InDesign Book and Template
Make your book's layout and design easy for yourself!
Today, I have a great resource for you!
When I lay out a children’s picture book or novel, I always use Indesign. It’s the Adobe software designed for professional layout of books. I do not use Canva (beware of low resolutions on export), Microsoft Powerpoint (really!?), or Microsoft Word (weak!).
I know - I’m a snob. InDesign is a $20/month subscription from Adobe, and well worth it. I consider it the price of doing business.
When I sold foreign rights to my Moments in Science series, essentially the Korean publisher is paying for access to my production files. And they EXPECT Indesign files. It’s the professional design software worldwide.
InDesign Book and Template
I recommend the book, Book Design Made Simple, by Fiona Raven and Glenna Collett, because they explain InDesign with lots of images. Step-by-step instructions make the program seem simple (OK, not simple! But a lot easier!). (I have no affiliation with them and do not make any money with this recommendation.)
They now have a template for novel layouts that is awesome. It can be used for middle grade novels, YA novels, short chapter books, chapter books - anything that looks like a novel.
Using Character Styles and Paragraph Styles is crucial to a great layout, but the process is always shaky for me. The template includes 40 basic styles already set up. An instructional video explains how to set up and format your novel.
Yes, I own the Book Design Made Simple book. And I’m about to own the template! It will save me so much time.