waltsbookdesign

As a professional interior book designer, I work with self-published authors every day. I see the excitement, the creativity, and the passion that goes into every manuscript. But I also see something else far too often: Authors who were pressured into paying thousands of dollars to vanity publishers for services they didn’t need. If you’re considering self-publishing, here’s the truth from someone who designs books for a living: You do NOT need a high fee vanity publisher. You do NOT need a...

For decades, underlining served a clear purpose: it helped writers emphasize text in an era when typewriters couldn’t produce italics. It was a workaround—useful, practical, and completely tied to the limitations of old technology. But today’s publishing tools aren’t limited the way typewriters were. Modern word processors, professional typesetting software, and print‑on‑demand retailers all support clean, elegant formatting options. That means underlining has officially become an outdated...

When designing a book, most people focus on the typography, images, or overall structure—but one of the most powerful design elements is...