With the final edits for The Redemption of Erâth: Exile wrapping up, I’m starting to look at the internal design of the book. When I published Consolation, I had a publishing company to do all the design work, and I have to say that for the internal design, at least, they did a pretty good job.
This time, though, I’m on my own. I got some practice in when I published the History of Erâth in October, so I know a few things to look out for (for example, good guttering), but since this is a major sequel (the second ‘true’ book in the series), I really want to make sure everything comes out just right. I’m going to try a few different print options—I went for cream paper with History of Erâth, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the stock (it’s a little too thin). I might test white paper, and see if the stock is any better.
I also want an internal design to match the first two books—fire for Consolation, trees and leaves for History. The major theme throughout Exile is mountains, so I’ve designed a couple of black and white mountain silhouettes to try and replicate the feel of the first two books. I use them for Part pages and for Chapter headings, and to separate sections of the book. Below are some examples of what this looks like:
I’d love honest feedback on these; I’m open to changes at the moment, but pretty soon it’s going to have to be fixed and locked in. If there’s room for improvement, please let me know!
Satis Writes 
I think they look great! I always enjoyed it when books would do this, instead of the standard *** or something. Since I just self-publish I’ll have to see something like this is even an option for me. Not that I want to copy you! Hahahaha. You’ve just got some great ideas! But as a whole, I think this looks really good and what you’ve got mocked up should work fine.
Well, thank you! I enjoy doing the design work, even though it’s really very simple—I draw the shapes with the pen tool in PowerPoint, and then copy them into Word (or rather, the Apple equivalents). When I’m done I save the whole thing as a PDF to upload to CreateSpace.
Honestly, CreateSpace has been pretty wonderful at providing detailed instructions of how to format and lay out the book. I’m really hoping this is going to look good when it’s finished.
Oh! CreateSpace! I looked at them for my first book and just haven’t gotten around to uploading the content and going from there. Good to know! You are awesome! 🙂
Thank you! You’re more than welcome.
Looks cool. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Thanks! I’m getting very excited!