1.) How do I layout my book pages and cover?
If you are planning to create your own “Print Ready” PDF files for your book pages and book cover, it’s important that your document is properly formatted. The following FAQ’s will guide your through setting up your manuscript for production and creating “print ready” files.
Please note, that for a small fee, we can format your pages and design your cover for you.
2.) How big should I make my pages?
Make your pages the same size as your book. For example, if you require a 6x9 book, set your page size in your word processor to 6x9 inches.
3.) How big should my manuscript margins (trim area) be?
Leave at least .5" margins on all your pages. You should also have a additional gutter of .25” on the spine edge of the page. A gutter provides a little bit of extra margin on the spine edge of your pages, making your book easier to read without putting too much stress on the spine.
This means that all images and text, including headers and footers have to be with in these margins, or they risk being cut in the trimming process.
4.) How do I create a table of contents?
The ease with which you can create a table of contents will be directly related to how well you know the intricacies of your word processing program. Microsoft Word, Works, Word Perfect and Open Office all have the capacity to create tables of contents, but some writers still find it more expedient to create them manually.
Two rules apply to tables of contents, regardless of which software you use.
First, you should give the table of contents page its own title called "Contents."
Second, your table of contents page should be located after the Copyright page, Dedication page and Preface page.
5.) How should my book start?
Your book should start with a title page, followed by the copyright page. The title page typically includes the book title, subtitle, name of publisher and author. The copyright page must contain Copyright © followed by the year and name of who the copyright is filed under. Example: title page and copyright page.
Listing the publisher (your name) and printer on the copyright page is standard in the book publishing industry.
6.) How much bleed should I leave on my pages?
If your manuscript contains bleed, ensure the bleed elements exceed the page size by 1/8”
7.) How big should I make my cover?
Your cover should contain three elements: “Front Cover Image”, “Back Cover Image” and “Spine”
When you lay out your cover it should be TWICE the width of the finished book, plus the spine.
As an example, if your finished book is 6 x 9 and the spine thickness is ½ inch, simply double the width of your book and add ½ inch. In this example, your cover size would be 12.5” x 9.
8.) How much bleed should I leave on my cover file?
If your cover contains bleed, ensure the bleed elements exceed the trim size by 1/8”
9.) How much “trim” should I have on my covers?
Please avoid placing any important elements of your cover design within 1/8” of the edges -- as this will accentuate any discrepancies in trimming alignment.
10.) How do I calculate the spine size?
The formula for spine thickness with 60lb paper is (# of pages) X .00225 inches.
For example: A 100 page book would have a spine size of 0.225”
11.) How do I make my Manuscript and Cover files into a print ready PDF?
Now that you've done all this work making your files look great and getting them ready for print, there's one thing left to do….make your native files into a PDF file.
PDF files will overcome many of the traditional problems a printer will face with native files. Native files tend to be large and cumbersome and often are missing fonts or graphics. This creates all sorts of printing problems and delays. PDF files avoid these concerns as they contain all the necessary fonts and graphics, are smaller files, and are platform, application, and device independent.
We highly recommend using Adobe Acrobat to convert your book to a PDF. Acrobat can be purchased from Adobe (http://www.adobe.com) or any software retailer.
If you do not want to buy the software, try these options:
- Adobe offers an online subscription service that allows you to pay a fee to turn a set number of documents into PDF files (http://createpdf.adobe.com).
- CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com/) is a free PDF-creation program
- PDF Creator is installed as a printer driver. To create a PDF, open your document, then print to the PDF Creator "printer." The result is a PDF file.
- Another free PDF maker is PDF995
Important Notes:
1) When 'Downsample Images' use 300 dpi. Lower resolutions (200 dpi) than this will provide poor quality, higher resolutions are automatically reset to 300 dpi.
2) Select 'Always embed all fonts.'
After your PDF file is completed, we recommend that you view the file to ensure it is complete and correct in all aspects, then send it to us for printing.
12.) My PDF file is low-resolution. How do I fix that?
There are settings within your PDF creation program (e.g. Acrobat Distiller) that determine how much to 'downsample' your file to in a lower resolution. This is feature is handy for website and Internet graphics, but for printed material it can be horrible. Either use one of Adobe's pre-set settings ('Print' or 'Press' work fine), or change the settings yourself within Distiller to downsample NO LOWER THAN 300 dpi for color and grayscale images (photos), NO LOWER THAN 1200 dpi for monochrome images (line art), and INCLUDE(EMBED) ALL FONTS.
13.) Which file formats do you accept?
If you are supplying print ready files, please send all file in PDF format.
If Bookmark Self Publishing is handling the layout and/or cover design, we can accept the following formats.
Manuscript text and Interiors
Quark, InDesign, MS Word, Wordperfect
Covers and Graphics
Quark, InDesign, Photoshop, Corel Draw, Illustrator, EPS, JPEG, TIFF
If possible, please convert your images to CMYK before sending them to us. Any files produced in RGB (red, green, black) format will need to be converted to CMYK for print by us. Sending RGB colors graphics, will often cause final color of the printed output to be slightly different than what your monitor might have displayed.
Please make sure all images are 300 dpi. Please “flatten” or “merge” any files with layers before sending.
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