Sister company to Tricorn Books Portsmouth 131 Design offer great deals in Independent publishing and print
Simple but effective design
Road to Vendée, Alex Thomson Racing, sponsored by Hugo Boss published 2017
We understand that your book is a considerable personal investment and having probably spent huge amounts of time and effort getting the content right, we know you will care how it looks. You might already have some ideas in your head that you want to use or you might need some creative input, either way we certainly won’t bamboozle you with jargon or pass off formulaic templates at any stage of the design – but we will help you to manage the design of your book, are here to discuss all aspects of it and will work very hard with you to realise your effort.
How does it work? The different elements of book design should work together, enhancing and re-enforcing your hard work. Talk to us initially about your ideas, how they relate to the inside, what style you want to use, the kind of imagery you want to incorporate. From this we will produce a concept for you, we develop that with you and when you are happy, we produce finished artwork for you to approve and send to the printer. What we need from you is edited, proofread text and images – equally, if you need any help with those, such as editing, proofing, re-sizing images or touching up photographs, we can do that too.
Front cover
Books are judged by their cover, so this is a very important feature. Good design stands out and a strong front cover will get your book noticed. The title and subtitle (if applicable) will feature, along with your name as the author, any quotes or descriptives that might help to sell the book and photographic image/s. We will always work with you to get this right, depending on your vision, the genre of book and readership. We can work in different media to produce illustrations for the front cover too and are happy to discuss this requirement.
Back cover design
Just as important as the front, the back of a book can provide further information about the content, you the author and how the book has been reviewed. It can also incorporate additional images, making the book more attractive. Done well, it really does help to sell your book, converting a browse to a sale.
Inside page layout
It’s important that your book reads well, is easy to follow and holds the readers interest in its pace and delivery. Well designed layout can enhance this. Equally, you may wish to include colour or black & white images, illustrations, footnotes, tables, decorative flourishes, an index, colour plates.
Text
Once you are happy with the cover and internal designs, the body text needs to be placed. The best way to supply this is in digital format as one file, for example in Word, with no illustrations or photographs embedded. It should be edited and proof read, ready to go - this way we can pour it in and format it with the correct headings, spaces, chapters etc., quickly and easily.
