Book Design – Open Heart Designs

Create Visual Balance with Optical Margin Alignment

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 16:58:44 +0000

When you want your page to have visually clean, crisp lines, using hanging punctuation can help! Hanging punctuation was first used in the Gutenberg bible where hyphens and other text features were slightly bumped into the right and left margins to create visual uniformity on the page. It was a very tedious job in those days and usually there was one person dedicated solely to that task.

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What goes on your Title Page?

admin — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 11:05:00 +0000

Did you know that your book can contain two title pages? The first appears as the very first page when you open the cover and is called a half title page. The only thing on this page is the title of your book, usually small and understated. A half title page is not a requirement, and is mostly a leftover tradition from back-in-the-day when it is said to have been used as protective measure during…

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What goes in the front matter of your book

admin — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:35:48 +0000

Do you wonder what kind of content should go in your front matter? Front matter is all of the pages before your first chapter or part and contains information about your book, provides a way to navigate the book, and introduces it to your reader. These pages are numbered with lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.) and, although they shouldn't be printed on the title page through the…

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Preparing Your Manuscript for the Book Designer

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 15:32:37 +0000

So you've finished writing your book and are ready for the layout and design stage. Before you send it off to your formatter there's a bit of "house cleaning" to do first to ensure that they can clearly see and understand the formatting needs of your book. Remember, the designer is not as familiar with your content as you are, so preparing a clean document to send to them saves time (and cost) and…

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Metadata – The Key to your Book’s Online Discoverability

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 23:02:08 +0000

Do you find yourself wondering how people will find your book after it is available for sale? A large and critical part of the answer is metadata. Understanding metadata and applying it properly is extremely important in the discoverability of your book. What is metadata anyway?! It's kind of a mysterious and strange, "techy" sounding word that seems like it might be hard to apply. In short…

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Do you have an Amazon Author Page?

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 07:00:52 +0000

Did you know that you can have your own author page on Amazon? Yes you can – and it is pretty easy to set up. It only takes a few minutes and it's free! Amazon Author Central enables authors to utilize the Amazon author page as a way to connect with readers. The Amazon author page is a valuable marketing tool that you can personalize. It's essentially a landing page on Amazon where readers can…

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What goes on your front cover?

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 15:27:16 +0000

Last month I talked about what content to include on your back cover, so, naturally, I thought I would expand on the important elements to include on your front cover. As with the back cover, it is critical to know who your audience is as you begin developing the copy and design of the front cover. Because it is the first thing that potential readers will see, everything that is placed on the…

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Back Cover Copy – What goes here?

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 10:30:39 +0000

Ever wonder what to put on the back cover of your book? This area should be used as a marketing tool that helps people see the benefits of buying your book. The copy that you put here should be aimed specifically at your audience, using language that they resonate and connect with. Ultimately, the back cover content is what sells the book. After the front cover or spine has snagged their attention…

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Finding Creativity in the Pause

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 17:29:59 +0000

Dear Friend and Reader, I truly hope that this finds you and your family healthy and well. During this time of isolation and social distancing that is, understandably, very difficult for many, I have never been more grateful that I work from my home office. For some this time has provided a measure of relief from the daily grind, which can feel very rigid, and has opened up some space to pause…

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Personalize your book

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 16:41:30 +0000

Did you know that Ingram Spark allows you to create and send personalized copies of your book. It's easy to do, inexpensive at only $1 per book, and is a great way to add a special touch when you want to. Choosing this option adds one additional page with your personalized content and inserts it as the very first page of your book at the time it’s printed. It will only be added to that specific…

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