In my next installation of the writing process for my debut poetry book, Reality Check, I discuss the interior design process. Last month, I talked about the writing process for my book. Visit that post for more details.
Before we start the post, catch-up on some posts I did earlier this month:
Where Are the Parents in Young Adult Books?
Is Original Content Nonexistent?
How Do Book Triggers Affect You? // Let’s Talk Bookish
Reality Check Writing Process // I’m writing a poetry novel!!
Design Process
After I had finished the editing and proofreading process of my book, it was time for interior formatting. I chose Italian designer Margherita Buzzi from the website Reedsy to work with me on how I’d wanted the inside to look. We first did a Zoom call to talk about our work, and I really liked her sweet demeanor, and how much she knew about design. Design is something I’m not very familiar with, so it was nice to have someone break it down for me on how they worked.
Since I’m writing a poetry book, letting Margherita work on formats was a breeze! She always sent me updates on what she was doing, and how she’d do it. She worked with Adobe Garamond Pro to format each line of the book, and added cool designs before each part. We also worked on some spelling and grammar mistakes I hadn’t caught on before while editing. At one point, she had asked me if I wanted to keep the ellipses for some lines, but I had ended up keeping them.
I also learned a shit-ton about pdf, digital and print copies of the same book! Since I’m publishing on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), it turns out you can publish exclusively with them for 90 days, using the ebook format. Paperback doesn’t matter.
A PDF cannot be sold online via KDP, it has to be exported as an ebook. — Margherita Buzzi
Amazon also provides an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) which is a code that identifies your specific book. With my budget, she designed an interior layout and exported it as a PDF ready to print, which makes it so whatever screen you download the book on, it’ll fit within that screen.
I also learned a lot about trim sizes. Since my book will be small, it’ll have an 8″ x 5″ in. trim size. The graph below shows a pretty good comparison between sizes:
Once we’d figured out the trim size, we continued to work together on the overall interior look. Here’s a sneek peek:
What’s Next?
Next is the cover reveal!!!! [which technically doesn’t come out until April 2022 lol]. April is a long way away, but 6 months will go by like that. I can’t wait until you guys see it!
Patreon Shout-Outs
Thank you for supporting my Patreon Page: John Reid
Visit https://www.patreon.com/poetrybooksya for more exclusive, creative writing and poetry content! Also visit my introductory post on Patreon here.
Some posts include:
- Updates on my debut poetry book, Reality Check
- Blog posts that don’t make the main website
- I’ll write a poem about you
- Choose topics for me to write about on the blog
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Comment below! What do you think of my interior design for Reality Check?
Thanks for reading,
