Continued.... Three traps that many authors fall into when laying out a book are

1. Using too large a typeface,

2. Leaving too small a margin around the text.

3. Choosing a quirky or inappropriate typeface

When choosing a typeface, have pity on the reader. Make it a clear and easy on the eye as possible.

Make a point of looking at other books for ideas on layout, typefaces and design. There is plenty of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly to choose from. Never forget, if you take all your ideas from one place, that is plagiarism. If you take your ideas from many sources, that is research. Do plenty of research!

Step Three - The Cover

The cover is what sells your book. It needs to be eye catching and convey to the potential buyer everything they need to know to allow them to part with their money. There are three parts to the cover; the front, the spine and the back. Each has a role to play in the sales process. The front cover should be big on impact, and taking full advantage of a full colour, striking image and the minimum amount of text.

The back cover on the other hand is what people will turn over and read. This is where you should put a précis of the contents, written in such a way as to make it irresistible. You might want to include a few words about the author and even a photo. At the bottom of the back cover needs to be space for a bar code, the publishers imprint and the price.

Lastly, don't overlook the importance of the spine. The title should be easily read and needs to be as big as you can get it. When the book in sitting on a shelf, this is the only way you can identify it. In addition to the title, you should also have the authors name and the publishers imprint.

Technical Specification

Once all your design and layout work is complete, your need to output it in a form that is compatible with the Print on Demand process. This is as follows;

Text files need to be centred onto portrait A4 with no crop marks

A Postscript files for text should be created using Adobe Acrobat PDF) at 600dpi, greyscale or black. All text pages are printed in Monochrome.

Colour pates add £10 per colour page in set up costs and a 15p per page to the print cost.

Minimum number of pages 56, maximum 740

Cover files should be centered onto landscape A3 with no crop marks

Cover artwork can be at 300dpi, not colour separated with a 3mm bleed on all trim edges.

Spine width is calculated as the total number of pages x 0.054mm

Covers are printed in full colour on a 250gsm Invercote board. Text paper is 80gsm standard Vol 12.5. This can be increased to 80gsm Bookwove Vol 18 but this does add a further 10% to the print cost.

The binding process is Perfect Bound.