Indie Authors: Avoid these Print Errors!
“It’s all in the presentation.”
You’ve finished your novel. It’s epic. It’s exciting. It’s been proofed, edited, and polished. Now it’s ready to spread its wings and fly.
You’ve created an eye-catching and professional cover. The perfect visual introduction to pique the interest of potential readers.
And now, let’s open it and look inside …
In the digital version, readers choose their fonts and text is reflowable. There’s not a lot you can control beyond where chapters start, and including links to where readers can leave a review or sign up for your newsletter.
The opposite is true with hardcovers and paperbacks. Interior design is just as important — and no less creative — as the cover art. Well-crafted interior design creates an enjoyable experience for the reader. Sloppy interior design also creates a reader experience, often referred to as the “gag reflex.”
Here are a few of the most common pitfalls in self-published books. Be aware. Avoid like the plague.
Fonts & Leading
Times New Roman at 12pt is not your friend. Most traditionally-published books are set at 10 or 11pt, and Times New Roman — while a classic font — fairly screams “newbie.”
A quick Google search for “best fonts for fiction” reveals a remarkably consistent short list:
- Adobe Caslon Pro
- Garamond Pro
- Minion Pro
- Baskerville (apparently popular in literary fiction)
- Sabon
The space between lines (leading) contributes to the pleasant reading experience. A common approach is to set the leading 3–4pt larger than your font size. Note: that’s a generalization, not a rule. I’d recommend visiting your local bookstore, sampling a few books in your genre (written within the last five years), and paying attention to your reading experience.
For what it’s worth, I use Minion Pro at 11pt with 15pt leading.
PS. Always set your page numbers to “Old Style.” You’ll love how professional it looks. And yes, you can and should be that anal about even the tiniest formatting details.
Margin Cramp
White space is worth its weight in gold. Dense text and tiny margins are the enemies of an enjoyable reading experience. Allow at least a half-inch (.75” is better) around the edges. The gutter between pages should be .75” so words don’t disappear into the crack. This will allow for an average of 65 characters per line (optimum). If your book is more than 400 pages, increase the gutter width.
Your font choice will also make an impact. One of the reasons I chose Minion Pro over Caslon and/or Garamond was how wide the individual letters are rendered and how that affected my characters-per-line. Also, I preferred Minion’s question mark — yup, kinda anal.
And now, on to some of the errors I’ve seen in more than a few self-published books.
Word Stacks
Watch out for the same words appearing in a stack in the same paragraph. This occurs most often at the left or right margin, but can also crop up mid-sentence as well. It creates a “river” that’s annoying. Same goes for hyphenated words. When they’re stacked, they distract.
How to fix it? We’re writers; rewriting and revising is our lot in life. Work it ‘til it fits. 🙂
I’ve found it helpful to consider the print version as my “official final draft.” Once everything fits in print, it’ll look just fine in ebook format, as well.
Offset Scene Breaks
When you set the first-line indent for each paragraph (typically .25”/18pt), it applies to your centered scene break as well. It becomes painfully obvious if your scene break is too close to the bottom of a page, as pictured here.
How to fix it? Best option: use paragraph style sheets in your software. Alternative: manually set each scene break to 0” indent. Or don’t use scene breaks at all. Treat each scene as its own chapter, regardless of length.
Forced Justify
I cringe whenever I see this one. If nothing else, it’s a great argument for proof-reading before hitting “Publish.”
Just a day or so ago, I was reading a new paperback book. Ironically, it was about writing. The content was great, but the layout was a hot mess, page after page after page. I checked the final page out of curiosity and — sad but predictably true — self-published through the ’Zon.
As indie authors, we daren’t (actual word) get slack with our formatting – unless giving self-publishing a black eye is the goal.
Presentation (there’s that word again)
Jonas Saul once said at a writer’s conference (When Words Collide, I believe), “My goal is to write self-published books so well that traditional publishers won’t be able to tell the difference.” Privately, when Jonas and I were reviewing his edits to Treehawke, he amended his statement to say, “It’s not about traditional vs. self-published, it’s about professional vs. unprofessional.”
Professional. That’s our goal. We invest so much in our writing, from first drafts through beta/ARC readers to editors and final proofs. Ditto for cover artwork and fontography, and back-cover blurbs. Our interior presentation deserves — nay, demands — the same level of attention, creativity, and professionalism.
Readers will appreciate it. And, more importantly, they’ll keep reading.