Adventures in Publishing: The Beauty of a Page

On a previous adventure in publishing, I wrote about the cover designer  Young Lin from St. Martin’s Press, who created a cover I would want my book to be judged by.  But what about inside the book? Who’s responsible for what that looks like?

A month ago, I would have guessed— well, I wouldn’t have guessed at all, because I had never thought about it before. If pages flow nicely and are readable I don’t really think about who’s responsible. And if it were a book that had illustrations, I would assume that the illustrator had laid down the entire layout for the book. Makes sense, yes?

Not so, gentle reader.  

Enter the book’s interior designer, one of the true unsung heroes of this whole publishing process.

Interior design is not just a matter of taking my manuscript, choosing a font and pouring it into a layout. I had not realized how much went into it—choosing not only the type but how it’s spaced on the page, what the headers look like, how the title page gets laid out, how the illustrations fall on the page...

The job is even harder when you involve the author. I’m sure the words “What if…?” strike fear in the heart of every designer.




The interior designer responsible for the look of my book is the masterful Anna Gorovoy, who has woven together my words, Choi’s illustrations, and Lin’s cover into a flowing, seamless reading experience. 

I love how she took the torn paper from the cover and used it throughout the book. Fragments are what my book is all about! Really!

I also love how the header she chose ties in the graphic element to the prose narrative. 

And can I say how grateful I am that the editors allowed me to have some input? I mean, it’s a little risky to ask for an author’s opinion when a deadline looms, but they did. Anna had to put up with all my itsy-pooing—“Can the grayscale be maybe 10% lighter?” “How about we put the header type two points smaller?” “What if the car graphic were on one of those scraps of paper?”—but to Anna’s credit, she took my suggestions and tweaked the layout to everyone’s immense satisfaction. 

It’s gonna look great. 

Aren’t you just dying to get this book? Aren’t you? Are you sleepless, fretful, feeling that you might miss out? Never fear! Pre-ordering is available, (and helps me with my pre-order numbers, which are apparently pretty important). Pre-order at Amazon NOW and put your mind at ease!