Have you decided to design the interior layout of your book yourself, or work directly with your own designer outside of Tellwell?
- Note: most authors will take advantage of the interior layout service that is included in most publishing packages. Sound like you? Check out this article instead.
If you have graphic design expertise yourself, or perhaps you have a highly complex layout and you want to work directly with a graphic designer your know, you may choose to provide your own print-ready files. To do this, read on below to explore your options.
- ⚠️Before beginning design, we recommend you follow the instructions in this guide, which outline all of the important distributor requirements to be aware of, following which will ensure your book prints properly.
- ⚠️If your book has any photos, illustrations or graphics, make sure all included images are in high resolution (minimum 300dpi) and large enough for printing. learn more about printing images here.
- ⚠️If your publishing package includes Enhanced Amazon paperback distribution, then please make sure your files meet the bleed and margin specifications mentioned here.
- ⚠️If your publishing package includes professional editing from Tellwell, you will need to submit a Microsoft Word document for the editing phase first, then after editing is complete, follow one of the options below.
Whichever option you choose, make sure your file is set up to match the Trim Size & Colour Type (black & white, standard colour, or premium colour) options you selected in the Octavo Book Setup task.
Option 1: Provide working InDesign files (recommended), created according to all necessary print specifications linked above.
- This option allows our designers to make minor adjustments if needed.
- Please send us the packaged InDesign file (including all fonts and images) to support@tellwell.ca via wetransfer.com — we especially recommend this if you/your designer are not familiar with setting up print book layouts for Ingram and KDP.
- Note: this option is usually required if you have eBooks and are relying on Tellwell to create the electronic book files for you.
Option 2: Provide your own Print-Ready PDF files, created according to all necessary print specifications linked above.
- Please send the finalized PDF file to support@tellwell.ca. If it is too large to send by email, we recommend using wetransfer.com.
- Note: if you are working directly with a freelance designer and choose this option, you will be responsible for submitting the files to Tellwell according to correct printer specs and Tellwell will be unable to fulfill any future revisions for you. Therefore, it's important to ensure that the designer you're working with will be reliably available in the future (one of the main risks with working with freelancers), or that you get the working files back from the designer as well when they create the final files for you.
If this article seemed like it was written in a language you don't speak, consider submitting a properly formatted Word Document instead, as interior layout is included in most publishing packages.
Related Article: I'm providing my own cover design, what do I need to know?