The Complete Guide to Book Design and Formatting in Australia!
Are you taking your book design and formatting seriously? Good book design and formatting could mean the difference between a one-star review and a five-star review. It’s not something any Australian self-published author can avoid.
Book design and formatting are one of the most essential components of your book. Regardless of format, paperback or ebook, or what genre, fiction or non-fiction, you need professional book formatting and design.
Check out this article on Why Professional Fiction Formatting Makes Sense!
The Inside of Your Book Matters!
You may not realize it, but professional design elements in your book design and formatting can make the difference between a good book and a great one. In the following article, we’ll focus on different elements of book design and how you can incorporate them into your books or upcoming projects.
If you don’t have the time, experience, or equipment necessary to perfect your book design, then don’t panic. Author Services Australia works with a team of formatting specialists experienced in children’s book design, fiction book design, and non-fiction book design. Regardless of the genre, length, or difficulty, we can help bring your book to life.
Don’t hesitate to contact us at Author Services Australia for affordable book design or formatting quotes. At Author Services Australia, we offer a wide variety of affordable and professional self-publishing services tailored explicitly to self-published authors.
If you’re still trying to decide between Amazon KDP and IngramSpark Publishing, check out The Best Self-Publishing Platforms to Publish Your Book, where we cover the pros and cons of the most popular self-publishing platforms available to Australian authors and writers navigating the self-publishing world for the first time.
What Does Book Design Mean?
According to Wikipedia, book design is the art of implementing content, design, format, and the sequence of your novel into a coherent unit. In other words, book design and formatting pull the entire book together and present it to the reader as a cohesive, easy-to-read unit. Barnes & Noble did a great article about book design that’s worth checking out.
World-famous typographer Jan Tschichold said book design and formatting, “though largely forgotten today, relies upon methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve, and which have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books, these rules have to be brought back to life and applied.” He wasn’t wrong.
Most book design experts exclusively use the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), which governs the overall ‘rules of book design’ and the flow of your formatting throughout your book. The Chicago Manual of Style is a variety of styles and book design elements that are considered ‘rules’. Your book designer or formatter should follow these rules to format your book successfully.
At Author Services Australia, our formatting team closely follows CMoS recommendations. While it’s sometimes good to think outside of the box with your book, the book design and formatting area should follow industry standards. It’s okay to be a pioneer and look at changes to the norm. However, CMoS guidelines are widely used because they directly impact the reader experience. The last thing you want is to make your book harder to read.
The Different Elements Involved In Professional Book Design. Let’s Learn About Front Matter!
The first part of the book design and formatting process is the front matter. Your book will incorporate many of these different front-matter options, but not necessarily all of them. Authors won’t use all front matter elements. Specific components of front matter aren’t always necessary. It’s based on your book’s genre.
In the table below, we have a brief explanation of some of the front matter that you can incorporate into your book design:
Name of Front Matter |
Voice | Its Purpose |
Half Title |
Publisher | A plain page that precedes your title page and displays only the title of your book. |
Frontispiece |
Author or Publisher | Either a decorative illustration or image opposite the title page. It ties into the book’s theme, but most authors replace it with a list of previous works. |
Title Page |
Publisher | Repeats the title and author from the cover and usually incorporates elements of the cover or book design. You can also add publisher details, publication location, and publication date. |
Colophon |
Publisher and Printer | They are otherwise known (left-hand) side of the title page, on the verso (left) of the title page, or placed at the back of the book. It should contain all relevant copyright information, print dates, author, printer, and publisher information. |
Dedication Page |
Author | Your dedication page should appear before the main body of the text. It’s not compulsory, but an excellent way to thank people who have contributed to your book. |
Epigraph |
Author | This could be a poem, quotation, or phrase, and can serve as your preface or summary. |
Table of Contents |
Publisher | Your table of contents will include chapter headings, sometimes nested subheadings, and the appropriate corresponding page number. |
Foreword |
Someone other than the author | Your foreword is usually an introduction to the book or story written by someone other than the author. It could explain what’s going to happen in the book or the book’s relevance compared to other subject matter. |
Preface |
Author | Your preface is usually written as a story about how the book came to be or how the idea for the book originated. It can include a thank you to your contributors. |
Acknowledgments |
Author | These are sometimes included in the preface or placed at the back of the book. It’s another way to acknowledge the people who contributed to the book’s creation. |
Introduction |
Author | Your introduction page should state the goals and purpose of your book for the readers. |
Prologue |
The narrator or a character from the book | They are mostly used in fiction and narrative non-fiction books. A good prologue will establish the book’s setting and background details and tie the book’s theme together. |
The Next Part of Book Design is the Body Matter or Body Text
The following definitions will help to explain the book design and formatting process of the body text or body matter:
-
-
-
-
-
- Volumes – A volume is a set of pages that are bound together. Every book is either a single volume or several volumes combined into one volume.
- Books & Parts – Single-volume books account for most of the non-academic books that you’re going to see or read. Books can consist of multiple volumes or parts to form a single large series.
- Chapters & Sections – Most books are made up of multiple chapters or sections. Sections are within chapters.
- Modules & Units – In some books that you read, you’ll find chapters that are grouped to form modules. In educational books and textbooks, authors organize chapters into units.
-
-
-
-
The first page of your book is called the opening page. Many authors choose to incorporate special book design elements on their opening page or the first page of every chapter. In book design and formatting, this is known as decor. You usually choose décor that suits the theme of your book or matches previous books in the same series.
The Final Part of Your Interior Design is the Back Matter
The last part of the book design and formatting process is the back matter. Sometimes referred to as end matter, the back matter of your book or manuscript may incorporate some or all of these different elements:
| Name of Back Matter | Voice | Its Purpose |
Epilogue |
The Narrator or Character from the Book | Usually found at the end of a fiction book, the epilogue summarizes the story by one of the characters or the narrator. |
Outro or Extro |
Author | The opposite of an introduction is the book’s conclusion. |
Afterword |
Author | The afterword usually contains how the story came to be or how the idea for the book was developed. |
Conclusion |
Author | The conclusion of your book. It should summarize what the book covered. |
Appendix or Addendum |
Author | The appendix may explain further details from parts of the book or correct any errors. |
Glossary |
Author | A list of definitions or words that are important to the work. Most commonly alphabetized. It could contain characters, places, or terms. |
Bibliography |
Author | Primarily found in research and non-fiction books, the bibliography is a list of works cited in the book. |
Index |
Publisher | Primarily used in non-fiction books, the index is a list of terms found in the books. |
Colophon |
Publisher | Otherwise known as the copyright page. It can be on the verso (left-hand) side of the title page or at the back of the book. Should contain all relevant copyright information, print dates, author, printer, and publisher information. |
Book Design Australia, Everything You Ever Wanted To Learn! | Conclusion
We hope this helps break down and explain the book design and formatting process, as well as some of the elements that make up professional book design. Incorporating these elements, especially décor, into your printed books can be quite difficult, but they’re definitely worthwhile.
Ebooks and paperbacks each have their own rules. You can’t always incorporate interior elements from a print book into an ebook. For example, footnotes become endnotes in an ebook. Ebooks will automatically generate a table of contents. Full links in a print book automatically become a hyperlink in an ebook. Ebooks include a front cover, but print books don’t, so it’s essential to know the difference.
If you have any questions about the self-publishing process, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team is standing by to turn your dream into a reality.
At Author Services Australia, we support Australian and New Zealand self-published authors and writers with a full range of affordable self-publishing services, including ghostwriting, copyediting, developmental editing, proofreading, ebook and paperback formatting, book cover design, children’s book illustrations, graphic design services, Amazon KDP Keyword and Category Research, manuscript uploading assistance, animated book cover reveal videos, and social media and marketing.
Book Design References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_design
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tschichold
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/
https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/book-layout-basics
https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2014/04/25/how-to-self-publish-your-book-through-amazon/
Hi Clayton, do you have a service for printing books other than books for children?
Hi David, we don’t print books ourselves. However, we can assist you with file preparation for self-publishing sites. There’s also some great printers in Australia. We’ve had several clients report good feedback using BA Printing and Publishing Services who are based in Sydney.