Layout & Formatting

You may have the greatest book ever written; but it always has a better chance of rising above the slush pile if it looks sleek and professional. We can help . . .

Typesetting and Layout help
If you want to self-publish a novel, we can create a print-ready book layout from your Microsoft® Word document. We also include page numbers and headers/Footers on each page, and drop caps for the first paragraph of each chapter (if desired). We can take your finished electronic manuscript and convert it to a standard format for submission to publishers and agents. We will ensure that your font, character style, line spacing, paragraph style, pages numbers, margins, and layout all meet an editor’s expectations. This does not guarantee that your book or short story will be sold, of course, but a well-formatted manuscript is easier to read better to comprehend.

Our designer will work with you to select fonts and create a basic book design that will compliment your subject matter. Your Microsoft® Word or text file will be cleaned to remove all extra spaces, tabs, and breaks. Then it will be placed into the layout document and the designer will check each page for readability, removing any gaps, breaks or other typographic errors that can ruin your book’s appearance. The file will be sent to you as a PDF (Portable Document Format). Our price includes corrections. We will send you a final PDF for approval, and will create a high-resolution file for your printer. If you wish, we’ll even e-mail or upload the file directly to your printer.

Why Hire a Professional to Design Your Book
One of the most common questions self-publishing authors ask is whether or not they can submit a book designed in Microsoft® Word to their printer.

While it’s true that you can create decent, clean layouts in Microsoft® Word, the software was not specifically designed for creating extensive page layouts. You may have problems with final output. For example, word processor files may reformat text when moved from one computer to another—your document may have radically different formatting or pagination even if both computers have the same version of Microsoft® Word! Also there would be issues like how much white space is needed in the gutter for binding? What is the optimal font, font size, and leading for readers? And, do those choices properly fit the personality of the book's topic and market? An improperly designed book may be difficult to read or look homemade. Either way, its message might not be taken seriously by readers, and the book may be passed over by buyers, stores, distributors, and reviewers.

We use Adobe PageMaker®, Quark® and InDesign® to create interior book layouts, and we generate the final output as a Portable Document Format (PDF). PDFs are used to encode the exact look of a document so that it will appear the same on every machine that opens the file. It is the format most printers prefer.

We Also Create E-Books and Book Covers!
The process of book cover design -- cover imagery and titling, the parts of a cover, selecting type and ornaments, stylizing headings and paragraphs, front matter and back matter design, and page layout -- is a learned skill that requires a thorough knowledge of book design principals and the printing process If you already have the artwork available, we can help you design your book cover as well. Email us for more information.

We can help you create an e-book version of your text in PDF format suitable for quick downloading from your Web site.

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