Book Design in Self-Publishing: Breaking New Ground
Self-publishing is often about pushing the limits, and this is the focus of today’s conversation. The Perfect Capital by Karen Healey Wallace isn’t just any self-published book; it’s one with design written all over it, both in the plot and in the superb layout and font.
The Perfect Capital was nominated for Best British Book Award Shortlist and Best Editorial Design Award Shortlist in 2014. We chatted with Karen about the book’s inspiration, design, and the role of typographer Eric Gill in the tale. For those who like video, just press the play button. If you prefer visuals with altered text, check out the text and words below.
Hello, Karen. It’s lovely to have you with us. Book publishing company to begin, could you perhaps tell me a little bit more about your notion of author-created books?
Hey! To me, it is absurd that books in the hands of writers are not the greatest books on the market. There was a time when ‘vanity publishing,’ as it was known back then, was the pinnacle of the market, and the thought that an author could see their book through precisely as they wanted it should result in the most beautiful publication. So it seems to me to be a curious oddity that a lot of self-publishing today appears to be garbage-lots of Print-On-Demand books, frequently with typographical problems, and so on-but it doesn’t have to be that way, and book design in self-publishing it shouldn’t be! So I’m hoping that The Perfect Capital will pave the way for additional works like it.
Please show us the cover of the book! It’s quite an item…
To begin, here’s the spine—the spine title has replaced the collator’s markings, which was perhaps one of the boldest things I did since the title can’t be seen at all. People don’t make book decisions from 15 feet away, so I made the executive decision that they should approach it and decide for themselves.
A little backstory on how this item came to be: The Perfect Capital is a literary work of fiction. It tells the story of one woman’s attempt to discover the ideal letter form of typographer Eric Gill (1882–1940). As a result, the plot incorporates that character’s creative findings, which focus on Eric Gill’s real-life inscriptions in London. This is intertwined into the plot on the opposite hand, where an old-fashioned character (Maud) meets the most flawed guy (Edward). The fiction and story are based on Gill himself; I took the flawless artist and placed him in one character, and then I placed Gill as a profoundly flawed guy in another.
That’s where I was planning to leave it. What I didn’t expect was well expressed by Beatrice Ward, who stated, “Either the full guy [Gill] comes up, or the tweezers slide.” It was either that or nothing. Because I had experienced this in my relationship, I was unable to choose and choose. When I was creating the design brief for the book and realized I was going to self-publish it, the book emerged completely formed in my imagination. While I did need to hire a designer and a printer, I never needed to submit that brief since I knew precisely what I wanted; all I needed to do was find the individuals who could make it happen.
Tell us about your thinking process for writing the book.
The great thing is that, although I did wind up doing something remarkable, I didn’t set out to produce anything extraordinary; I didn’t sit down and say, “This is going to be a very beautiful book.” My sole choice was to create a book that was completely appropriate for my tale. From my perspective, the ideal book isn’t simply an advertisement for the tale within; it communicates the story from the minute you pick it up.
Because I had no idea what I was doing, I was able to produce the book that I wanted to make rather than the book that convention or machinery would allow. It’s having an idea and asking, “How can I make this work?” as opposed to understanding how things function and restricting your thoughts to that. I knew I wanted a type-only book that complemented my tale. The book is made of paper, not stone, yet it has the sensation of stone. It’s really basic and seems like an art book, and the tale is plainly about an artist on the inside.
You seem to have opted to produce a physical thing that was not originally distributable in other formats. What was the reasoning behind the decision?
I did it because I authored a work of literary fiction and the kind of person seeking it would not have been on any of those sites. That might have been different if I’d written a romance or a crime novel, but mine was literary fiction, which by definition is a more sophisticated and complicated beast.
Show us one or two of the interior concepts.
Eric Gill published an Essay on Typography, and one thing about Gill was his lack of sentimentality. He had one major point of view: books are designed to be read. Everything in his designs is intended to aid the reader in reading the book. Because The Perfect Capital’s main character is a letter cutter, the type-only cover is appropriate.
It’s fascinating that there are those among us who believe in the power of the printed word and constantly speak about it. Yet, when it comes to marketing books, they just slap an image on it. What’s the point of that? That merely adds to the notion that a picture is worth a thousand words book design in self-publishing. The book business should surely be claiming that a well-chosen word or combination of words is worth 15 million pixels. When I look at a shelf of books at a bookstore, it sometimes appears like a shelf of DVDs.
I placed the normal publication page at the conclusion of the book, which is basically an advertisement and has nothing to do with the plot. That was Gill’s idea, not mine.
What People Notice
The inner margins are what people notice the most, and they all come from an Essay on Typography. Gill simply used logic: a book is intended to be read, and a book is held in the human hand. His argument about the margins is dual. To begin with, separate the text from the rest of the world. The book’s margins are analogous to dimming the lights in a theatre. You must immerse your reader in the content. Every author strives to create literary calm in order to transport the reader to another realm. Design may be really beneficial in this regard.
This ragged right edge is also visible. Gill was adamant that the actual words in an extensive paragraph be regularly spaced. The words are not uniformly spaced when you choose a typical justified margin.
The Perfect Capital, of course, uses his Joanna font, which he created expressly for long text. Most of the time, the tops of the capital letters are smaller than the tops of the small letters. This makes the colors on the page match.
Karen, thank you! It’s a great example of how a self-published book should look and gives all of our reader’s ideas.
Learn more about typography and book layout design on Phantom Writing design marketplace by clicking on the links below!
More fantastic articles in our Book Design series:
- Your 7-Step Guide to Creating an Unforgettable Book Cover
- A Gallery of Book Cover Art
- 68 Book Cover Inspirations for Your Next Book
We strongly believe in the value of competent professional designers. We’re sure you are as well! So here’s a unique deal: receive 10% off any design quotation from book design in self-publishing! Simply sign up for Reedsy through this link by Monday, may 25th, and send a cover design request to any of our freelancers; then contact us at service@reedsy.com to receive your discount!
How to Self-Edit Your Own Writing (+ Checklist)
Congrats! Your first draw is complete, and now it’s time to lay the pen down. In order to obtain the attention of a literary agency for your book, you’ll first need to grasp the skill of editing your own work.
There are certain tasks that need expert editing, book design in self-publishing, but you may also accomplish quite a bit by editing your own work. Your future work will only get better as you get more acquainted with grammatical standards as well as excellent writing practices.
We’ve put up a list of nine recommendations to help you get started on your self-edit. Check out our fool-proof self-editing checklist by clicking the button below.
Get a fresh perspective on your work.
Stepping away from your initial draught and your first edit, even if it’s just for an hour over your lunch break, will help you see your work through the eyes of a reader book design in self-Publishing. It’s possible that you’ll have to remove some of your greatest writing, so putting some space between yourself and your work can help you see things more objectively. To keep your brain busy without really thinking about your writing, check out some of these podcasts on editing! Social media marketing company
Set your course with the help of a style guide.
A competent copy editor will always adhere to a certain style guide based on the kind of project they’re working on. They will help you learn more about grammar rules and make sure that your style stays the same as you edit your own work.
The AP Stylebook, on the other hand, is often utilized by copywriters and journalists, while the Chicago Manual of Style is more commonly seen in novels. Developing a stylesheet for an unusual project may require the creation of an entirely new set of rules for syntax and spelling.
Consider the following example:
- This book of The Hunger Games had been in his library for 10 years.
- italicize the title of the book and hyphenate “ten-year-old” as a compound adjective in Chicago.
- An ancient copy of The Hunger Games had been uncovered by him.
- It’s common to put book titles and numbers from 0 to 9 in quote marks.
- He came upon a copy of “The Hunger Games” that was ten years old.
Get rid of the “passive” tone.
As a writer, it is important to know the difference between active and passive voice. Most writing instructors will tell you to use active voice, which implies that your sentence’s subject does the activity that the verb is supposed to be doing.
Even if the examples below express the same idea in different ways, it is clear that the first one is more straightforward and has a stronger impact.
This is not to say that you should never use the passive voice, but you should be aware of its presence and avoid overusing it if possible.