This is the seventh part of our 'Ultimate Guide to Writing a Memoir.'
To access the rest of the guide, click here.
In this chapter, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the design process. This includes:
Layout and format
Choosing a designer
Printing your book
Layout and Format
You can design and format your own book – but we wouldn’t recommend it. This is because there are so many little things to think about, and so many big things you could forget. Leave it to the professionals!
If you would like to have a go yourself, here’s what you need to think about.
- What typeface do you want to use? Serif or sans serif?
- What size book do you want to end up with? 6x9? Square?
- How many photos do you want to include?
- What’s going on the back cover – or the front cover? (We’ll get to that.)
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Choosing a Designer
In terms of choosing a designer, make sure you check out their previous work and customer reviews to see if they’re really someone you want to work with. Are they experienced at typesetting and laying out a book? Have they got templates to work with? If not, it might be wise to steer clear.
At Story Terrace, in addition to our own templates, we can also create bespoke designs and custom covers to suit your project. We use the same trusted designers for every project – so we know what works, and what doesn’t – and you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Take a look at our sample books for inspiration.
Printing Your Book
It’s the final step. You’ve done all the hard work and now it’s time to reap the rewards by holding that physical copy of your book in your hands for the very first time. But what’s that? Your cover hasn’t aligned properly, and half the title has been cut off.
You may be close to the end, but you certainly don’t want to lose focus. While the printing is largely out of your hands, you can make sure that you’ve done your research.
The cost of printing will depend on how many copies you order. Usually, the more copies you order, the cheaper the cost per book will be. Additionally, other contributing factors you might want to consider are whether you want a hardcover or softcover, full color or black and white book. Printers’ costs vary, so it’s worth getting a few quotes. Some printers won’t do short print runs (e.g. of 4 copies, like our printer does), so that’s also something you might want to think about. Equally, if you’re getting your books printed abroad, you’ll need to factor in the cost of shipping too.
