Paperbackįor indie authors, paperbacks will make up the majority of the print books you sell. But Amazon has launched a hardcover service, which is currently in beta at the time of this writing.
Until recently, IngramSpark was the best option for authors who wanted to make hardcovers of their book. They are also the most expensive, and most traditionally published authors will make a lot more money from the sale of a hardcover than a paperback. They are the largest, the most durable, and take up the most real estate in a bookstore. The hardcover is the industry standard, especially in traditional publishing, for new books released in book stores. While these terms are handy to know, they are not as important when determining the size of your book, especially when using digital print-on-demand services like KDP Print or IngramSpark. You may also hear terms like these thrown around, especially among libraries and publishers, to denote the general size of a book: Each of these has several common sizes in each, so there is some flexibility. Generally speaking, there are three classes of trim size that you should consider for your book. Depending on what you want for your reader, and the genre you write in, you will need to carefully consider what book size you choose. What you choose will have an effect on the reader's experience (assuming they are reading a print book). Put simply, trim size is the height and width of your print book Click To Tweet
Children’s books, for example, usually require radically different standard book sizes. Others (myself included) love the uniform feel of smaller-sized paperbacks on the shelf.īut there are far from just these two options.
Some love the solid feel of the thick hardcover. What books caught your eye? Were they the large hardcovers with dramatic covers, or were they the mass market paperbacks perfectly lining shelves? Think back to the last time you were in a bookstore. If you're using a program to adjust your trim sizes, we recommend Atticus, which will automatically format everything for you, so your trim size, margins, bleed, and all those other pesky details will be taken care of for you. IngramSpark, for example, offers fewer sizes for color print books. Color: The thickness of the paper will vary depending on your choices of Black & White, Cream, or Color.Bleed: A term that usually refers to images/illustrations that reach all the way to the edges of the page.Your gutter margin will be larger than the rest, so your text doesn’t get lost in the inside crease of your book. Margins (including Gutter Margins): The empty space that surrounds your text.Line spacing: Like font choice, the space between lines will affect the page count of the book.Font: The font choice and size will affect the page count of your book, which could influence your choice of trim size.Other important terms to remember when dealing with trim size include the following: We will make sure to use both where we can, but will default to inches. Note: In the US, inches are primarily used to denote book size, whereas the metric system is more commonly used in the U.K. Some books will be larger than others, some smaller.įor those who publish through KDP or IngramSpark, they will present you with a list of possibilities, each with pros and cons, depending on what you want. Put simply, trim size is the height and width of your print book.