- What is the difference between Basic and Deluxe Cover Design?
Basic Design focuses on one main image and a simple text layout. Deluxe Design may include multiple images, more elaborate design elements and stylized type. In a Deluxe Design, we can often combine several images to achieve specific details that are not present in a single photo.
Visit our design galleries for Basic and Deluxe Cover samples.
- Does BookBaby Design Studio offer custom illustration?
We do not currently offer illustration from scratch, but we can use stock art or your supplied images to help create a cover that has a painterly or illustrated style.
- Can BookBaby Design Studio create specific characters or places for my cover design?
Maybe! In order to include specific characteristics of a person or place, we often need to combine images. Therefore most detailed requests require Deluxe Cover Design. Also, because we use stock images and not illustration to create a character or scene, we are limited by the details available in our large stock photo collection. Feel free to ask and we'll do our best to include as many of your elements as we can. We may not have a photo of the exact activity, pose, clothing or hair style but we can certainly offer alternate solutions that will convey a similar mood or style.
- If BookBaby is formatting or designing my book, how do I know how many pages my book will be? What happens if I have significantly more / fewer pages than selected?
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The page count of your printed book will not be exactly the same length as your manuscript. You should give your best estimate to final page count and we will do our best to make it work. Approximate page count is best determined by setting up your MS Word document's page size to match the page size of your finished book, with at least 7/8ths (0.875) left and right margins. Use a standard Times New Roman, set at 11 point.
- Estimated number of words per page?
A 5.25 x 8" book has approximately 350 words per page. Formatting, images and design elements will change the word count.
- Can I choose the fonts and point size for my body copy?
All body copy will be in our standard serif font. The serif font has been chosen for its clarity, readability and friendly professional style. The point size for chapter titles, headings and picture captions will be chosen by the designer based on your specific book.
- Can I choose the fonts for the chapter headers?
Authors can specify a font or preference for either a serif or san-serif font for the chapter titles when purchasing Color Text Design & Formatting. Our standard serif font is used for all books with black text.
- Is a table of contents included with Black Text Design?
If you want a Table of Contents, you will need to supply the list of chapters in your manuscript. The designer will add the corresponding page numbers.
- What are Inline Images?
Inline Images are images embedded in the text. The image will flow as if it were part of the text. Images supplied for Black Text Design & Formatting books should be supplied Inline.
- What is included in book interior Text Design & Formatting?
Black Text Design & Formatting includes designer layout of the following items in your book interior.
Page Numbers: Page number style is chosen by the designer. Page numbers do not appear on blank pages or front matter.
Title Page: Includes the title, author and illustrator if applicable. Can include copyright and publisher information, if you include that page in your manuscript.
Chapters Titles / Sections: Headings can vary from simple numbers to phrases.
Running Headers: Small text that runs at top of left and right pages. BookBaby designer will add running headers where appropriate.
Any other special sections (such as table of contents or image captions) will be included only if they are part of your supplied manuscript.
Color Text Design & Formatting includes designer layout of the following items in your book interior.
Page Numbers: Page number style is chosen by the designer and based on book style. Page numbers do not appear on blank pages or front matter.
Title Page: Includes the title, author and illustrator if applicable. Can include copyright and publisher information if you provide this information.
Chapters Titles / Sections: Headings can vary from simple numbers to phrases and design is based on the book style and layout.
Running Headers: Small text that runs at top of left and right pages. BookBaby designer will add running headers where appropriate.
Table of Contents
Colophon: Describes design and printing details including typeface and paper stock.
Plus any of these special sections you request and supply text for: Foreword, Dedication, Acknowledgment Page, Image Captions, Appendix.
- How should I supply image caption text?
Black Text Design & Formatting: caption text should be supplied as part of your Word file. Caption text should directly follow the corresponding inline image.
Color Text Design & Formatting: do not set image captions as part of your manuscript. Simply provide a separate list of all your caption text, numbering the caption and the corresponding photo with the same number.
- How do I supply the best quality images?
Be sure your supplied images are high resolution: 300 PPI for grayscale or CMYK images; 1200 PPI or more for line art (also known as 1-bit). Anything less will produce poor, fuzzy or pixilated results.
Graphics and photos taken from the Internet (PNGs, GIFs or JPEGs) are discouraged due to their low resolution and possible copyright issues.
Scaling down an image improves print quality but scaling up an image will only reduce the print quality and therefore is not a solution to low resolution images.
It is best to supply images in CMYK color mode. RGB images will be converted to CMYK, but be aware that color shifts may occur.
- What if I don't have any images?
If you don't have any images, let us know what you are looking for and we can come up with something appropriate using photos from our stock collection. We have thousands of images in our stock photo library and a wide variety from general landscapes of mountains, clouds, sunsets, city skylines etc, to still life objects, old maps to more specific things such as flowers, trees, animals, people at work and play, silhouetted figures and many, many more.
- How many images are included in the design of my book?
Black Text Design & Formatting: do not include photos, however, we do allow up to 20 supplied B&W inline images.
Color Text Design & Formatting: includes between 50 and 100 supplied images or between 10 and 25 BookBaby stock images depending on your page count. If your book requires additional images, we will review your information and provide you with a custom design quote.
- What kind of proofs will I receive?
Once your design is complete you will receive an email notification containing a link to review and approve your PDF proofs online. Please note that computer monitors and home printers vary greatly, so PDF proofs are used to check text, layout and overall appearance of your project. Variation on your final product is to be expected due to the normal variables in commercial printing.
- What is a Style Proof?
All Color Text Design orders will receive a preview proof of a section of your book so you can approve the design style before our designers design the whole book interior. After your approval of the preview, we'll complete your book design and send you a PDF of the complete layout.
- What are Author Alterations?
Author's Alterations or AAs are text or design changes that the author makes to their original supplied materials or to their original requests.
Pricing for Text Edits:
$20 for every 10 changes. Text Edits include single changes made to one place in the book (for example a typo, or punctuation change) and global changes when the same error appears several times in the book (for example the spelling of someone's name). Each single change or global change counts as 1 Text Edit.
1-10 Text Edits = $20. 11-20 Text Edits = $40.
New Text:
$30 each. New text includes replacing or adding a full paragraph, or replacing or adding 1 full page of text.
The cost includes changes required to Table of Contents caused by New Text.
Design Changes:
Start at $50 for 30 minutes of work.
All approved designs are final.
- Does BookBaby provide image retouching services?
Design does not include color correction or retouch work. We do offer these services at an additional charge. If you are interested email support@print.bookbaby.com