Today I’d like you all to welcome Joel Friedlander of The Book Designer.com. If you’ve ever wondered what makes a book look like a book, then grab yourself a cup of coffee and pull up a chair because this is a subject near and dear to my own heart. Book design is an art form in itself and sometimes it takes a little more than Word…

Interested in doing your own book design? Why not? Lots of self-publishers are choosing to save money and join the fast-growing ranks of “Do-it-Yourselfers” (DIY).

Of course, before you jump into this exciting new business, take a look at the kinds of software you might need to take on your own book production.

How Low Can You Go?
Okay, I’m going to assume that, since you’re a writer, and you are reading this article, you own a computer and you have some kind of word-processing software you use.

For a lot of people, that software is Microsoft Word. Others might be using the free Open Office, which creates Word-compatible files. And there are a lot of others. The point is, you already own the software you used to create your book. Why not use it to publish your book as well?

Many people follow this path. Some of the author-services companies, like Lulu.com, have templates that you can download to help you set up a Word file so that it looks something like a book. This is a viable alternative for casual self-publishing or for creating ebooks.

But Will My Book Look “Real”?
But notice I said your book will “look something like a book” and there’s a reason for that. We’re used to reading books that have been put together by professionals, using high-end equipment and programs.

In fact, we’re so used to this high level of book making, we really notice when something doesn’t look quite as good. That’s the danger you run when you try to do your book with word processing software that, no matter how many features it has, isn’t really meant for book design. And the book you produce stands a good chance of disappointing you if you thought it was going to look like the last book from Random House.

I’m not saying there aren’t people out there who master Word to such an extent that they can make it sit up and beg for a cookie, and whose books might look just fine. What I am saying is that most of the books I’ve seen produced with word processing software fall well short of where they ought to be.

Taking It To The Next Level

Well, what does it take to produce a book that really looks like a book? Here’s a look at the software I use to create books, with the part each plays in the production process. You might not need all this software, but this will give you a way to judge for yourself.

• Layout software – Adobe InDesign – This is the basis for my book design projects, the place where the content from all other sources is brought together, arranged into books, and prepared for output of every kind. This high-level software contains functions for ensuring uniformity through master pages, paragraph styles, character styles, color profiles and a huge degree of refinement in settings affecting typography, image manipulation and document design.
• Graphics software – Adobe Photoshop – You won’t need this software if you only plan to do a book interior that’s all type with no graphics, illustrations, photographs or other kind of illustrational material. But if you have any of those elements, or if you’re producing book covers as well, you’ll need graphic software to create, modify, scale and otherwise prepare graphics for printing. Essential if you are working with photographs.
• Illustration software – Adobe Illustrator – I use illustrator to create vector graphics, charts, info graphics, logos and special type treatments.
• Text processing software – Microsoft Word and Text Wrangler – Word is the defacto standard for word processing, and it serves a valuable function in being able to open many types of files. Word has a robust search and reface function, essential for preparing huge book files for the layout process. And sometimes you just need a plain text editor. I use text wrangler, but there are many on the market, and Windows comes with text edit, Apple OS with text edit.
• File creation software – Adobe Acrobat & Distiller – The printing and publishing industries have settled on Adobe’s PDF format as a vehicle for preparing and transmitting reproduction files. In order to prepare, modify, inspect and package these files, I use Acrobat. Some printers require PDF files created in a multi-step process in which pure Postscript files are output from your layout software, then processed into PDFs by Acrobat’s Distiller software.

Well, that’s quite a list. From a simple word processor to a whole suite of specialized and integrated software, you have here everything you would need to produce the quickest DIY book, to the most complex illustrated coffee table book.

Joel Friedlander is the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, a publishing services company in San Rafael, California that has launched many self-publishers. Joel is a book designer, a self-published author, and blogs about publishing and book design at TheBookDesigner.com.

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