Hello
I am in the process of self-publishing a novel. I have a printer lined up in Spain (I am in Ireland) that can print a few hundred copies quite cheaply (more cheaply than here), but I have to have the novel totally print-ready to send to them.
So I am looking for a little advice on formatting and laying out a page. I want the book to look as much like a standard trade paperback as possible. I am at the moment using the Pulitzer winning All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr as a kind of model, in terms of size (195mm x 130 (8 inch x 5 inch approx)) and page layout.
I am doing all of this on Word. At the moment I am using 12pt Times New Roman, 1.25 line-spacing, and have made the inside margins larger than the outside, (with mirror margins). Most novels I have around the house have 33-35 lines per page, mine has about 38-40, but I think that is acceptable.
My real question is about number of words per line. The block of text on my page seems very wide, I have 16-20 words per line, even with fairly generous margins (1.5cm - 2cm (0.6 - 0.8 inches)). Any standard paperback has 12-15 words per page. My set up makes the text look quite dense. Not sure if there is anything I can do to change it, or if I should just leave it as is.
Any perspective or advice on this whole area would be appreciated. I am blogging about the process on my book's website...
http://www.ayearinlisbon.com/blog.html
I am in the process of self-publishing a novel. I have a printer lined up in Spain (I am in Ireland) that can print a few hundred copies quite cheaply (more cheaply than here), but I have to have the novel totally print-ready to send to them.
So I am looking for a little advice on formatting and laying out a page. I want the book to look as much like a standard trade paperback as possible. I am at the moment using the Pulitzer winning All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr as a kind of model, in terms of size (195mm x 130 (8 inch x 5 inch approx)) and page layout.
I am doing all of this on Word. At the moment I am using 12pt Times New Roman, 1.25 line-spacing, and have made the inside margins larger than the outside, (with mirror margins). Most novels I have around the house have 33-35 lines per page, mine has about 38-40, but I think that is acceptable.
My real question is about number of words per line. The block of text on my page seems very wide, I have 16-20 words per line, even with fairly generous margins (1.5cm - 2cm (0.6 - 0.8 inches)). Any standard paperback has 12-15 words per page. My set up makes the text look quite dense. Not sure if there is anything I can do to change it, or if I should just leave it as is.
Any perspective or advice on this whole area would be appreciated. I am blogging about the process on my book's website...
http://www.ayearinlisbon.com/blog.html