When you are researching the cost of a book interior layout online, it can be hard to pin down an exact price. Why is this? It is because your book is unique! Simply providing a word count and the genre is not usually enough to secure an price, because there are so many variables that affect the time your book designer will invest in making a professional layout. Book designers need to see the manuscript, or at least a significant sampling of it, before quoting an exact price.
Here are the main factors that come into play in book interior layout pricing:
Text
What is the word count?
How neatly is the source file formatted? (If the source file from Word is already formatted using paragraph styles, etc. this can ease the final formatting process.)
How simple or complex is the manuscript? (For example: cookbook vs. novel. A novel generally has just a few different styles, but a cookbook is much more complex with small subsections of text regularly being formatted different ways.) Variables that affect complexity include:
character styles like bold or italic text
headings (chapter titles, subheadings, sub-subheadings)
quotations, verse, poetry
boxed text or pull quotes
forms or tables
endnotes or footnotes
indexes
Images or Diagrams
How many images or diagrams are there?
Do any of these images still need to be created, edited or adjusted, or will they be provided to the designer ready to insert?
Timeline
When will the final manuscript be ready for formatting?
How soon do you need the professionally prepared print-ready PDFs to be delivered?
Revisions
Does the number of revisions required exceed the number of revisions the book designer quoted on? (The best way to avoid this is to have the book proofread multiple times before layout begins.)
As you can see, there are a lot of variables that play into the cost of your book interior layout! If you have a book manuscript and are looking for a book interior layout quotation, fill out this questionnaire and send me your manuscript for an exact quotation or book a live consultation. The process page on my website lays out what it looks like to work with me.