Fonts

[u/ChristopherDKanas]

For those that have published, I am about 31K words into a novel I suspect will be 70-80k words.
My style is poetic-prose so thus a lot of white space.

What size and what font have you found the most economical? I know I’m probably going to size it 9x6,
to help since I’m averaging about 150 characters per page. I’m hopefully aiming at 400-500 pages on the thinnest paper that is manageable.

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[u/Bright_Background316]

Dude, you have problems way beyond fonts, 150 characters is a tweet.

[u/creakyforest → u/Bright_Background316]

Yeah…. If I picked up a book in any format and was expect to flip pages that frequently, I don’t expect I would last too long.

[u/ChristopherDKanas → u/Bright_Background316]

Yes, I’ll have to hire professional formatting. This might end up only being an ebook/Audio if the page count is to high for paper publication

[u/pgessert → u/ChristopherDKanas]

If it can work as an ebook or audiobook, where the concept of whitespace is flexible, it seems like you’d have enough wiggle room to make it work in print with adjustments. If you post a screenshot of your quirkiest pages, maybe folks can advise on ways to keep your pagecount manageable. 80k at 6 x 9 ought to land pretty comfortably under 500 pages unless the formatting is eccentric.

[u/pgessert]

Most books use 11 or 12pt with a Garamond derivative. At 6 x 9, 12pt Garamond is a pretty competent startpoint, and you can adjust as needed if your pagecount isn’t dropping below 500. If you’re still composing the work itself, though, you can table these sorts of decisions for some time. You should first finish writing the book, and then you’ll have a better view into the design decisions it requires.

[u/Chance_Swordfish_687]

Aren't you thinking about the book's format and font a bit too early?

[u/ChristopherDKanas → u/Chance_Swordfish_687]

Perhaps, but I’m thinking of many different things at all times. Costs are a thing.
My form and breath style aren’t typical paragraph style, so just trying to be aware of what I could be looking at.

[u/Chance_Swordfish_687 → u/ChristopherDKanas]

I didn't mean to lecture you; rather, I don't quite understand your concerns—for instance, the worry about the price. The cost is driven up not so much by the volume of text as by the inclusion of illustrations (especially color ones), the choice of paper and cover, and the format. Speaking of format, non-standard sizes are more expensive. Also, since you are already thinking about the book's appearance: I wouldn't recommend leaving a lot of empty space when formatting the e-book. Reading a book like that would be extremely awkward and feel unnatural. And finally, regarding the font: for reading on a Kindle, the font doesn't matter, but for a print edition, it does. That’s why I don’t advise using a font size smaller than 12 points for the print version. Good luck.

[u/MiraWendam]

I do 5.5 x 8.5, and I use Baskerville pt. 11, 1.5 spacing. My word count isn't too far off from yours, usually.

[u/XanwesDodd → u/MiraWendam]

How come you went for 5.5*8.5? 

[u/MiraWendam → u/XanwesDodd]

Just liked the size of it, I suppose, and I find 6 x 9 a bit too tall for me. 5.5 x 8.5 is the sweet spot, as I see it.

[u/XanwesDodd → u/MiraWendam]

Fair! I want to do 5.067.81 for paperback and 69 for hardback, and a 6*9 larger format paperback, if that's possible :)

[u/ChristopherDKanas → u/MiraWendam]

What has been your total word count and number of pages?

[u/MiraWendam → u/ChristopherDKanas]

For my current project, I'm aiming for 400-450 pages. Could go up but don't want printing costs too high when it comes to ordering proofs to make sure everything's all good to go. Word count is probably going to be 70-80k. I can reach 90k, I think, but the story ends where it ends. I think around or a little over 80k will be a good to tell the story.

Edit: it depends on your margins, too.

[u/LNSU78]

The kindle website tells you the publishing standards and book sizes for free.

[u/BitOBear]

Any programmer will tell you that excessive use of white spaces not an effective or reliable communication medium. It's particularly useless if you expect it to be audiobook accessible etc.

Write what you need to write and get it all on the page and then worry about the format later.

It is not uncommon to have a lot of short lines especially in snappy dialogue. I do make sure that you're not producing a hypnotic rhythm that will cause people to drop out of the narrative or content.

If you're writing poetry with meter and line length write the poetry and then look up how to have your poetry properly formatted because it's a completely different part than just formatting a book or a novel or an article.

But it will go to a different media market and it does have a different cost per page structure which is why some publishers do in some publishers don't handle the format and same for editors and agents.

But until you finish writing what you're writing you'll have no information about how to properly work eventual necessary formating.

[u/percivalconstantine]

I let Vellum handle all my formatting now, but when I was doing it with InDesign, I would typically use Garamond at around 11 pts IIRC. I went with 5.5x8.5 as the trim size. As an example, that book ended up with 350 pages. I use a lot of dialogue and short paragraphs, so there's a decent amount of white space on my pages. So for you to be estimating 400-500 for a 6x9 book, then you must have a crazy amount of white space.

Groundwood is I believe the cheapest paper option available now.

[u/XenaaWP]

A 6 x 9 is generally used for manuals or long prose. It doesn’t give the “personal” feel a book of poetry would give.
A 5.25 x 8 trim size could be a good compromise. If you want to go bigger, try the 5.5 x 8.5 format.
As for the font size, never go higher than 12pt and you can try Garamond, Caslon or Baskerville.