When it comes to publishing a children’s book, the illustrations generally steal the show because they’re so fun, colorful, and visually appealing. But the artwork would lack meaning without the text of the story itself. So, it’s important to artfully integrate the text with the illustrations to create a cohesive and compelling reading experience. That being said, let’s chat about what it takes to lay out the interior of your kids’ book!
1. Organize the contents.
In the publishing world, there’s a particular order to follow, starting with what’s called the front matter. This includes the titlepage, copyright page, and dedication. After that, you dive into the meat of the book—the story itself, with the text and illustrations going hand in hand. Some books also have back matter such as an author bio, a resource page, or a bibliography.
Following this basic structure will align your book with industry standards, but sometimes, it makes sense to deviate a bit. For example, you might combine the copyright and dedication on one page, move the copyright information to the back, and so on. Go with whatever makes sense for your content!
Tip: Remember that for hardcover and paperback books, spreads should always start on even-numbered pages, which are on the lefthand side.
2. Confirm the trim size.
This will determine the size of each page. If you’ve already completed illustrations, you should know the dimensions of the book already! When it comes to children’s books, standard trim sizes are 8x8 inches (or8.5x8.5) for square, 8x10 inches for portrait rectangle, and 10x8 inches for landscape rectangle (although print on demand often only allows 11x8.5 for that orientation).
3. Consider the bleeds and margins.
The bleeds encompass the areas that extend beyond the edge or trim line of the page. If your book’s illustrations stretch from edge to edge and top to bottom (as opposed to spot illustrations), make sure you set a 0.0125-inchbleed to prevent white edges from minute shifts that inevitably occur during the cutting and binding process. It’s also important to ensure all text and key parts of the illustrations are at least 0.5 inches from the edges. Remember, every printer is different, and you don’t want to risk important content getting cut.
4. Get imaginative with the typography.
When it comes to children’s books, it’s recommended to be creative with the fonts while ensuring high legibility! What matches the style and tone of the book? What complements the illustrations? Script or cursive can be hard to read, especially for little kids, but there is a broad range of possibilities with kids’ books! In addition, be sure to consider the font size. As a rule of thumb, you should aim for 16-point to 24-point font.
And don’t forget about the colors! Be thoughtful about what will go well with the overall color palette of the book while ensuring the text is distinguishable from the background. For instance, instead of using black text on a dark purple night sky, use white or perhaps even yellow (if it matches the book’s color scheme) so that it’s clear and easy to read.
Tip: It can be fun to use different fonts for particular words to emphasize them and/or match the theme of the story. Just make sure you’re not going overboard by incorporating too many typefaces without a clear purpose driving that decision!
5. Artfully place the text.
You don’t want the text to be too close to the edges or the crease, and it’s best to place the words of the story in clear, uncluttered areas with high contrast. If the text touches or crosses detailed illustrations, it can be difficult to read. Beyond that, there’s a ton of room to get creative with text placement! For example, if the story is talking about something dropping, the text in that spot can literally move down, down, down to underscore that concept. Or perhaps you opt to have a line about the sun curve around the shape of the sun illustration. The sky’s the limit! The main thing is to weigh the text with the illustrations, leaving open space where it makes sense so each page looks balanced and dynamic without overwhelming readers.
There’s your quick crash course in interior formatting for children’s picture books! If this seems like a lot of work—and, truthfully, it is—keep in mind that you don’t have to tackle this alone. At Blue Balloon Books, we are interior layout experts! If you’d like to leave it to the professionals to beautifully tie together your story and artwork, contact us here.