readers have with your material? These lonely fragments are called “widows” and your interior designer knows how to correct them. But, truthfully, that’s only a small part of the problem. The main reason that it’s so complicated and expensive is that nobody wants to do it. Interior layout is hard, tiring work, and requires a lot of hours from someone with at least a strong baseline of design skills. Most designers went into the field because they love working on beau- tiful, creative projects. Interior print layout has those elements, sure—but also demands a lot of precision and “boring” practical considerations that designers don’t always like to be constrained by (not unlike, say, industrial design). SHOULD I SKIP A PRINT VERSION ENTIRELY? Print books are a lot of work. So why should you even do them? The reason is actually that you should do them precisely because they’re a lot of work. The book market is flooded with thousands of new authors every day. As you know, it can be difficult to stand out. Because of how challenging doing a good print book is, and how embarrassingly ugly it can be when done wrong, a lot of new authors are veering away from the challenge and publishing in eBook format only. In many circles, this has started to be a divid- ing line between books that should be taken seriously, and books that shouldn’t. Many people see eBooks as “not real books” and dismiss them as less impressive than paperbacks. If you are doing a business book, then this is crucial. You can’t really hand out (or sell) an eBook at a conference or speaking engagement. Creating a high-quality paperback or hardcover version is one of DESigN yOUr BOOk lAyOUT · 297