What is book format?
It is important for an author to know about book formats. A book format is how your book looks. It’s the physical appearance of the book. Book format varies from publisher to publisher, based on your preferences and book genre. Mostly used format is trade paperback. They matter a lot in self publishing.
Top Book Formats
Paperback
A paperback book is also known as softbook cover. It’s a printed book whose pages are bound together by glue and the cover is made of flexible cardboard. Due to being flexible, light weight, flexible and of course cost effective it is most widely and common used book format.
Hardcover
A hardcover (or hardback) comes with a protective cover. The cover is glued on hardboards glued together. Hardbacks are more durable and stronger as compared to paperback books. They are also expensive in terms of cost. Mostly Children Books have hardcover format. Usually Hardcovers come with a Dust Jacket but only hardback case is good too.
Dust Jacket
Dust Jacket or dust wrapper Covers are an extra protective cover with flaps on the hardback case. They are made of paperback paper and serve as a wrapper for the book. The flaps (known as front & back flaps) hold the jacket on the book. They improve the physical appearance of the book and make it more appealing. Dust Jacket books are more costly then hardback and paperback.
Saddle Stich
Saddle stich books are low content books joined together by stapler pins.The sheets of paper are folded into one another and then stappled. Mostly Brochures, Booklets use this format.
Coil Bound
Coil Bound also known as Spiral Binding is popular and relatively simple book binding method. In coil bound format the pages of book are hold together by a round coil passed through the punched holes along the spinal edge of the pages. The most useful advantage of coil bound is that the pages can be fully opened as they are folded back on themselves.
Photo Book
Photo Books are low content books that show the photographic work of the writer. They have different  trim sizes like 5 x 8 and 10x 8. Square trim sizes are also available.
Kindle Or Ebooks
Ebooks or kindle books are designed to be read on electronic devices like e readers, tablets, mobile phones. They are mostly published with paperback books and have same formatting like paperbacks. Popular Ebook Publishers are
- Amazon Kindle
- IngramSpark
- Apple Books
- Lulu
- B&N
- Draft 2 Digital
Audio Books
Audio Books are recordings of books read out loud. Listeners can hear the content of the book rather than reading. They are available in CD’s, tapes and mp3 format. You can publish your audio books on Amazon kindle and others.
Are you looking forward to publish your book yourself? Check top self publishing platforms list.
