Good and Bad Book Page Design: What's the Difference?

Self-published authors sometimes forget to think about the design of their book. And do-it-yourself online publishing isn't much help. But design is so important! Good design tells your reader that you are professional. Good design helps your readers stay connected to your story without losing their flow. Poor design looks like you threw the book together without much thought or consideration for your reader's experience. Guess which one tells your reader that your book is worth their time?

Sure, there's a lot to take in here. But don't worry—Amalgamated Story can design your book pages to give your readers a great reading experience. And we can work with online publishers' specs to be sure your book meets all their criteria.
Let's take a look at three designs for the first few pages of chapter 5 of Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women.
Bad Book Design

Example 1:
​It's easy to see what's wrong here.
  • For print books, full 8.5 x 11 inch pages are not comfortable to hold or easy to carry.
  • Font (Arial) is a sanserif font, which makes reading blocks of text more difficult.
  • Margins are too narrow (more awkward to read and will probably disappear into the binding)
  • Paragraphs are block instead of indented, and there are paragraph-break errors.
  • Chapter heading is not different from the page text, which is uninviting and dull.
  • There are no page numbers

Essentially, this is an undesigned page. It looks cheap and  unprofessional. Don't your readers deserve better?
Example 2: 
This one looks a lot better than the first example. The size (5.5 x 8.5) is better and the 1-inch margins are better. But it could still stand some improvement.
  • ​Font (Times New Roman) is very common and used for a lot of draft documents. But it's so boring! That's way Times New Roman is almost never used in a good book design.
  • Justification: Published documents (like books) should be full justified, which means the lines of text are all equal length. This is left-justified, which is often used in letters, reports, and other documents.
  • Chapter heading is the same as the page text. 
  • Page numbers are centered. For a printed book, it's best to put the page numbers on the side of the page away from the binding. That makes it easier to thumb through and find a particular page.
  • Page 2 has no identifying information. What book are we reading? What chapter are we in?
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Bad Book Design - Example 1
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Bad Book Design - Example 2
​Good Book Design

Here's an example of book design that makes the reader's experience pleasant and enjoyable. What went right?
  • The page size is smaller, suitable for a trade paperback or an e-reader, and could easily be resized for the smaller mass-market paperback.
  • Chapters are clearly set off with sufficient white space and variations in font size.
  • Margins are neither too large nor too small—they accommodate the binding, yet would also work on an e-reader comfortably.
  • Book title appears on each page, and the numbers are in the upper outside corners, for easy thumbing.
  • Font (Garamond) is serif, which guides the eyes along the lines and keeps the reader reading smoothly.
  • ​Paragraphs are indented, which is more readable for longer texts.
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Good Book Design Example