Layout & Design

Your Book's Cover

As part of the WingSpan Publication Packages, you have access to our book cover templates. These are attractive and professional, and will give your book a good look and feel. But there is no denying that a cover professionally-designed just for your book gives you the best chance in the marketplace. The cover catches the eye, sets the tone, and gives the reader a sense of what they're in for.

Quality counts with reviewers and readers alike. Whether you use a basic template or hire a professional, don't sacrifice here. Full color is a must. Two-color covers fairly shout ‘self-published.’

Your book cover may wind up in flyers, catalogs, on web sites, and on bookmarks and postcards. It should be readable and attractive at any size. Most catalog listings will be in black & white, and reduced in size. Make sure your cover image has sharp wording and good contrast.

Don't sacrifice prime marketing space on the back cover for your bio and photo unless you are well-known as an author or as an expert in your industry, or unless you are uniquely qualified to write about your topic. It might be good for your ego, but it won't sell books. You can always include your bio on an inside page. Readers will be more interested in knowing something about you after they've enjoyed your book.

If you add the offset option, be sure to get extras and overruns of your cover to send with your promo materials or to your distributor. They make great flyers. In fact, most distributors call on bookstores with just covers, not books.

Here's an excellent PMA (Publisher's Marketing Association) article by David Cole that gives a great overview of good cover design.

You can select one of our stock cover templates to work from, or visit our services page to find out about WingSpan's cover design services.

Interior Layout

The interior layout of your book has a more subtle impact on readers than your cover. A clean, professional layout shows that care went into the production of the book. A sloppy layout leaves the the reader think that you may have been careless in your writing as well. The layout also greatly affects readability. Font style, font size and leading (the space between lines)all make a difference in the ease with which the eye moves over text.

We recommend serif fonts like Garamond, Book Antiqua, Bookman Old Style, or New Century Schoolbook, with a font size of 11pt, and leading of 13pt, i.e. there is a 2pt space between lines of text.

The leading is set in MS Word by selecting Format, then Paragraph; under Line Spacing, choose 'exactly', and set the 'at' value to 13.

While layout can be done in word processing programs like MS Word, they are not designed to handle professional layout. The rules by which text is justified in Word are very simple, and will likely leave big holes between words. If you have photographs, charts or other visuals in your text, and do not have access to a program specifically designed for layout, such as Adobe InDesign or Quark Xpress, you will probably want to hire a professional to do your layout and interior design.

WingSpan offers several basic layout templates which are designed using the most common styles found in books today. These work well if your book is text-only. We also offer professional layout and design services.

The WingSpan Extended Publication Package includes both cover and layout for your book.

II. Timeline
& Budget
IV. Begin
Promotion