For a quick assessment of an indie trade book’s (published or publication-ready) interior presentation for text-based books
Use this “prompt” checklist as a quick check that everything’s as it should be in a trade book’s interior when you’re evaluating a novel, a set of short stories, or a work of informational or narrative nonfiction. The book may be published or in galleys.
Note that this is not a teaching checklist. It assumes familiarity with a number of these aspects, rather than spelling out what is standard in each case.
YA and MG work may follow different conventions.
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When assessing a book’s layout, you’ll be looking at the overall presentation, as well as any original design elements such as artwork, graphics, fold-out maps, interior postcards or notes. As a baseline, the book should present as professionally published, with no discernible difference between it and a book put out by a well-regarded traditional house.
Questions to consider
The questions here are generative: meant to help cue and prompt. Reading through them before you begin, or occasionally as a refresher, can help you focus your attention on the most fruitful aspects and — where you sense a weakness — to diagnose cause.
Page(s) of testimonials.
If there are testimonials included inside, do these pages appear first?
Is the title at the top of the first page either “Praise for Book Title” or “Additional Praise for Book Title”? (Depending on whether testimonials appear also on the cover.)
Half-title, frontispiece, title, copyright, dedication, epigraph, table of contents.
Are the basics, a title and a copyright page, in place?
Are they treated appropriately and professionally?
Are the others, where they appear, likewise so treated?
Forward, preface.
If either or both of these front matter elements appear, are they placed and numbered to standard? (Substance comes into play in considerations of content and structure, not layout.)
Headers and footers.
Does anything about the treatment of headers and footers (including page numbers) violate, other than deliberately and artistically, the professional standard?
Occasionally, books play with these conventions, either creatively through design or conceptually with the information given. Effectively playing with — creatively subverting or extending — the standard is to be encouraged. That’s a world apart from the book that, by contrast, presents an unprofessional, unpolished appearance, showcasing only poor design choices or ignorance of the standards.
Are any deviations from the publishing standard, in this book you’re reviewing now, deliberate and effective? Rather than giving an unprofessional, unpolished impression.
Page numbers
Page numbers can be in the headers or footers. Centered, pushed to the outer margins, or designed in some way. Never crowded or crammed, too small or too large, difficult to see, or in the way.
Book info
The choice of header is influenced by type of work and there’s some room for variation. But the two pages always offer different information, whatever information makes the best sense for navigation.
Typical schemes for adult trade
For informational nonfiction, most typically it’s some larger organizational unit on the verso and the next level down on the recto. So, book title on the left, and chapter (or essay) title on the right. Or part title on the left, and chapter (or essay) title on the right. Or chapter (or essay) title on the left and section title on the right.
For fiction, it’s typically author name on the verso, book title on the recto. In whichever format, dropped on the chapter opening pages and other special pages.
Narrative nonfiction apart from memoir or autobiography often follows the pattern of informational nonfiction.
Memoir/autobiography can go either way, following the lead of nonfiction or fiction.
Anthologies of whatever type (essays, excerpts from longer works, short stories, etc.) use the author/title format to identify each individual piece.
Placement
This book info may be centered or pushed to the outer margins of each page, or designed in some special way, in either the header or footer. The pages numbers might also be centered or pushed to the outer page margins, in either the header or footer.
There’s a fair amount of variation, and room for design. If the book info and page numbers appear together, though — both occupying either header or footer — the two must be balanced against each other. In such cases, the page numbers are typically pushed to the outer margins, to the extreme left of the verso and the extreme right of the recto pages, with the book info either just to the inside of those page numbers or centered.
Body pages.
Are the outer margins ample? The gutter? Does the text breathe? (Rather than having too tight or too loose leading and kerning.)
Is the typeface crisp and clear?
Do the mechanics “melt away” to allow the reader to enjoy the story, or is anything about the page difficult visually?
Opening pages.
Are the opening pages of chapters or any other such divisions (foreword, preface, intro, part pages, etc.) neatly and crisply presented?
Are they beautifully designed, whether simply so or more elaborately done?
Design elements.
If there is any artwork (illustrations, graphics), any original elements (maps, postcards, etc.), or any flourishes on the page, are these crisply and cleanly done?
Is the look and feel consistent?
Print quality.
Is the print quality good throughout?
Is it consistent throughout?
Trim size.
Is the trim size appropriate for the book length?
For the genre?
Overall.
Does the design of the interior match the look and feel of the cover?
Does it work with the substance of the story itself? Genre, theme, subject matter, and so on.