The millions of books in bookstores world-wide didn't get there by chance! They were all designed and produced by someone
Books come in all shapes and sizes
- Most people have some idea of the way they want their book to look but most people don't give it much thought.
- There are people who don't care how a book looks and just want the content to get out to the public. It's only when presented with good cover design and interior layout that they begin to see how important it is to make their book look inviting.
- The nature of the content dictates book design and layout. Carefully researched genealogies with family trees and large photos need to be larger-size landscape books with plenty of margin all round, plenty of space between lines and lots of room to show off precious old photos. They can run to 200 pages, need quality papers to get the best out of the photos and will probably be widely viewed for generations. They need to have a quality air! In contrast, a historical fiction in mass paperback format has much narrower margins and tighter space between lines. It is usually printed on paperback stock. It relies heavily on its cover and back cover blurb to get people to open its pages.
- Children's books are frequently "non-regular sizes". They can break all conventions and be crazy in design and layout. They are often highly coloured and glossy and full of illustrations. They need to be imaginatively designed. Of course, more conventional layouts work as well.
- Serious and academic books need conservative layouts and quality papers, and can vary in dimensions depending on the nature of the content. eg scientific books need room to display charts, tables and figures.
- Simple "text-heavy" books are uncomplicated to do. Larger books - with photos, footnotes, indices, bibliographies take much longer and can be technically challenging. All need Tables of Contents, copyright pages, sometimes prefaces, prologues and introductions, dedications and acknowledgements. All need page numbers, chapter headings and sometimes running headers. All needing to have pleasing layouts and covers.
- The layout and design of a book bring together the professional expertise of the designer and the ideas of the client. Coming up with the best design for a book is a process, but a bad design and layout can ruin a book, while a thoughtful and compelling layout and cover can make it.
