12 Font, Times New Roman, 6 x 9 paperback...Is the font too big?

[Eric S. Kim]

So basically, I've already published 2 of my books on Kindle (both eBook and paperback). The paperback is 6 x 9, but it's in 12 font for Times New Roman. Is the font too big for a 6 x 9? Should I make the next book 11 Font?

[Bill Hiatt]

I checked a few references, and the advice varies a little. 11 pt seems to be roughly average, with the caveat that it depends on what kind of book you're doing and what font you use. (Children's books typically have bigger print, for example. Times New Roman gives a similar feel at 12 to what Adobe Garamond Pro does at 11.)

I've never heard anyone say the page size matters when selecting a type size. Really small mass market paperbacks used to have somewhat smaller print I think, but for most sizes, I wouldn't think that would be desirable. (And those really small ones, with almost no margins, aren't a good model for us to emulate.)

People more familiar than I with design might want to weigh in, but I understand Times New Roman isn't well regarded as a font choice for books. As with size, I just checked a few references, and TNR is mentioned in passing as one commonly used in newspapers. It never seems to be the one recommended in articles that discuss good font choices.

[TimothyEllis]

I intensely dislike the 9x6 format.

It makes the book too big, and correspondingly heaver than it needs to be.

In Australia, I think the only reason it was introduced was to justify holding the price above $20.

[Vijaya]

I intensely dislike the 9x6 format.

It makes the book too big, and correspondingly heaver than it needs to be.

In Australia, I think the only reason it was introduced was to justify holding the price above $20.

I chose 5.25 x 8 for several reasons:

1. Many of the copies of my favorite books are 5.25 x 8.
2. It's more compact than 6x9 but easier to hold and read than mass market PBs.
3. The required cover image size happens to be almost identical to that requested by KDP, meaning I can create a single master image and then crop it to each dimension without having to recreate it at a different scale or resize and lose detail.

This. For fiction I like the smaller, compact size (I have very small hands, like the size of most 10-yr-olds). But for nonfiction, I like a bigger trim size, with 6x9 as a starting size, esp. if there are going to be pictures or tables. A font size of 10.5-11 is fine for reading, 12 is too big (Times New Roman). What's even easier on the eyes is having a bit more space between the lines. You also don't want to make the book too big--it's more expensive to print.

[LilyBLily]

I also do 5.25 x 8, a necessity when one writes 50k-long romances; otherwise they'd look like pamphlets. My women's fiction, double that length, ends up being a nice thick book, just perfect for tossing into a beach bag and crushing one's chips or sunglasses or whatever.

I spent time at the bookstore surveying what they had on the shelves before I decided on the trim size. What I saw was that 6 x 9 books were not easy to shelve alongside mass market paperbacks, so they tended to get stuck at the beginning of the section. This could be viewed as an advantage but also a disadvantage. The bigger trim sizes didn't look right. The cost of printing really isn't a consideration for me. I want the reader's experience to be seamless. 

[dgcasey]

I also do 5.25 x 8, a necessity when one writes 50k-long romances; otherwise they'd look like pamphlets. My women's fiction, double that length, ends up being a nice thick book, just perfect for tossing into a beach bag and crushing one's chips or sunglasses or whatever.

When I first started putting my initial paperbacks together, I did some research on Amazon, looking at the sizes of print books. The dimensions are listed right on the book's product page. I found the majority of the trad-published fiction paperbacks were in the 5.25x8" range and so that's where I've gone. I use Garamond 12 for my typeface, which give a nice, enjoyable read. I currently have my line spacing set to 1.15, which keeps the lines from looking like they're crammed together. This gives me around 300-325 words per page with my current margin settings.

Obviously, the goal is to make your paperback look as much like a trad-pub book as possible. I don't want anyone to pull my book off the shelf and open it and say, "Oh man, this is some self published piece of crap." I want it to be indistinguishable from a trad-pub and for it to not even occur to a reader that it isn't.

[MaxDaemon]

So basically, I've already published 2 of my books on Kindle (both eBook and paperback). The paperback is 6 x 9, but it's in 12 font for Times New Roman. Is the font too big for a 6 x 9? Should I make the next book 11 Font?

I've been doing 6X9 as well, it seems to be what Amazon "likes". Now that I've read the replies, though, I plan to change to the smaller size next time I update my content/cover. I was always thinking the 6X9 was a little odd ...

[Gessert Books]

12pt is perfectly ok for that size. You generally want to land somewhere between 55-80 characters per line. At 12pt I imagine you'll land somewhere on the lower end of that range depending on the font you use.

[j tanner]

12 pt is perfectly fine.

Times is a poor font choice for novels.