Design is the one of the most exciting stages of the publishing process as it is when all previous stages (your edited text and your illustration elements) come together to show you for the first time exactly how your book is going to look. There are 2 stages in book design, the first is book cover design and the second book content design and both need to be handled very differently from both a design and marketing point of view.

STEP 1: Cover Design

Cover Design has 3 sections; your front cover, your spine and your back cover. Your front cover needs an attention grabbing image, an attention grabbing title, an informative subtitle and your name as the author. Your back cover needs an enticing blurb, a barcode/ISBN number and I also recommend 3 testimonies from raving fans, a photo of yourself and your web address for promotional purposes. Your spine is important advertising space so I recomend you fit as many key elements on there as possible (eg. book title, author's photo etc.) to make good use of the space but be careful not to get it too crowded as that will have the reverse effect.

STEP 2: Content Design

Contents Design has a lot more elements in it then your cover design but in generally there is your body of the book (ie. your chapters), what goes before the body (introduction) and what goes after the body (conclusion). You can have as few or as many chapters as you like but elements that work best at the start of the book include the publishers imprint, dedication, discalimer and introduction. Likewise the elements that work best at the back of a book are the conclusion, appendixes, about the author and promotion of future titles.

Once you create, perfect and sign off on each those elements your book is practically ready to go to go to print!