Producing a book is always a big step and there are many things to take into account to accomplish such a task. If you are an author and you are about to produce your book, there are a few tips to consider. Let´s check those “small details” that can save you lots of troubles.
- When organizing and writing a book there will be lots of details that you will skip over thinking that you will go back to them later. Be careful and don’t leave too many details to take care of. Make sure you solve them before starting the production process.
- If you want another person to write a preface or introduction for your book, you should provide an early version of your manuscript. Remember, people tend to be really busy and you need your preface done before the production process begins.
- When sending your files to the printing company, you need to remember to convert your files to PDF format. Make sure what version of PDF your printing company uses before converting your files. After conversion from Word to PDF check the document in order to correct any error.
- The most important thing when designing your book cover is using the same software used by your printing company. Using one software to design and a different one to print is always a bad idea, considering that you might have color changes, low images resolutions or just files that cannot be printed.
- What about your book size? It always depends on the type of book you want to produce. A perfect size for novels is 6 x 9”. In the case of text books or manuals, size can be 8.5 x 11” and 5.5 x 8.5” for digest sizes.
- Taking care of margins is really important when producing your book. Margins are essential for the book’s aesthetics as well as for the cutting process when it is being printed. So it is very important to set a reasonable margin of a 1/4 inch all around if using POD printing and 3/8 inch all around if web press printing.
- Always pay attention to any kind of material copied from other sources that might need permissions to use in your book, for example, song lyrics, graphics, quotations etc. Getting permissions could be a really slow process, so you should better start it soon.
There are many things to take care of when producing your own book. However, it is a really exciting and interesting phase in your life as an author. Pay attention to the small and big details and you’ll do fine.