Why should authors use a professionally designed interior template for their books?
In today’s post, I will share three reasons why authors should use templates that are professionally designed when self-publishing books.
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Three Reasons Why You Need a Professionally Designed Template
I wanted to do this specific training because I had received a question from an Author Audience Academy member on this. The question was:
“If you recommend Microsoft Word for book templates, why would I need to buy a template? Couldn’t I just use what I have for free?”
Yes, there are tons of free templates out there, and to be honest, that’s how I started. I created my own template on Word with the margins.
There are a lot of other templates available for free. Create Space gives them for free, and my Author Audience Academy member that asked me this question gave me another site that has free templates.
So why a need for a professionally designed template?
There are three main reasons I recommend using a professionally designed template for your print books.
It Looks More Professional
When I first started publishing in 2008 there were not as many books as there are today. There is so much competition now on Amazon.
There are thousands of books being published every single day, and you only have one chance to make a first impression; so you want to be able to put your best foot forward. That’s why I recommend having a professionally designed cover, and using a professionally designed interior template.
One of my books, A Life of Faith, came out in 2014. This was before I started using the professionally designed templates.
A Life of Faith was done without a professionally designed template. We have over 50 books with our publishing company and I have personally authored over 40. One by one we’re going back and having them reformatted. We have not done that yet with this book.
It has very simple heading; nothing fancy and nothing in the header bar. There are page numbers and everything is basic.
There’s nothing wrong with this book, but there’s nothing that makes it stand out as far as the design. Just as a book cover gets designed your book interior should be designed as well.
You can get them for as little as little as $37 so why not invest an extra $30 or $40 to make sure your book is as professional as it can be, and put the best foot forward with all the other competition?
Procrastination to Publication is a book that I did with a new format. You can see from the very first page that the heading is a certain font, a certain size, and was chosen for me in the professional book template. These are the templates I use: www.shelleyhitz.com/booktemplates
A designer picked out the font and the headings, and it looks great. The copyright, the table of contents and everything is done from a designer’s standpoint, with a purpose in mind.
The headers are nice!
They give you that extra professional look that you don’t get in free templates.
Sure, you can design your own template, but are you an expert in designing and picking fonts for your book?
Of course, you can research and do all that, but why not just spend $30 or $40, get a template, and have a professional book designer do it for you?
So that’s the first reason. Why wouldn’t you want to invest a little bit more money to help your book be the best it can be and to put your best foot forward?
Designed By Professionals
The second reason that I recommend a professionally designed template is because they are designed by a professional.
The templates I recommend are designed by Joel Freelander. He’s been a book designer for years and he knows the ins and outs of book publishing. He knows exactly the type sets, and you can get support through their site if you get stuck or need help.
I know you might be asking, “Why would there be a specific design to the interior formatting of my book? I understand that for book cover design.”
But it’s also important to think about your interior book design.
Everything is Laid Out
It makes your work a lot easier and faster!
When I was doing it on my own, creating my own templates, the sections would drive me crazy. I would be like, “Aaaahhh!!!”
But with professionally designed templates, all you have to do is insert your information.
The free templates you can find online have their margins, headers, and footers laid out, but this has EVERYTHING laid out.
It has the table of contents, the sections, chapter headings, and everything; they are all laid out for you.
So let me show you some of these templates.
This is the Crimson Template. This is the template the way you get it.
So it’s already designed with the book title, the subtitle, your ISB, your author name, your publishing company, and the copyright page is already formatted for you.
The font is Crimson for the book title as well as for the subtitle, and it has the fonts and everything. All you have to do is insert your information.
You can also add a dedication, and insert a quote here.
Then, look how nice these chapters are.
You have the chapter heading, chapter title, and you also have a drop cap. There are also headers and footers designed in different sections across the book.
That’s really cool right? And it’s all designed for you.
Another template that I have is the Spark Template. This one is similar, but what I like is that they have so many different designs to choose from.
I’ve used their children’s eBook template to publish my children’s eBook. And they have all sorts of different designs for fiction and for nonfiction; so they have got you covered.
This one has a little bit different font. This is Times New Roman instead of the Crimson.
But again, a professional book designer will know what sizes, fonts, lay out, and spacing should be used for the book.
So this is how this particular template is laid out. In every chapter, there’s a nice line drawn under each chapter heading. Then it has the chapter title, header and footer and all the other elements needed. It also comes with graphics in it.
So those are the reasons why I would recommend that you use a professionally designed book template. It looks more professional, its designed by professionals and it makes your work so much easier.
The templates that I recommend are at ShelleyHitz.com/BookTemplates, and that is my affiliate link. To be honest, I get a small commission if you buy, but I would recommend them anyway because it just helps your book stand out.
They have two different pricing structures. They have the one-time fee for one book, and it’s the cheapest way to go. It’s $37 for a single book print template.
They also have $97 for using the templates in multi-books publishing. Here you can use the print template for as many books as you want.
You can also purchase a template at $197 and then you can use that template to format books for other people and earn money on that.
All these templates are designed for Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. It would also be best if you can afford to have someone lay it out in Adobe InDesign as that is the highest quality that you’ll get.
I also have a very basic, simple template inside AuthorAudienceAcademy.com for Kindle books. Kindle books are different compared to print books because you’re on the e-Reader, so interior book design will not matter so much.
In print books, you have to have it designed, and laid out exactly the way you would want it. Some of the things that really matter are fonts, font sizes, heading sizes, the headers, and footers.
You also have the option to hire somebody to do all the lay out and designs, if you think that works better for you. You just have to make sure that they have the ability to add these professional touches to your interior.
You choose what system is best for you. This is what worked for me and I am hoping that this will help you too.
I hope that this helped you understand a little bit more why I recommend you to invest in a print book template.
Until next time!
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