3 Steps to Get Your Book Print Ready

At Acutrack, we’re proud to offer a full range of services for self-publishers, including information to get your content ready for our book printing service. As a result, this article goes over the three steps you’ll need to ensure your book is print ready. Also, remember the need for a well-designed cover, edited content, and neatly formatted inside pages. When your books are printed, you want them to look as good as those from competing authors working with large publishing houses. Our system allows you to produce high-quality books and fulfill your customer orders.

You’ve already made a wise move in selecting our just-in-time book printing methods rather than print-on-demand. We give you more binding choices – perfect bound, case bound, spiral, and wire-o – along with more trim size choices, options for cover and inside stock, and more. There are few limits to how far you can go working with us. Many of our clients are among the most successful self-publishers.

Step One: The Document Layout and Margins

The first part is to open up a fresh Word document. No, you won’t have to type your entire book again. It just ensures that the formatting is flawless. So, go ahead and click “New Document” before we continue.

Once there, head to the “Layout” tab. This is where you’ll sort out the size and margins.

Go to “Size” and you’ll find a load of templates. The industry standard size for book printing in the USA is A5. You should see this already on the drop-down menu. But it does depend on the genre, so have a look below to make sure you’re sticking to best practices:

Fiction: 4.25 x 6.87, 5 x 8, 5.25 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9
Novella: 5 x 8
Children’s: 7.5 x 7.5, 7 x 10, 10 x 8
Textbooks: 6 x 9, 7 x 10, 8.5 x 11
Non-fiction: 5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9, 7 x 10
Memoir: 5.25 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5

Then, head to the “Margins” menu. Make sure you go to the “Custom Margins” option otherwise you won’t have full control. Here, the industry-standard typically fluctuates from 0.75 inches to 1 inch. It’s up to you which you go for. Just ensure that the top, bottom, left, and right margins are equal

Step Two: Set Up The Bleed and DPI

If your book has images and/or background color washes that run right to the edges of the pages, you must set up the bleed accordingly. It can get quite confusing but it is a necessity as your book will have to be printed on larger pieces of paper and then trimmed.

Typically, bleeds for books will be set to 2.5mm so just add this in to cause malfunctions at the printers.

As far as DPI goes, all printed books need to have 300 DPI. This means your book’s images will be blessed with all the finer details. Some commercial printers will even reject your book if you don’t have this high-quality DPI set!

For those who are pondering, “but what if I want more quality?”. Here’s your answer — it isn’t possible. Okay, it technically is. But, the human eye can’t detect much more than 300 DPI. Plus, many book printers can’t manage higher resolutions so it’s best to stick with the industry-standard here.

Step Three: Finishing touches

At this stage, you’re almost finished. Just copy and paste your book cover. Then, you can set the headers and footers up. The best part is you can make these as fancy or as simple as you’d like! Don’t forget to number your pages either (this little detail slips your mind quite easily).

Oh, one more thing — use page breaks when a new chapter starts.
And there you have it! That wasn’t so bad, right?

Time to market your book

It is time to market your book. The traditional way of selling books is over; you now need a well-thought-out well-thought-out social media plan, you can promote your book to millions of potential readers. You need to deploy every online platform like creating facebook community around theme of your book, offering to you Instagram followers or creating a smart funnel using platform like Clickfunnel to target your message and brand to very specific audience

About Acutrack

Then you need a print and fulfillment partner. You could go to a traditional publishing house. There’s nothing wrong with that. Except, that it’s incredibly expensive. Oh, not to mention that all your effort and money might go to waste!

But Acutrack is here to help. We are one of the few companies that offer both fulfillment and printing services, allowing our customers to seamlessly integrate all of their logistical needs with just one partner. Well, that’s not just a fantastical dream anymore. We let you focus on the things you love most — expanding your empire!

What are you waiting for? Realize your dreams. To learn more about how Acutrack can help you achieve your goals, talk to one of our experts.