Book designers usually charge by the page, so you’ll need to estimate your book’s page count. But how can you come up with an accurate estimate by looking at your Word document?

There is no hard and fast formula because it depends on the trim size (page size) of the book, as well as font choice, font size, leading (space between lines of type), margins, and graphics. But here’s a very rough guideline for approximating page count based on various trim sizes. Please note that you can use this guideline to get a ballpark cost estimate from your designer, and then the designer’s final invoice will be based on actual page count.

First, find the character count in Word by going to “Word Count” under the “Tools” menu and looking for “Characters – with spaces.”

Then, figure the estimated page count. Divide your total character count by the characters-per-page number listed below for your chosen trim size:

5″ x 8″ trim = 1,400 characters per page
5.5″ x 8.5″ = 1,800 characters per page
6″ x 9″ = 2,100 characters per page

The best way to set up a Word document is to give each heading a style and name. So from the main heading down to sub-headings, they would be named
A Head
B Head
C Head
D Head
E Head

or something similar.

You can decide what style each heading has. So, for instance:
A Head = 30 pt. Times Bold Centered
B Head = 22 pt. Arial Bold Centered
C Head = 16 pt. Times Bold Left
D Head = 12 pt. Times Bold Italic Left
E Head = 10 pt. Arial Bold All Caps

(Just a quick example)

The point is that you select each heading and give it a style name.

When the typesetter/book designer imports the Word doc into InDesign or Quark, they will give all the headings different styles & fonts. But it will be easy for them to know what level of heading each one is b/c you’ve set up the style names.

So, it’s not important what particular font you use. What’s important is that you give each heading a style name. Without styles in the Word doc, the book designer might typeset the headings at the wrong level. They might confuse a Level C head with a Level D head in the manuscript if they are both in the default “Normal” style, even if they look different.

Using style sheets in Word will save you and the book designer lots of time, and it will ensure that your book is formatted correctly.

Richard Hendel says:

Designers are to books what architects are to buildings. Designers write specifications for making books just as architects write them for constructing buildings. Even the most seemingly mundane detail needs to be decided, and it is just these tiny particulars that make a design successful. The parts of the book that are most ignored by readers are the ones that often need the most attention from the designer . . . The author’s words are the heart of book design. To solve the design problem for a book, a designer needs to know both what an author is saying (what a book is about) and how it is being said (the actual words being used).
On Book Design by Richard Hendel, p. 33

When I read Hendel’s words, I am in total agreement and I want to add that the relationship between the designer and the author is important. Not only is the designer working with the nuts and bolts of picas and points and margins and folios (I’ll provide a glossary on this blog soon), but the designer is also interpreting the author’s words visually on the page.

So the self-publishing author and designer must have a rapport, an ability to communicate and understand each other.

You’re happily tooling along, setting up marketing gigs while the designer is typesetting your book, when suddenly you realize . . . you need to print review galleys! You didn’t think of that before, and now you need them yesterday. You’re reading the guidelines of the media reviewers, and you discover that you must send them a review copy of your book three months before the release date!

Or you’ve arranged to print the book by a certain deadline. Then an editing issue holds the book up, and you don’t get the manuscript to the designer on time. But you still need the book printed by the same date as originally planned. Do you just send it to the designer and hope they can get it done faster (without charging you a rush fee)?

How the heck does all this work, anyway? What are all the steps involved in producing a book?

Sample Production Schedule PDF
The answer is in the production schedule. You create this with the designer AT THE VERY BEGINNING so there won’t be any surprises. Click on the link right above this paragraph for a sample schedule. This will show you the steps that a self-published book typically goes through, and how long each step typically takes. As the book goes through these steps, the dates are adjusted to reflect the actual timeline so you can see if you’re staying on track.

After your designer finishes typesetting your book, they will send you a PDF for the first round of proofing. If your PDF view is set up to show single pages instead of two-page spreads, it will be hard to tell why certain pages are blank. Change the PDF view, and you’ll see that the blank pages are always on the left. They will be totally blank ­— no headers, no footers, no page numbers.

This is because, in most books, the chapters and sections start on the right-hand page. What you’re seeing in your PDF is actually both sides of each page, or both sides of each sheet of paper. The left-hand side, or back side, of the sheet is called the verso page. The right-hand side, or the front of the sheet, is called the recto page.

When we read a book, it’s natural to start a new chapter or section on the right. We don’t even notice the blank verso page before the chapter opener. But on a computer screen, the blank pages in a series of typeset pages is glaringly obvious. Some authors just can’t stand to leave it blank, so they put quotes or little stories on those pages. That’s fine, but it really isn’t necessary; in fact, it’s easier on the eyes to have some white space to break up the text.

The other place you might find blank pages is at the end of your book. This is because the printer lays out the pages in “signatures,” and the book designer needs to add blank pages to create even signatures. A full signature, or “sig,” is 32 pages, a half-sig is 16 pages, and a quarter-sig is 8 pages. (Most printers will allow a 4-page sig, but it increases the printing cost.) Your designer will make sure the page count adds up to a multiple of 8. BTW, this is the total page count of the book, starting from the very first page, not the first numbered page.

So when you proof that PDF, know that the blank pages are intentional. It might look funny on screen, but the printed book will look good.

­I’m launching this blog at midnight on 7/7/07 and nothing has been going right around here. So I thought I’d go with the flow and itemize 7 things that can go wrong with your book if you aren’t careful. Some of them can happen even if you are careful! Why am I adding to your worries? Am I trying to torture you? You’ve been sweating over every word of your book for months, and you’re finally getting ready to publish it, and I come along and tell you horror stories.

Wait! There’s a method to my madness. I’m on your side — I don’t want bad things to happen to your book; in fact, I’m here to help you produce a beautiful, professional-looking book that will sell like crazy.

These 7 things will make you crazy if you don’t work with your designer to head them off. Here’s a list of errors that have shown up in real books by real people (some of the examples are from projects I’ve worked on), followed by best practices to keep them from happening to your book.

1. Title or author name misspelled on the cover
Think that couldn’t possibly happen? Think again! If Ms. Magazine can spell “feminism” wrong on the cover, the rest of us better not get too lackadaisical. It’s easy to miss something so obvious b/c our brains naturally fill in the blanks and we “see” the word as it’s supposed to be. We can learn from other peoples’ mistakes — in this case, Ms. mag — and make sure we proof every single word. Even the words we assume are right.

2. Text reflow
The best way to save time and money is to provide the interior book designer with the final, edited manuscript. If you end up rewriting the text or making substantial edits after the book is typeset, the text will reflow. If, for example, you add two long paragraphs to page 7, the designer must adjust everything from that page until the end of the book. Graphics, charts, and tables must be moved. Chapter openers might also be moved. It can get expensive.

3. Wrong page numbers in the index
This can be avoided by saving the index until the very last. When I work on a book with a client, we go through at least one round of corrections. Sometimes a few rounds are needed to catch all typos and grammatical errors. Sometimes the author needs to rewrite a passage. Text can reflow from one page to the next after a correction is made. If the index is completed before the final corrections are done, it’s possible that the page numbers could end up being wrong in the index. It’s tempting to put the indexer to work before the book is ready, especially when there’s a tight deadline. But an index with the wrong page numbers is worse than no index at all, and you’ll be living with the consequences a lot longer than you’ll remember the delay in deadline.

4. Falling behind schedule
Producing a book is a collaboration of several people — the team includes author(s), editors, proofreaders, designers, possibly an illustrator, a photographer, and the printer. The author may be the production manager, or a designer may fill that role. The key to understanding schedules is this: if one part of the process is delayed or takes longer than planned, the rest of the schedule is also delayed. It’s like dominoes. This may seem obvious, but when you’re in the middle of it, it’s easy to lose sight of this reality and hope that you can still meet the final deadline. Sometimes it’s possible to pick up the slack and get back on track, but it takes clear and open communication to make that happen.

5. Images with the “jaggies”
When the project starts, talk to your designer about your graphics. Send her one or two of your digital images so she can find out right
away if they’ll work. Graphics for print must have a higher resolution than graphics on a computer screen. You can’t take an image from a website and print it unless you don’t care if it’s blurry and pixelated (has the jaggies). Likewise, photos must be scanned at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) or resized from 72 dpi in a digital camera to 300 dpi. If your eyes are glazing over at this technical stuff, don’t worry. That’s what you hire a designer for.

6. Photos look bad
A good designer will also know how to enhance your photos so they print well. The designer will work with the printer to set up the correct specs on the photo files. One variable is how much the ink soaks into or stays on top of the paper you’ve chosen. Other variables are contrast, tone, brightness, and/or color. Know that you will see proofs from the printer before the book is printed, and if any of the photos are questionable, you can get high-quality proofs of single pages to see exactly how the photos will print.

7. Missing pages
When I was production manager at a small press, we inherited a book with a section missing. The previous staff had the missing section printed and inserted into each book. Fortunately, this has never happened to any projects I’ve worked on. We always go through the printers’ proofs carefully, and would notice any missing pages at that point. If the printer were to make a mistake after we approved the proofs, they would have to reprint the books. I always work with reputable printers that specialize in books, and we have good working relationships. Sometimes a printer will make a mistake — it does happen. It’s how they handle it that’s important.

And how we handle the ups & downs of book production as a team is what’s important. Invest in good people with integrity and experience, and you’ll end up with a book you’ll be proud of.