How to Create a Coffee-Table Book

According to Style at Home, coffee-table books are conversation starters among guests in your home. They should be visually pleasing but also informative, Style at Home adds, including captivating photographs or images accompanied with explanatory text captions. Create a coffee-table book to put in your own living room or to give friends for the holidays. It is best to focus on a theme that reflects your interests and expertise, as this will come across on the page. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Decide on a theme for your coffee-table book. Consider your target audience. Try to cater it around digital pictures you have taken or plan on taking.

2

Compile photographs and graphics that you will use. Write a rough draft of text captions. For a general audience book, this may require research to uncover interesting facts. For a personal coffee-table book, this could entail touching stories about each loved one.

3

Format your coffee-table book using a desktop publishing program, such as Adobe PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher or AppleWorks. Choose the margin sizes, picture layouts per page and fonts. Create titles for different sections of the book.

4

Choose an image for the front and back cover of your book. Go over your text to make sure it represents the overall story or tone you are trying to represent. Check for spelling and grammar errors. When you have finished designing each page, prepare a table of contents.

5

Print the finished product, either at home or through a photo book service. If you are hoping to propose this to a publishing company, find out what its submission guidelines are. Some publishers do not want bound manuscripts and require documents to be solicited by an agent.