Book design, editing, printing, binding, marketing.

Article on choosing the right size for your book...

HOW MANY PAGES IS THIS THING GOING TO BE?

There will be several factors that can determine the overall length of you book.

• Subject matter
  • Academic
  • Novel
  • Sales Material
  • Catalog
  • Medical
  • Scientific
  • Financial
  • Memoir
  • Instructional
  • Nutritional/Health
• Attention span
• Income
• Educational level

The first thing that you want to give your attention to is doing justice to the subject matter. You do not want your treatment of the subject to be too long and at the same time you don’t want to skimp on important information that may contribute to making your point.

This is where a professional editor can be very useful. After reviewing your manuscript, a professional editor should be able to tell you how your manuscript fairs in covering and presenting your subject matter.

At One World Press we can provide you with just such a person. A professional editor is someone who has everyday experience working in the field of writing and publishing. They are in the front lines. They know what to look for in terms of your manuscript’s coherence and presentation. They will be able to tell you how close you’ve come to hitting the mark. They can also give you valuable input on your manuscript.

In terms of physical book pages the ideal cutoff is some multiple of 32 pages. Most book printing is done in signatures. A signature is another word one printed sheet. This consists of 32 pages on one sheet. On one side of the sheet there would be 16 pages and on the reverse side of that same sheet is the backside of each of those pages, giving you 32 pages altogether.

This sheet is printed and then sent to the bindery to be folded and bound. They start with essentially a two-sided sheet. (2 pages) The number of pages doubles with each fold.

For the most part, the printing process favors 32 page, 16, 8, and 4. The most economical is some straight multiple of 32. Like 64, 96, 128, 160, etc. Of course not every finished manuscript will end up on the money, so to speak. In that case adding an additional 16 pages might fit the bill nicely.

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