I've been in the writing business a long time. And my book formatter/designer has been around at least as long. We've learned a thing or two.
It's easy to miss mistakes. This is why you may need help self-publishing.
Let's start with what can go wrong with interior illustrations.
If you have a children’s picture book or chapter book, you’ll need interior illustrations. It’s usual to have at least one illustration per spread. A spread is the left and right side of the pages as you're reading it.
For a picture book, if you have a 12-spread manuscript (24 pages of text and illustrations), you’ll need at least 12 interior illustrations.
If your budget allows, it’s a good idea to get illustrations on every page of a picture book. If not, even some traditionally published books have text on one side of the page and an illustration on the other.
Keep in mind that a full spread (two pages – left and right) will be more money than a one-page illustration. It could be the cost of two single illustrations.
Checking the Interior Illustrations.
Unless you hire someone to oversee this process, you will need to make sure there are no errors in the illustrations.
For the first part, you need to carefully review each illustration, including the cover and back cover (if you have an image on the back cover).
It can be something as simple as part of a foot missing, or a picture described in the story conveyed wrong in the illustration. These, among many others, were mistakes I found for one of my clients who hired me to oversee this process for him.
It can even be consistency; it may be how the characters look throughout the story or even the background scenery. In one project I oversaw, the illustrator had floor molding in some illustrations and none in others where it should have been.
In another, the character had the same clothes on even though the days changed.
And recently I found a word spelled wrong within an illustration - not the story text!
You’ll have to have a keen eye for this stuff, but getting it right is the difference between a good-quality product and a poor-quality product.
For the illustrations to text review, it’s the same.
You want to make sure the illustrations fit the text per page. Most illustrators get this right, but I’ve come across some who make mistakes.
And, as the illustrator will often place the text into the illustrations, make sure all the text is correct. If it's internal thoughts, it’s to be italicized. The dialogue tags need to be correct, punctuation needs to be correct, paragraphs should be as they appear in the manuscript, there should be a line space between paragraphs, and so on.
It's the same with your book covers and with the formatter/designer. Everything has to be checked again and rechecked.
And if there's one simple edit after it's reviewed, the entire process needs to be done again.
THIS IS YOUR BOOK. You want it to be the best it can be. This means getting all the details right. This is why it might be a good idea to have help.
Once the print-ready files are ready, it's essential to get a proof copy of the book before publishing - this has to do with formatting and design.
I recently had a book with a number of issues (1) the illustrations were too big (2) it took two rounds to make sure the text was evenly spaced and easy to read.
Here's another example:
Can you tell what's wrong?
If you notice, the text ran into the center seam, so it needed to be edited. And in this scene the girl had bows and a headband on her head. In all the other scenes, she only had bows. So, as you can see, there's lots to pay attention to when publishing a book.
If you'd like to discuss a project, you can call me (347***834***6700) or email me (kcioffiventrice@gmail.com). I'd love to help you get your book published!
