Monday, January 18, 2010

Announcement: Self Publishing? Or Using a Small Publisher? I Beg of You ...

For love of all that is holy ... or better yet, for love of the eye of your readers ... please don't just use whatever default Word has on when you have begun typing.

Print out your page and compare it to some of your favorite novels, whether old or new, that are from regular publishers. Note that the type is not suitable for someone who is over 80 years old. Also note that a drop cap does not add leading (the space between the lines) that is not obvious in the rest of the paragraph. Additionally, note that the last line of the chapter also has the same leading (not more) as the rest of the book.

Please spare us. It not only looks amateurish but leads one to suspect that the quantity of pages is of more value to the writer than the quality of the writing ... which will show its quality even when the type is a suitably small size to match a well typeset book.

I speak not only for myself, who is admittedly super-sensitive to this as I do graphic layout for a living, but for those who ask why they must hold a book at full arm's length so the type does not overwhelm them on the page. It takes just a little time to make a book as lovely to look at as the words are delightful to read (at least one hopes that the words are delightful to read).

That is all. You may return to your previous activities.