of a book a section should start, and all of these details are best studied in trad-published books. I picked through my library and found a few examples to model my design after.

Have you ever noticed that a new chapter in a novel always starts on the right hand side? The pages in a book are called verso (left) and recto (right) and all the sections you find in a book belong on one or the other. You may also notice that the copyright page is always a left-hand page on the back of the title page. These are standards in the print industry that aren’t very obvious… until you put your page in the wrong spot!

Another detail, specifically of collections an anthologies, are title pages for individual stories, usually with an icon to dress it up a little. The bone witch stories are all about spirits and bones, so I went looking for an appropriate image to include on the title pages.

I think that’ll make a great flourish in the book!

Other design details include where to put the page numbering, what pages need a header at the top and which don’t, the font choice, how big to make the edge margins, and even more.

The details can get overwhelming, which is why I use a program with some common presets. It makes sure all of my footers are the same, all my images make sense, and that the font doesn’t suddenly change on page 104.

And all of this is just for the inside! I still need to work with a cover artist to design the outside, too.

Have you ever noticed the interior design details of the books you read? A design artist somewhere made all these decisions and more to create the book you have on your shelves. I hope this one will join them soon.