Design & production
Build a book that feels professionally made
A clear framework for formats, cover design, interiors, ISBNs, print-on-demand, and final production checks.
You will leave with the decisions needed for a production brief, a realistic proofing sequence, and fewer expensive surprises at upload.
Choose the reading experience before the specifications
Production begins with the reader, not a trim-size menu. A workbook needs space to write. A fast commercial novel needs comfortable pages and a portable object. A photo-led book needs room, color control, and a budget that can support its printing requirements. Define that experience before choosing dimensions or paper.
Decide which formats have a real job. Ebook, paperback, hardback, large print, and audiobook are separate products with separate production work. You do not need every format on day one. Launching one or two well-made editions is better than spreading attention across five compromised ones.
Give the cover one decisive job
A cover is packaging, positioning, and invitation at once. Its first job is to tell the right reader what kind of experience is inside. Study current books that share your audience—not to imitate them, but to identify the visual signals readers already understand.
Write a cover brief before choosing concepts. Include the audience, genre, emotional tone, comparable titles, formats, and any imagery to avoid. Ask for a design that remains legible at thumbnail size. At that scale, hierarchy matters more than decorative detail.
- Title reads clearly as a small thumbnail
- Genre and tone are apparent before the blurb is read
- Spine and back-cover copy have enough breathing room
Make the interior disappear into the reading
Good interior design is felt more than noticed. Type size, line length, leading, margins, paragraph treatment, running heads, and chapter openings should work as a system. The right choices depend on genre and format, but the test is consistent: can the reader stay immersed without fighting the page?
Ebooks are reflowable, so readers control much of the typography. Use semantic, restrained formatting and test the file on more than one device. Print interiors are fixed, so inspect widows, orphans, awkward word spacing, blank pages, page numbers, and the way each spread balances.
Understand what you own and what you are borrowing
An ISBN identifies a specific edition from a specific publisher. In many markets, a free platform-provided identifier makes that platform the publisher of record for that edition. Buying your own identifiers can make sense when you want your publishing name attached consistently across retailers and formats.
Names, tax information, territories, pricing, and metadata should be decided before upload. Keep a master metadata sheet with the exact title, subtitle, contributor names, description, categories, keywords, publication date, identifiers, and edition notes. Consistency prevents confusing duplicate listings and last-minute corrections.
Proof the object, not only the file
A PDF on a bright monitor cannot tell you how the book feels in the hand. Order a physical proof for every print format. Read the cover at arm’s length, inspect the spine alignment, look for unexpected color shifts, and turn through every page. Ask someone who has not lived inside the project to check the final object.
Make corrections in the source file, regenerate the export, and repeat the technical checks. Resist the urge to make unrelated rewrites at proof stage. Production becomes reliable when changes are controlled, named clearly, and verified in the final format.
- Order and inspect a physical proof
- Test ebook navigation and linked contents
- Keep one final, dated source package for every edition