Book design and production
Book design should make the work visible before the first page is read.
Sentinel House Press develops coordinated covers, interiors, print files, ebook files, and production systems for memoir and serious nonfiction.
Discuss book design and productionThe cover is positioning, not decoration.
A professional cover communicates genre, tone, authority, emotional atmosphere, and intended reader at a glance. The strongest direction comes from the book’s central idea rather than from visual trends or a pile of unrelated references.
The interior is the reading experience.
Interior design addresses hierarchy, typography, chapter openings, margins, running heads, folios, quotations, notes, images, front matter, back matter, and the physical rhythm of the book. Formatting is not merely making text fit on pages.
Print and ebook are different systems.
Print files must satisfy trim, bleed, spine, image, font, and platform requirements. Reflowable ebooks require a different structure and should not be treated as shrunken PDFs. Each format receives appropriate production and quality control.
What the engagement may include
Scope may include cover concept, front and back cover, spine, interior sample, full layout, print-ready PDF, EPUB, proof corrections, platform-specific file preparation, and production coordination. Revision limits and approval gates are defined before design begins.
What design cannot guarantee
Professional design supports credibility, reader trust, discoverability, and market fit. It cannot guarantee sales, reviews, retailer promotion, or bookstore stocking. The visual system must support a larger publishing strategy.
Begin with the actual manuscript.
Tell us what the book is trying to become, where it stands now, and which decisions remain unresolved.
Tell us about your manuscript