Book Design

Book design is an under appreciated art. There’s just something about a well designed book–the way it looks, the way it feels in your hand. And the satisfaction of putting together the entire package rivals the thrill of designing movie posters. Sure it’s not as sexy as movie work, but it can be more enduring.

And by book design, I don’t just mean covers. I’m also talking about the page layout. Are the margins along the spine wide enough? Some publishers will cheat the margins to save a couple of pages. There are several publishers guilty of this spine-breaking sin, but I won’t mention them here (Zebra, Pinnacle, Dorchester). Is the text too small or too large? Both are equally irritating in my book (hey, that’s sort of a play on words). If the text is too small, it’s a strain to read. And if it’s too large, you feel as if you are being tricked by the publisher into paying an extra couple of bucks for a thicker book. Plus, overly large text or inappropriate fonts look amateurish.

I just picked up Bruce Campbell’s “Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way”. I really do love the guy, but I hated the way the book looked. Something as seemingly minor as a font can distract me from the story and lessen my enjoyment. Maybe this is just the hypersensitive nature of the graphic artist, but I don’t think so. Pick up a copy and you’ll see what I mean.

If you want to see a publisher who understands how to put a book together, check out the ‘Hard Case Crime’ series. Not only are they good stories (for the most part). They are miniature works of art. Charles Ardai knows how these things should be done. Some of the larger publishing houses could learn a thing or two from this guy.