In a previous post we delved into what is needed for the cover of a book, so now we are going to examine the inside. Besides the brilliant content you’ve created, there is the Front Matter and Back Matter, but that’s just what is there. In this post we are going to consider how it appears.
Running Headers and Footers are at the top and bottom of each page, outside your content. The Header often has the author’s name or book title on one side and the section or chapter name on the other, while the Footer has the page numbers (centered on the page, or at the outer corners—your decision on that), but it’s not a requirement to follow that pattern. The main reason they are there is so when readers are flipping through your book, they know exactly what’s being covered in each section.
Page numbers are important for reader’s to find what they need, but remember they are different for the different sections. The Front Matter has Roman numerals—the main section uses Arabic numerals. Odd numbers are on the right hand side (the recto)—even on the left (the verso). Page 1 is always the first page of content, and because chapters typically start on the right side, the left page just in front of each chapter may be blank…if it is, make certain it is entirely blank.
You want to make it easy for your readers, so pick a good, clean font. No need to be fancy here. Also make certain your line spacing is comfortable, anywhere from 1.15 to 1.25 is good enough for standard fonts. If you have a particularly tall font, it may need more, so just make the leading 5 to 10 points larger than the font size. Make certain your justification is appropriate for your content: non-fiction, fully justified; fiction, left justified. Paragraph indents and spacing also differs depending on the topic: non-fiction, no indent, minor spacing between; fiction, small indent, no spacing between. The space around your text should be considered, too. Set your margins and gutters wide enough. Especially important is avoiding widows and orphans. Both are bad—white space is good.
Obviously the content is up to you, but what you put in front of and behind your creation will be covered in another post.