Crafting beautiful books is at the heart of everything that Reedsy does. We're changing the way books are published by giving authors and publishers access to talented professionals, powerful tools, and free educational content. Reedsy was founded in the summer of 2014 by Emmanuel Nataf, Ricardo Fayet, Vincent Durand and Matt Cobb. Since then, we’re proud to have built a network of world-class publishing professionals and helped produce over 3,000 books.

Course: Book Design 101

Author: Emmanuel Nataf

Duration: 10 lessons

Time: 5 minutes/day

About this course

Book design is that under-appreciated step of the publishing process that can make or break a book. A book's cover is going to determine whether the book gets picked up in a bookstore, or clicked upon on Amazon. A book's interior design — or typesetting — will not affect purchasing decisions, however, it will deeply and subliminally influence the reading experience throughout the whole book. 

A book is a simple object, but designing and producing a professional looking one is a complex task. It's not all up to the author, of course: there are professional designers for that; however, whether you're self-publishing or working with a publisher, you should know at least the basics of the design process. Not just for curiosity, but because the design decisions your team will take will influence the rest of your career. You want to be a part of these decisions.

What you'll learn in this course

• How to get the most out of a professional cover designer;
• How books are structured (front, body, back matter);
• What typesetting is and how you can DIY typeset your book;
• How to use the Van de Graaf canon to determine margins;
• How to produce the different formats you'll need for distribution.

So how does it work?

• Enroll in this free 10-day course;
• Learn in 5-minute lessons;
• Delivered to your inbox each morning.

Apply for this course: https://blog.reedsy.com/courses/book-design-101/.