Whether it’s a DIY gift for a loved one, a passion project or work-related, putting together your own book can be a little bit tricky – but is extremely worthwhile in the end. If you’re not quite sure where to start, below are our top five tips to help you print your own beautiful book:
We’re often told not to judge a book by its cover, and allegorically this may be sound and wise advice for many things in life. Taken literally, however, it’s all too common nowadays to judge books by their cover. Planning and designing a book cover can be very important, no matter the quality of what’s inside. It’s the first impression that it makes, and first impressions do matter.
Plan out your book cover well in advance. If you are savvy with graphic design, you could make your own. If you want something more imaginative or creative than you can come up with, consider hiring a freelancer to design a book cover or just keep it simple or use a good photo or simple colour palette that doesn’t necessarily require graphic design skills.
Writing your own book can and should be a full display of your thoughts, inspiration, findings, or whatever the case may be for your type of book. One thing to consider when preparing your book for publishing online – and especially as a physical book – is the font style, font size, spacing and other formatting.
There is a science to this, and there are significant differences in terms of eye comfort in reading a serif font vs a non-serif font (like this very Arial font you’re reading now). Do plan how you want the book to look on a paper, because it may appear different on a monitor. If you need assistance with these small but crucial details, we welcome you to enquire about our book & manual printing services in Melbourne.
With an e-book, you don’t need to worry about binding or paper for obvious reasons. When your book is a real, tangible hard copy, you should give some consideration to these things.
For binding, there are many different types such as perfect bound, saddle stitch, and spiral binding. These will have an effect on the aesthetics of your book as well as how durable it will be. Cost is also a consideration, as are the number of pages since some bindings are simply impossible for thick books whereas others are impractical for small books.
In terms of paper, the normal matte paper will usually do for everyday books. Some pages (or entire books) often benefit from glossy paper, however, especially if you intend to go heavy on graphics or photographs, e.g. a children’s book. Again, cost will also be a big consideration you must make as different types of paper have different costs.
In all likelihood, you’re probably writing your book digitally, perhaps in Google Docs or perhaps in Microsoft Word, for example. When your manuscript is ready to go and you’re satisfied with having it printed as-is, take a moment and give it a fresh re-read to see if everything is good to go.
Once you’re satisfied, contact a reputable print on demand shop and enquire about their book printing services. Most will accept PDF file formats, but print shops familiar with book printing may accept alternative file formats such as DOC/DOCX, INDD, or others.
With the above tips in mind and once you’ve negotiated with a print shop about printing your book, you should give special consideration to how many books you intend to print. You can (and maybe should) do some mathematics to work out a cost per unit (book) and go from there.
If you’re planning to print books and other materials like brochures and pamphlets, contact the Print on Demand team.
