When it comes to preparing a manuscript for the book interior designer, you don’t need to make it look all that pretty.
Honestly, we don’t mind that your manuscript doesn’t yet look like a book; after all, that’s our job!
However, there are some things you can do to make your intentions clearer and your manuscript easier to navigate for the book interior designer.
Here are some tips for how to prepare a manuscript and things to do before sending your manuscript to the Interior designer:-
- APPLICATION
It is preferable that you use Microsoft Word for your manuscript.
2. GENRE
Always communicate the genre of the book so as to guide the designer on what type of design to use.
3. FONTS AND FORMATTING
Use different levels of font sizes to indicate the hierarchy of chapter titles, major headings, and subheadings, and make them bold. If appropriate, number the sections and subsections.
This way, the logical flow of your manuscript will be obvious to your book designer. It will make your designer understand how to format the headings appropriately.
Use at least a 11-12 point font.
Avoid getting too fancy with the font.
A serif font (i.e., Times Roman) is preferable, as this will be an easier font for the designer to read.
Bold or italicize words that you want the designer to highlight.
Press Enter once only at the end of a paragraph. Indicate a new paragraph by using the Indent function or Paragraph spacing function; don’t use the Tab key to indent the first line.
If you want text to appear in a fancy box or a wrapped quote, type ***begin sidebar*** and ***end sidebar*** and the designer will take care of it.
Don’t add any unnecessary formatting that the book designer will need to unravel.
Don’t add text boxes.
Don’t try to create your preferred layout; you and your book designer will have agreed on a page layout and the book designer will replicate that layout for you.
Don’t press the Tab key or the space bar to indent the first line of a paragraph. Use the paragraph indentation function. (In Microsoft Word, that’s in the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph function.)
Don’t create tables or columns by pressing the Tab key or the space bar to move words over and align them. Talk to your book designer beforehand about how they would like your table data supplied to them.
Include a table of contents if the chapters have titles. Don’t include the page numbers as the designer will do that after layout.
IMAGES
Supply high-resolution images files separately from your manuscript file.
Be sure to discuss the correct file format with the designer. Insert the file name of each image in red at the correct location in your manuscript, making your images easy for the designer to spot.
Include the captions for your images, for example, Image 1, so that the interior designer can easily track and distinguish images in a situation where the images in the book are much.
Don’t import your pictures into Word, or copy and paste them into the document.
Supply the high-res images files separately from your manuscript file and indicate where you want them placed and the designer will take care of the rest.
And… that’s a wrap.
Thanks for taking your time out to acquaint yourself with what your interior designer wants, which will help them give you the best design for your book.