These are notes from a writing conference the LDS writers’ conference. The Presenter is Marney Parkins. Any misinformation of the notes is the fault of the note taker.
More details on book design are available with a book The principles of Non-Designer’ Design & Type book by Robin Williams.
Front pages contents:
- The title page is the first. It has three things, the title, the author’s name and
- A lot of books have reviewed and these are on numbered pages.
- Some books will have a short tease page to tease the reader on wanting to read the book. This text is different than the back cover which contains a brief summary of the book.
- Some books have a half-title that will list other books the author has written. If often faces the title page. The third is the publisher’s imprint. Many self-published books miss this and it is a way many can identify a self-published book.
- On the back of the title page is the copyright page. It is ok to put this on the bottom of the title page. It can be a tiny paragraph.
- Copy right page: need it and its copyright symbol. It needs to have the name of the institution that is copyrighting it. And all rights are reserved.
- Contact info: Needs to be on the copyright page. You will want readers to have a way to contact you. People need permission to use something of someone else’s. Contact info should include your publication address and website as well as any type of promotional thing if you have credits.
- For illustrations or excerpts from other books etc. you can put them here. If they are a long list then they can go to the back page.
- Dedication page:
Chapters:
- A chapter begins on the right page.
- Often illustrations will be on the right side as well unless they are opposite an opening page.
- For chapter beginnings, your text comes down from the top.
- Chapter titles may just be a number or it may include the title. Some chapter’s headers may just have the name without a chapter number.
- Some chapters may have an epigram or other design.
- For very long books, publishers are looking to cut down space as much as possible and will begin a new chapter on the same page as the ending of the previous.
- Books that have parts will also start on the right page the same as a chapter.
- Books like Harry Potter will have a nice graphic to start a chapter.
- On headers, you want to have more space above the header and close to the text that follows o you know where the header belongs.
- The first letter of a chapter has a drop cap and sometimes goes down into the text. It’s usually a bitter letter/font. Other times the first letter will have a raised cap instead.
- Scene breaks is often represented by a centered or name of dingbat if you have an indent. It needs to be centered.
Headers:
- On a regular page of text you might have running heads. With or without page numbers. You can have them on the outside of the page or have them at the bottom of the page. For nonfiction, people use these running headers to keep track of what chapter they are on. Have your book title on the left side and chapter title on the right. For fiction, you have the author’s name. On the left and the book title on the right. You want to put the nonfiction running header on the outside of the page so that readers can more easily read it by thumbing through the book. Running headers should be separated from the text for easy viewing. Don’t have them too fancy or big. You need to have a way to distingue RH from the main text. Put a period or extra space to have them a little bit of a beak. The first level header is the largest. The second level header could be the same size as first or smaller if there is enough contrast.
- Page numbering: have them on the outside of the text. Don’t have a page number on the first page of a chapter. If you do want a page number there put it on the bottom of the page.
