Typesetting

Typesetting is an artform, a necessity, and sometimes a luxury.

Most self-published authors don’t address typesetting — especially when publishing their first book or so. The main reasons are cost and knowledge.

Let’s talk about costs first. Misfit Ink offers typesetting at a reasonable rate, $20 per 5000 words when using a standard template. An 80K novel estimates at $320 for this service. However, included in this are both the e-pub AND the print book formatting. Both are set at the same time and we can offer advanced layout for the print copy as well as trouble-shooting common e-pub issues. Custom style sheets? Not a problem. Special fonts? Misfit Ink can do that, but will need to charge extra for purchasing the proper font license. Artwork in the book? Let’s talk. There’s options out there.

Manuscripts have been embellished since they first were committed to paper. Typesetting evolved from painted imagery to moveable type to digital form. With over 30 year of typesetting and publication experience, Misfit Ink understands the industry, the tricks, and how to get you a polished product with minimal issues.

Addressing the second reason to skip typesetting. First, self-publishing services offer “easy” upload of basic document formats. Styles from those documents are usually kept or adapted to the standard formatting accepted by the publisher. But… your mileage may vary.

To illustrate, we set a manuscript written in Google Docs. For some reason, a legacy color override traveled from the Docs version into the epub formatting. When checked for readers who use dark mode, this color override made half the book’s text GRAY. It took three different software debuggers to figure out where the color was introduced. Knowing where to find that setting and how to override any issues your readers will encounter is important to us.

Reach out today for a quote on your project.