In last week’s post I asked Joel Friedlander, an award-winning book designer and the author of A Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish, for the three most common mistakes he sees indie authors make with e-books. Today, I asked him the same question about print books, and here’s what he had to say:

1. Don’t put running heads or page numbers on blank pages. Blank pages are supposed to be blank – and that means nothing is on them at all. Because there’s no text on the page, there’s no need for running heads or page numbers anyway.
2. Don’t make your margins too small. You may be tempted to use as much space as possible on the page to save money, since print on-demand costs are usually determined by how many pages are in your book, among other things. But a crowded page that’s hard to read and a book that’s hard to hold comfortably won’t help your book sales.
3. Don’t use low-resolution images. Graphics that look great on your screen may not have enough data (resolution) to print properly. Check with your book printer to find out exactly what resolution you need for your images to print properly and use a photo editing program to inspect the ones you want to use in your book.

Image quality matters!

While I’m traditionally published now, I started out with self-publishing, and I hired a professional designer to make sure my novel looked as good as the ones on the shelves at the bookstores. I strongly recommend that all indie authors do this to avoid producing something that looks amateur and detracts from the reading experience. It’s a competitive market out there, so you want your book to shine!

To learn more about Joel, please visit www.TheBookDesigner.com. You can also follow him on Twitter (@JFBookman).

-Maria

This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2012 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.