It works wonders for morale to see your book grow as blank pages get
covered in words. In the days of pen and manuscript you could see the pile of
pages growing. Now that 99% of writers use computers, this drug has been
withdrawn. You can check the number of megabytes, characters, hours spent and
number of revisions but this cerebral input does not register on the Richter
Scale of satisfaction. A real folder that gets fatter and fuller, week by
week, chapter by chapter, provides the lonely writer with some feedback.
The answer is to produce a mock-up of your work which serves other valuable
functions.
 | The mock-up will eventually make it much easier to do some market
research. |
| Later it may prove invaluable to explain to the designer or printer
what you want but this depends on the route to publication you choose.
A publisher will design and print your book for you. |
| The mock-up will also give you a fairly accurate page count. This
depends on the book format and typeface but you can get very close to the
final format with a few simple sums. |
| By adjusting the type size when you print, you can work out the
number of words you will get on the page of the book format you have in
mind. |
| The mock-up is an excellent place to store your illustrations.
Obviously you will want to keep any originals safe in plastic folders but
you can give a rough idea of the positioning by sticking a copy into the
text. |
| A mock-up will help you design your book to achieve maximum impact,
especially if it contains illustrations of any sort. Imagine a potential
reader flicking through a printed version. Will they catch sight of the
pictures or chapter headings on the right page? |
| And do not underestimate the value to your morale. Friends and
family can see that you are not just skiving when you withdraw to write. |
Size matters
An ordinary folder will hold the 200 pages of your novel (just). Thicker,
'ordinary' files are easy to find and they will hold 500 pages. A lever arch
file is a bit intimidating and harder to cram into a bag but will hold 1000+
pages. The lever does make it much easier to release the binding. But
these can only be found in 2 hole versions. And this is a problem...
Holy file
Invest in a 4 hole punch and pay the premium (£3.50 rather than
£2.00) for files with 4 rather than the normal 2 metal rings. If, or rather
when, you drop your mock-up, the 2 rings will unhelpfully spring open, spilling
your work. The 4 rings make your work much safer and mean that it will endure
much more rifling back and forth before the paper gives way and you need to
apply reinforcements to the pages.
Punch-up
The 4 hole punch has a useful bit of plastic sticking out of one end. Some of
the upmarket 2 hole punches also have this feature for the first few days out of
the box before it is snapped off. The sensibly sized 4 holer uses this guide to
ensure that the pages all line up neatly if the page is placed against this
stop. And the final feature of the 4 hole punch is that the rest of the family
will ignore this bit of low technology, believing that it won't work for their
revision notes or bills as it is the wrong size. Let's keep it as our little
secret that the 4 holer has the same pitch as the familiar 2 holer. You can
find a deluxe hole punch for under £10.
Pages
Your mock-up will help you to prepare any index, glossary, table of
illustrations or the other pages required for most non-fiction and some
fiction. All of these are vital, not just to give the book a professional look
but to allow you to do your page count. In the end the total will have to
be divisible by a number, normally 8, because that is the way that printing
works. This might encourage you to write a bit more or to edit yourself to save on
the finished pages but a designer can achieve the same effect by altering
the type size. If you are feeling ambitious, you could print the chapters on both
sides of the page to give the real look and feel, but you could save that
technical tour-de-force for a later revision.
Cover-up
When you have your mock-up, you can begin to imagine where it might find a
place on the bookshop shelves. Go ahead and stick some designs on the
spine, front and back. Add your biography and some copy to give it the look
and feel of a book, even if it is all scaled up. It may be twice the size and
the dimensions may be wrong, but it gets you 90% of the way to the real thing.
Readers, friendly bookshops and designers will be able to assess, advise and
criticise something that now has the look of the book.
So..
This is also a wonderful displacement activity when your inspiration
runs out or you are feeling lazy. Others are going to inspect your work. If you
put your words in some good packaging these 'invaders' are more likely to
appreciate what lies between the covers. A fancy cover or some photos will make
it feel much more real. But be careful not to overdo it. Make your mock-up
interesting but then return to the lonely business of writing!
