When writers think about self-publishing, they think about the writing, they think about the cover, they think about the marketing plan.
They don’t often think about interior design. And yet this is one of the most important steps that saves a professional-looking book from looking amateurish.
If there’s only one takeaway you get from this post, let it be this one: DON’T NEGLECT YOUR INTERIOR DESIGN.
Pay someone to do this
Barring a serious money crunch or if you’re passionate about design and want to go DIY, I’d highly recommend hiring an interior designer to help you.
It’s not typically very expensive and they’ll save you from having to get deep into the formatting weeds. By all accounts, this always ends up being trickier and more time consuming than you want it to be. There are several different e-book and print formats and you’ll need files for each of them.
Finding someone with an eye for interior design is key. You may well be able to figure out how to export your book into the right formats for self-publishing, but are you going to choose a good font? Are you going to manage some of the formatting quirks within your book so everything looks polished?
I hired someone when self-publishing my guide to writing a novel, and it’s one of the best decisions I made. The interior looks clean and polished in any format and also looks unique rather than cookie-cutter:
Need some help finding an interior designer? Reach out to me and I’ll try to help.
Otherwise…
DIY options
There are more options for formatting your own interior design than ever.
Word processing programs like Scrivener, Pages and even good old-fashioned Microsoft Word will let you format and export your book into both e-book and print-friendly formats.
Sites like Reedsy have exporting options, programs like Vellum let you customize your design (via Ira Heinichen), and Amazon has a formatting service for Kindle.
What’s the best? Well, it kind of depends on the program you’re starting with and how deep you want to get into the weeds.
Rather than giving you a rundown of every single option out there, my recommendation is to start with the word processing program you’re most comfortable with and then research how to make the leap from that format into the e-book and print formats you’re planning to publish in.
At the end of the day, writing is harder than e-book formatting so I’d prioritize comfort on the writing side.
Don’t neglect your interior formatting
Once again for the rafters: Your interior formatting will make a world of difference in the professionalism of your self-publishing effort.
Don’t skimp on this step.
Any advice or battle scars? Share them in the comments!
Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and consultations! And if you like this post, check out my guide to writing a novel.
Art: Interior of the St Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle by Ludvík Kohl
Amen! And, fellow authors etc., please make the font reasonably BIG in the print version. I’ve refused to buy several recent bestsellers because of their tiny print. When I see young people squinting at their ‘smart’-phones I worry about their future eyesight.
Nathan’s website, Forums, and books are good examples of clear and simple design.
What great advice!!! The road has been so bumpy on my first self-pub, but I will persevere. A formatter fallen off the grid with a pretty well known company, 3 different formatting issues, and having to buy books from an insta quick printer, but I’m still in! I’m working on my short story collection, hopefully I’ll be done in July. Thanks for the insight and oh so important words about the interior!
THIS. I’ve seen a couple of really nicely written books from friends utterly ruined by bad interior design. One guy (who I edited at a magazine back in the day, and who is a great writer) actually forgot page numbers in his book. Another writer I know, who is actually on the editorial staff of a local weekly, put spaces between paragraphs of her book and made a bad choice for text font. It made the book look like the work of an amateur, which this person clearly is not. So PLEASE people, bite the bullet and pay an experienced interior book designer… NOT your friend who sort of knows MS Word.
My experiences in this area concur with everything written by Nathan and the commentators.
Hi Nathan, thanks for the great article! btw i’m keen to know what is the title of that beautiful classical painting (and the name of the artist?) used as illustration in your article please? thanks ! 🙂
It’s at the bottom of the post: “Art: Interior of the St Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle by Ludvík Kohl”
that’s a nice painting thanks ! 🙂 ????????