Book design
A design job turns your manuscript into a print-ready book — text set, cover drawn, pages laid out, and a proof you approve before anything is printed.
It starts with the file you already have. Manuscripts arrive as Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Publisher files, Adobe InDesign jobs or PDFs, and any of them is workable. What matters is that the text is final, because typesetting a text that is still being edited wastes the first pass.
What the job covers
- Typesetting — the manuscript set in a reading face and size that suits long-form reading at your trim size, with headings, quotations and scene breaks handled consistently.
- Cover — front, back and spine, drawn to the spine width your page count actually produces, not a guess. If you already have artwork, we set it instead.
- Page layout — margins, running heads, chapter openings and page numbers, built as facing pages so a spread reads as one composition.
- Proof — a PDF you read and mark, plus a printed proof if you want to see the paper and the binding before the run.
Cover design
If the manuscript has no cover, we design one: front, back and spine, built to the spine width that your page count and paper produce. A cover drawn to a guessed spine width is the most common way a hardcover goes wrong, which is why this is measured rather than estimated.
Cover design is the cheapest part of the job, and it can be ordered on its own. Authors who already have typesetting done, or who print somewhere else, come to us for the cover alone.
- Front, back and spine as one piece, with the spine measured from the page count.
- Print-ready files, supplied at the resolution the printer asks for.
- One round of revisions included.
- A printed proof on request, so the colour is judged on paper rather than on a screen.
What we need from you
- The manuscript in whatever form it already exists: Word, Publisher, InDesign or PDF.
- Cover art, if you have it — at least 300 dpi at the size it will print.
- Any reference book whose look you want followed, or whose look you want avoided.
- The date the finished books are needed.
If the cover art exists, we set it rather than design one. If it does not, the cover is part of the job — or a small job of its own.
Trim sizes
| Size | Dimensions | Usually right for |
|---|---|---|
| A4 | 210 × 297 mm | Workbooks, textbooks, colouring books |
| A5 | 148 × 210 mm | Novels, poetry, pocket handbooks |
| 6 × 9 in | 152 × 229 mm | Memoirs, essays, trade non-fiction |
| 8.5 × 11 in | 216 × 279 mm | Workbooks, textbooks, manuals |
Other sizes can be set on request. Page count and paper choice both push the price, so the trim size is usually the first decision we settle.
What you receive
A print-ready PDF, with the cover supplied as a separate file at the printer's spine width. If printing is part of the same order, that file goes straight to the press without being rebuilt.
Your manuscript is not kept
The file you send is used to set the book and is deleted when the job is done — there is no archive of manuscripts. Privacy sets out what is kept (the order and the invoice) and what is not.
How long it takes
The quote states when the draft and the proof will arrive. Page count and the number of figures on a page move that date more than anything else, so both are settled before the work is scheduled.
Next
Send the manuscript through the order form and we will quote the design, the cover or the whole job.