Anyone can design a book, right? In this age of keyboard warriors and desktop publishing, why would you need a professional typesetter?
One word: Quality
If you try to DIY or find a cheap freelancer to typeset your book, you may not get a professional-looking book. If there’s one thing that screams self-published it’s terrible layout and poor graphic design. We are flexible at PMBO, but we will usually encourage everyone sending a book to print to get it professionally designed (cover and interior).
Writers who are planning to go straight from a Word document to ebook formats are encouraged to consider our manuscript formatting service. Without it, your ebook runs the risk of looking drab and unprofessional. This is especially important for non-fiction.
Most Word documents lack professional editing, formatting or both. Even if they have been formatted properly, it is only at the book design stage that the following can be properly considered:
- Page size and the relation of content on left and right pages on the spread
- Spacing, consistent and attractive (eg. around headings and changes from one type of paragraph to another)
- Margins, including increased gutter margins for the fold down the centre of the book
- Widows and orphans
- Fonts: choosing the best typeface and text size for readability and aesthetics, in print and on-screen
- Master pages, chapter lead page design, page numbering, etc.
- Tracking, leading and kerning
- Images—sourcing the right image at the right quality, photoshopping it and placing it with the right amount of spacing around it, deep-etching those (remove from background) that need to overlap other objects, clever use of imagery in subtle places that suit the design concept and art direction of your book.
Why choose PMBO for book design?
We have designed more than a hundred books for print, and we have the experience to communicate with you and typeset your book properly for print-on-demand or offset book printing. We can create or modify graphics for your book, including technical vector images, sketches, diagrams, cartoons and other kinds of illustrations.
Please view some examples from our portfolio of books designed for print.
How to choose a good book designer
Look for a book designer who has done similar books to your, or who is confident they understand your brief. For a free comment and quote on taking your manuscript into InDesign and making it ready for print, please upload your document to Dropbox and send us the link via the Contact Us page.
Self-publishing articles you may be interested in
Feedback about our book design
“I appreciate everything you did in putting this project together for me and the final product is amazing. I'm very satisfied with the book and so grateful for your expertise and professionalism.I’ve never done anything like this before and to see it all come together, and to have the book in my hands is surreal.”—Bill Fischer
“Thank you so much for your help. You and your team have done an amazing job with the ebook. I love how it looks and how simple and easy it is to view on the iPad as well on iBook[s] on the iPhone. It has always been a dream of mine to share my love of healthy food with others and wouldn't have done it without your help. You have been very honest with your work as well as patient since the beginning."—H. G. author of My Healthy Appetite
“Thank you so much for your support and efforts during this time. We really appreciate it and would never have realised our goal of launching our book without your help. Thank you...”—Abrams & Elliott, authors of an erotica series.
“I cannot stress how grateful I am to have come across your company even though we both reside in different states. I trusted my instincts from the beginning and I'm glad I didn't hesitate with my decision. Once again thank you so very much, I would also like to thank Julia for her hard work and patience. She has turned what I love into something special.”—H. G. author of My Healthy Appetite
Thank you so very much for your prompt responses and all your generous guidance through the entire process!"—Ryan R. (author)
"It could have been a nightmare trying to self-publish my novel, but working with the highly professional and experienced team at Publish My Book Online sure made it a lot easier. The finished product is still very much my own, but I'm sure it's a lot more polished than I could ever have achieved without their help."—Chris Robbins, author of Drowning in a Sea of Duplicity