BOOK LAYOUT
What is book layout?
Also known as typesetting, formatting, or book design, this is the stage where we take your Word manuscript and make it look the way it will look in your reader's hands.
Some of the things I take care of at this stage include:
- Fonts and font size for body and headings, as well as special fonts for handwritten notes, text messages, and more
- Margin sizes, so your story fits on the page and it’s comfortable for the reader to look at
- Front and back matter; I make sure it’s complete and in the right order, including links to your social media and “Also by” pages
- Headers and footers, and making sure chapters are starting on the right side
- Images and decorative graphics like chapter header images, fleurons, ornamental breaks, your author bio portrait, maps, and other images that give it a personal touch
- Generating PDF and EPub files that are compatible with printers and distributors like KDP, IngramSpark, and multiple digital devices
- Tiny details that make a world of difference, such as checking for widows, orphans, bad breaks, hyphen ladders, word stacks, rivers, tight and loose lines, and end-of-page hyphens
- Calculating your page count so you can move ahead with your cover designer and make sure that spine is the right width.
What’s more, if you’re writing a series, or you’d like to have a consistent author brand across all your books, I can save your bespoke template and reuse it for a lower cost on future books.
Please note this service does not include cover design.
PRINT-READY PDF
Every page of your book, made beautiful and ready to send to the printer.
TWEAKS
Applying proofreading changes and making final tweaks so your book is just how you want it.
EBOOK FILES
EPUB files optimized for most ereader types.
What kind of software do you use?
I use Word to apply a styles template to your raw manuscript. This tells the layout software what each piece of text is, whether it’s a text message or a handwritten note, or maybe a block of verse. Then I import the manuscript into Vellum, and that’s where the magic happens! I use Canva to make the header graphics.
Ready to make your manuscript into a book?
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Book layouts have a flat $250 project fee. This includes one round of tweaking, or final adjustments like applying proofreading changes. Additional adjustments are charged at my hourly rate of $24 per hour.
I don’t reuse the same graphics for different clients. Also, with so many individual settings, it’s virtually impossible to create the same layout twice unless you’re just using all the default settings. The only limits are the limits of the software and your imagination!
No. Vellum’s functionality is limited and works best with novel-type manuscripts. I may add other software in the future, like InDesign, which could be used for more magazine-type layouts. Stay tuned!
Absolutely! For the preliminary stages where we’re choosing an overal aesthetic vibe, I’ll use a basic gobbledegook text of lorem ipsum so you can quickly make design choices. Then when your edited manuscript is ready, I’ll import it into the template that has your settings preloaded.
Send me the proofread manuscript and I’ll make the changes directly in Vellum. Or even better, add layout onto one of my editing packages and it’ll be a seamless ride to a print-ready manuscript.
If you’ve followed an efficient publishing workflow, with a thorough copyedit before layout, then this step is a breeze. Depending on your response time and how many tweaks or customizations you want, it should take about one to two weeks.
Find out more about the publishing process
Proofreading, copy-editing, developmental editing – it’s all so confusing. I’ve written this handy guide to help you know what should happen, and when.
