What is book design, and how do I work with a book designer? Your questions answered.

If you’re an author in the process of getting ready to publish your book, the topic of book design has no doubt come up at some point. If you have a traditional publishing deal, the publisher will likely deal with the design process for you. But if you’re self-publishing, then you’re dealing with all aspects of the production process yourself, including book design. In this blog, we’ll talk you through what book design is and isn’t, as well as whether to work with a book designer and how best to work with them, answering the most common questions we get from authors.

What is book design?

Simply put, it’s the process of turning your basic Microsoft Word document or Google Docs file into a designed, formatted, print-ready PDF that can be uploaded to self-publishing platforms such as Amazon KDP or IngramSpark—or sent to printing companies. The end result is a printed, bound book in your hands or readers’ hands. 

Who does book design?

In book design, there are three roles: book designer, cover designer, and typesetter. Broadly speaking, a book designer creates the exterior cover and interior layout, a typesetter is more technical and designs the interior, and a cover designer designs just the exterior. At traditional publishers, the design process is typically split into separate cover designers and typesetters. With self-publishing, there are many designers who do both covers and interiors. To make it easier, when we refer to “book designers” here, we mean both cover designers and typesetters.

What does a book designer focus on?

Book designers focus on the reader’s visual experience, which includes fonts, colours, images, line spacing, margins, and so on. However, there is no “one size fits all” approach to book design because different types of readers have different needs and preferences. For example, someone reading an academic textbook will have different preferences to someone reading a cookbook. While there are general principles such as ensuring consistency of styles and correctness of technical aspects such as margins, the focus is on meeting the reader’s needs.

As such, each genre has its own general “standards” for covers and interiors, but you will find further variation if you dig down to individual publisher or book level. So, if you compare literary fiction to romance, textbooks to cookbooks, you will notice general standards but also variation in font size, font choices, line spacing, and so on depending on the publisher or the book.

How are books designed?

There are two methods of book design. The first is “template design”, which traditional publishers use for the majority of books, and these templates are based on the genre standards and the publisher’s house style guide. With template designs, the author gets very little say in how the book appears as the publisher has already decided on these aspects. The second is “bespoke design”, which is much more time-consuming as it requires individual decisions to be made on every aspect of the design. With self-publishing, authors can hire a book designer to do template or bespoke design. In the case of template design, it may be possible to request minor modifications to font choices, images, and colours. With bespoke design, it’s generally possible to change anything and everything.

How does bespoke design work?

With bespoke designs, they are created from scratch based on the author’s brief, reference points such as book designs the author likes, and genre standards. While a book designer will offer input on the technical aspects of book design and genre standards, and flag anything that might be a poor choice, bespoke design is an author-led process as authors know their readers best. As such, the author sets the creative direction for the book and makes the decisions.

Which should I choose?

If you’re self-publishing, there are a few things to consider, like do you wish to make the decisions, and do you wish to retain creative control? With template design, most of the decisions are already made for you based on the genre standards. This method is therefore best for authors who want someone to make the decisions and take most of the control. With bespoke design, you are the decision-maker, and while your designer can offer feedback and suggestions, it’s ultimately up to you to choose what vision you want for your book. This method is therefore best for authors who want to make the decisions and retain creative control.

When should I start working with a book designer?

To avoid annoying your designer (and costing yourself extra time and money), you need to be ready to work with them. If you’re still deliberating over the writing or editing, don’t be tempted to get a designer to create the whole book. It’s generally okay to create a design sample, but if they create the full book and you then change the content, structure, or wording, this means that they have to rework their original version, and in some cases may require them to do the whole book from scratch again.

How best do I work with a book designer?

To get the best out of a book designer, you need to be clear about what you want. With template design, this means choosing which template you want (if they offer options) and specifying any minor changes you’d like. Note that this doesn’t mean “I don’t like this font so choose a better one”—it means be specific about which of the 200,000 fonts in the world you want. With bespoke design, you need to be clear on the creative direction and specify what you’d like for every aspect of the design. The clearer and more specific you are, the better job your designer will do. Ultimately, the final design is a reflection of how clearly you are able to communicate your creative vision and preferences to the designer.

What if I want someone to set the creative direction for me?

If you want bespoke design but don’t want to set the creative direction or make the decisions, then a book designer may not be the right person to work with. In general, book designers do not set the creative direction; they create what the author has asked for. In this case, you may be better to seek a traditional publishing deal, where the publisher will take more control of the creative process, but be aware that you may get very little say in how your book appears. 

What if I’m a designer, should I design my own book?

If you’re a designer and have a clear vision for your book, then it makes sense to create your own design rather than trying to explain your wishes to a designer, as there are always gaps when using words to explain visual concepts. Though to ensure that the book design follows the genre standards and is formatted correctly from a technical standpoint, you may wish to seek feedback from a book designer once you have created the initial design. 
If you have any questions about book design, feel free to get in touch with us here.