<p style="background: #efefef; border-radius: 25px; padding: 20px; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><i>This is the seventh part of our 'Ultimate Guide to Writing a Memoir.' <br><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #f06d66;"><strong><a href="/uk/writing-a-memoir" style="color: #f06d66; text-decoration: underline;">To access the rest of the guide, click here.</a></strong></span></span></i></p>

<p>In this chapter, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the design process. This includes:</p>

<p><strong>Layout and format</strong></p>

<p><strong>Choosing a designer</strong></p>

<p><strong style="background-color: transparent;">Printing your book</strong></p>

<p><!--more--></p>

<h2 style="margin-bottom: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="background-color: transparent;">Layout and Format</span></strong></h2>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span>You can design and format your own book - but we wouldn’t recommend it. This is because there are so many little things to think about, and so many big things you could forget. Leave it to the professionals!</span></span></p>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">If you would like to have a go yourself, here’s what you need to think about.</span></p>

<ul>

<li style="margin-bottom: 0;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">What typeface do you want to use? Serif or sans serif?</span></li>

<li style="margin-bottom: 0;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">What size book do you want to end up with? A5? A4? Square?</span></li>

<li style="margin-bottom: 0;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://blog.storyterrace.com/uk/how-to-digitise-your-photos" target="_blank">How many</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://blog.storyterrace.com/uk/how-to-digitise-your-photos" target="_blank"> </a></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://blog.storyterrace.com/uk/how-to-digitise-your-photos" target="_blank">photos</a></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://blog.storyterrace.com/uk/how-to-digitise-your-photos" target="_blank"> do you want to include?</a></span></li>

<li style="margin-bottom: 0;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">What’s going on the back cover - or the </span><a href="https://blog.storyterrace.com/uk/how-to-make-your-book-cover-stand-out" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">front cover</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent;">? (We’ll get to that.)</span></li>

</ul>

<p><span style="background-color: transparent;">And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.</span><br><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;"> </span></p>

<h2>Choosing a Designer</h2>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In terms of choosing a designer, make sure you check out their previous work and customer reviews to see if they’re really someone you want to work with. Are they experienced at typesetting and laying out a book? Have they got templates to work with? If not, it might be wise to steer clear.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At Story Terrace, in addition to our own templates, we can also create bespoke designs and custom covers to suit your project. We use the same trusted designers for every project - so we know what works, and what doesn’t - and you don’t have to worry about a thing.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Take a look at our <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://storyterrace.com/en-GB/sample-chapters/" target="_blank">sample books</a></span> for inspiration.</span></p>

<p> </p>

<h2>Printing Your Book</h2>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s the final step. You’ve done all the hard work and now it’s time to reap the rewards by holding that physical copy of your book in your hands for the very first time. But what’s that? Your cover hasn’t aligned properly, and half the title has been cut off.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You may be close to the end, but you certainly don’t want to lose focus. Whilst the printing is largely out of your hands, you can make sure that you’ve done your research.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The cost of printing will depend on how many copies you order. Usually, the more copies you order, the cheaper the cost per book will be. Additionally, other contributing factors you might want to consider are whether you want a hardcover or softcover, full colour or black and white book. Printers’ costs vary, so it’s worth getting a few quotes. Some printers won’t do short print runs (e.g. of 4 copies, like our printer does), so that’s also something you might want to think about. Equally, if you’re getting your books printed abroad, you’ll need to factor in the cost of shipping too.</span></p>

<p> </p>

<h2 style="text-align: center;"><a href="/uk/how-to-make-your-book-cover-stand-out"><strong><span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Read Chapter 8: How To Make Your Book Cover Stand Out</span></span></strong></a></h2>