Self-Publishers: How to Lay Out a Professional "How-To" Page

The number of reasons for self-publishing are limitless, and vary from person-to-person. If you've decided that you'd like to try self-publishing, you already know what your reasons are so I won't try to cover them. What I do want to share here is a method for creating a great, professional page that works well for most how-to books.

Whether you'll be publishing your final work only in electronic (usually .pdf) format, or using a print-on-demand publisher, this method for creating a page layout will help your end product keep the reader's interest and make you a proud self publisher.

What do you need to follow this guide? Not much - just a graphics program (even Microsoft Paint will work) and Microsoft Word.

How-To Page Layouts: The Concept

Before you get started, take some time to really think about a concept for the way your book will actually look. The concept should tie in tightly with the work itself - if your book is focused on how to grow container gardens, you won't want a layout that has a technical feeling to it. The other way around, you won't want to feature a flowery looking concept for a book that teaches how to grind out and make your own knives.

If you approach the concept as a form of art, you'll be much happier with the final outcome. Take a look at some books already published in your general field of writing. You don't even have to own them - hit Amazon.com and run a search, then use the "Look Inside" feature. What you're looking for is a feeling of how the pages are laid out; where are the words placed? The images? Does it use a background or border on every page? Is every page laid out the same, or are there a couple of different layouts for text and images that repeat through the book?