Thank you for considering or selecting Cissell Ink for your book formatting. We pride ourselves on creating attractive books that’ll fit both your personal style and the style of your book. There are a lot of details involved and we’ve done our best to provide clear instructions on how to select the right options for your needs. However, if you have a question please reach out to us at anytime at editors (at) cissellink (dot) com
Your first task will be assembling the rest of the pages and extra content you’ll want to include in your book. We’ll go over the more important items in greater detail to help you through the process. Some items should appear in the “Front Matter” (before your book starts) or in the “Back Matter” (after your book ends).
Title Page
Your title page is typically on the first page when you open the book. Your title page should include:
- Book’s Title
- A subtitle or series title if you have one
- Your Author Name
- Publishing Logo if you have one
Full Page and Two Page Images
Thanks to an upgrade in the software we use, you can now include full page images as well as multi-page images. This will allow us to add:
- A full page image to your title page with full bleed (image goes to the very edge of the page)
- A map that spans a full two page spread
- An image that spans a full spread with no bleed
Copyright Page
Your copyright page is important and can contain quite a bit of information.
- Book’s Title
- Author Name
- Publishing Company info if you have established a publishing company for your works
- Copyright Date – most often year published but can be year written
- ISBNs – it’s probably easiest to include both your print and your ebook ISBNs so they all appear in all versions
- Credits – if you wish to credit your service providers, you’ll want to find out if and how they wish to be credited
- Editor
- Proofreader
- Cover Designer
- Copyright Statement – you can look at other books to see how the authors or publishers worded their copyright statements to get an idea of how you want to create yours
- A Publisher’s logo can be included if you have one
Author’s Biography
Your biography should include a bit about yourself and a photograph. It’s placed towards the end of the book. You can include social media links which will be live on epub versions allowing your fans and readers to click directly from your book to your various social media pages where they can like and follow you. If you have social media sites created as part of your author platform, please include those URLs.
- Website
- Newsletter Signup
- Others
Other Materials
This is a list of other items you can include in your Front and Back Matter.
- Blurbs & Reviews – if you have reviews from review sites or blurbs from other authors, you can include them in the front matter
- Typically placed just before or after the Title Page
- Also By – A list of your other books
- Can be placed in the front matter or the back matter or both. If placing in the back matter, you can include links to buy. You can’t include links to other sites. So only Amazon links in your Kindle file, or a generic link site that lists all the buying options.
- Content Warning
- A place to include any sensitive items to warn readers who might be triggered by certain content. It can include warnings for rape, child abuse, domestic violence, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.
- If you’re concerned about spoilers, your Content Warning page can be a link to your website with a detailed list of your warnings so those who wish to check them out can find them easily, while those who don’t need Content Warnings won’t encounter potential story spoilers
- We can make the Content Warning so it appears in the Table of Contents or becomes the first thing the eBook opens to so people don’t miss it.
- Dedication – a place to dedicate the book to someone special like a friend or family member
- At the front just before the prologue/chapter one
- Acknowledgements – a place to thank all those who contributed or that you want to mention beyond the dedication
- Can be placed in the Front Matter or Back Matter
- Maps – can be placed in the Front Matter or in the back, appendix style
- Note – we can only do single-page maps. If you want your map on two facing pages to form a larger map, you’ll need to send the map split in half in two files.
- Glossary – if you have a glossary of words, terms, or names, it can be included in the Back Matter
- Preview or Excerpt – If you have a preview of the next book in the series or your next book, it can be included in the Back Matter.
Graphics
Custom graphics can be included in the chapter headers as well as for ornamental breaks between sections. There are several different ornamental break options available if you don’t want to use a custom graphic. When selecting an image/graphic, please choose a “vector” format which allows for the image to be easily resized to fit in the appropriate space. Images can be black and white or color. Color images will appear in color if the e-reader has a color screen. Print books can have color images in them but will cost more to print. You’ll be able to see how the graphics work with the various styles in the next two sections.
Chapter Header Image
- You can have a different image for each chapter if you want. Although it’s best to only have one per point of view or a single one for the entire work.
- Descriptions can be included for the visually impaired who might not be able to see the image.
Ornamental Breaks
- Ornamental Breaks separate sections within a chapter if you have them.
- Ideally, the image should be simple and wider than it is tall. Square images with lots of detail will be squished down to fit, losing most of the detail.
IMPORTANT: You MUST have the rights to use the image in your book. You can purchase images at stock photo sites which will also have lots of various styles of graphics to choose from. These sites will send you a license for the use of the image when you purchase it. By sending an image to Cissell Ink, you acknowledge that you have the legal right to use that image in your book and will not hold Cissell Ink and its parties responsible for any copyright or trademark infringements.
Chapter Titles & Interlude Chapters
Chapter headers can include chapter titles and even subtitles. It’s probably best to include a “Table of Contents” list to ensure we format them correctly. Sometimes chapter numbers and titles can get scrambled when shifting from various word processing programs into a formatting program. Additionally, we have the ability to include “interlude chapters.” Interlude chapters are those that may spin off for a short Point of View change to a new character. You may want to have those interlude chapters appear without a chapter number. We can remove the chapter number from these interludes without changing the overall chapter numbering. If you have interlude chapters, please make a note about which chapters are the interludes so we can remove them from the numbering scheme.
Note: A Table of Contents is automatically generated for eBooks and includes any chapter titles or subtitles. If you wish for the Table of Contents to appear in the print edition, you will need to specifically request it so we can include it.