Author: Mike McCandless

WordPress user since 2005. Managing websites TouchwoodPress.com and DadsRecipeBox.com.

Trim sizes

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If you’ve taken my Publish It Yourself Course or read my book the Publish It Yourself Primer, you know a little about trim sizes. “Trim size” is one of those holdover terms left over from the days when analog printing was all there was. For efficiency, book pages were, and still are, printed on large sheets of paper. They come off the press, are stacked, and then cut, or “trimmed,” to size. Then they are gathered in book sets with all the pages in the right order. This work was originally done by highly-skilled printers, then later, computers helped to speed things up. Just like now.

The size of your book plays a part in how it’s perceived, in general and against other books in its genre. Not every country prints books in the same sizes used by American printers.

I asked Google Gemini whether I should consider re-designing the Touchwood Press 50 Fun Facts baseball books for international markets, now that baseball is rapidly growing as a global sport.

Dear AI: I have published a series on books on baseball teams and used a trim size of 5″ x 8″ to make them easily portable and pocket-sized. Should I change the trim size for international markets?

Gemini: While your 5″ x 8″ trim size is a classic, portable choice that works well in many markets, there are a few professional and logistical reasons you might consider adjusting it for international distribution—specifically if you are looking at the UK and Commonwealth markets.

Here is a breakdown of how trim sizes translate globally:

1. The “Trade Paperback” Standard

In the United States, 5″ x 8″ and 5.5″ x 8.5″ are standard for trade paperbacks. However, in the UK and Australia, the standard “B-Format” is slightly different:

  • UK B-Format: Approximately 5.1″ x 7.8″ (129mm x 198mm).
  • Your Current Size: 5″ x 8″ is very close to this, meaning it won’t look “wrong” on a shelf next to British sports books. It is actually a very safe “middle ground” size.
2. Industry Expectations by Category

According to the IngramSpark guide to popular trim sizes, different genres have “trained” readers to expect certain dimensions.

  • Reference & Nonfiction: Many international nonfiction titles lean toward 5.5″ x 8.5″ or 6″ x 9″.
  • Portability: Since your brand is built on being “pocket-sized,” staying small is a smart move. Moving to a larger size like 6″ x 9″ might alienate your current fans who value the portability.
3. Print-on-Demand (POD) Economics

If you use services like IngramSpark or KDP for international distribution, you should check if your specific size is “Standard” or “Custom” in those regions.

  • Distribution Reach: Most POD services offer 5″ x 8″ as a standard size globally. If you chose a highly unusual custom size, you might be restricted from “Expanded Distribution,” but 5″ x 8″ is widely supported.
  • Page Count & Pricing: If you change to a smaller size, your page count will increase, which can raise the print cost and lower your profit margin per book.
4. The “Look and Feel” Factor

As noted by Amy Collins, book buyers and librarians are often “trained” to recognize professional quality by the trim size. A 5″ x 8″ book:

  • Feels like a Mass Market or B-Format book in the UK.
  • Is perfect for “commuter reading,” which is a huge market in Europe and Asia.
Recommendation

I wouldn’t recommend changing it. Your 5″ x 8″ size is globally recognized as a standard portable format. Changing it for international markets would require you to manage multiple interior layouts (files) and different cover wraps for the same book, which increases your overhead and the risk of formatting errors. The “pocket-sized” branding is a unique selling point for a sports series—stick with it to maintain brand consistency across the globe.

Gee, thanks. I’ll stick with my current strategy.

There’s a lot I could unpack in AI’s comments, but that will wait for another post or book. Let us know if you have questions.

Good writing!

The Farm System

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Book publishing sales growth is impressive to say the least. Furthermore, the number of traditionally published books increased 10% between 2022 and 2025, while during this period, self-published books jumped 43.5%. — Publishers Weekly, 17 March 2026.

So, what does this really mean?

Traditional publishers have been playing catch-up for more than 20 years. It has been clear for at least that long that a) self-publishing is a thing no matter how trad publishers have criticized it; b) people still like books; c) traditional publishing was collapsing under its own weight; d) there was probably a better way for large enterprises to continue publishing.

So much can be written about this trend, but the scope of this post is that traditional publishers, in their corporate wisdom and struggle to survive, and whether accidentally or strategically, have turned the self-publishing phenomenon into a business opportunity by using the self-publishing marketplace as their farm system — yes, just like baseball.

Imagine

Imagine me as the CEO of Mammoth Publishing, Inc. Why would I invest millions in finding, grooming, and advancing more authors than is absolutely necessary? Let them duke it out themselves in the global bookstore that is Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. I’ll keep my eyes glued to the winners and recruit them to our team. Better yet, let’s start our own businesses (farm clubs) to help find and develop new publishers, and make them pay for the privilege. This is exactly what’s happening with the advent of publishing services like Archway Publishing (Simon & Shuster) and Westbow Press (Nelson/Zondervan).

I am not complaining here. I am celebrating the creativity not only of book writers but corporate leaders trying to meet quarterly earnings goals. Services like Archway and Westbow are like other publishing services: they provide the help you need to publish your book, with you doing the marketing, and then wait in the wings to welcome you into their fold. Everyone wins. Corporate publishing survives.

The results are in. Self-published book sales are growing four times faster than traditionally-published sales. People like books more than ever. The publishing farm system helps everyone.

See this Publishers Weekly article for more.

More about the three ways to publish.

Best tools for my project? There are so many!

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Is this your first self-publishing project? Assuming it is, I say, “Keep it simple!” Lucky for us, we can start at the top, as it were, by starting our self-publishing journey in Amazon-land, using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Why lucky? Because Amazon already sells more than 70% of all e-books and can give you access to just about any market or reader audience segment. So, the tool/platform I recommend, especially for starters, is Kindle Direct Publishing.

This doesn’t really answer the question, though, does it? As you already have seen, there are dozens, at least, of tools, platforms, distribution channels, and publishing services providers to choose from. I’m just saying if the leading provider of just about everything is free/cheap and easy to use and you get all its massive marketing machine working for you, why not start there? There’s plenty of time to get deeper into the marketplace and engineer the perfect set of capabilities and resources for you. Whatever you decide, best of luck to ya’!

How do I copyright my book?

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The right to make copies of any creative work belong automatically, naturally, and legally to its creator. There is easy-to-access information about copyright basics available at copyright.gov. Get started on this page. Briefly, you do not need to file a form or pay a fee to claim and hold the copyright to your work. At your first opportunity, you should simply add a copyright notice to your draft manuscript. That is enough to claim your copyright. Make sure that all copies of your work carry your copyright notice. The standard form for this is “Copyright [year] [name of copyright owner].” The copyright symbol (which can be rendered as (c) if you can’t insert the fancier version, ©) isn’t necessary but is normally used. Later, if you want to register your copyrighted work, you can do so starting at copyright.gov.

Writing Starters

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Available now on Amazon in paperback or e-book.

New from Touchwood Press, Writing Starters: Appetizers for Your Brain gives you 52 prompts to inspire your writing. Organized into four 13-Starter volumes, the Writing Starters series probes your Memories, Experiences, Opinions, and Self-Perceptions to help generate new ideas for your novel, memoir, biography, or poetry.

The path to creative writing output is sometimes littered with false starts, failed self-tests, and blocked paths that looked great yesterday. But help is on the way in Writing Starter: Appetizers for Your Brain. These pages contain fuel to feed your little gray cells and get you thinking. They may be just what you need to get your writing out!

A few starters to get you started:

  • Memories: Write a thank you letter to your favorite teacher.
  • Experiences: It was a dark and stormy night. Eek! Provide details.
  • Opinions: Does money really make the world go around?
  • About You: Introvert or Extrovert? Can you relate?

Adding illustrations

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Can I start by uploading a text-only version of an eBook—to KDP, most likely—and later update the book to include the illustrations? This would let me get the story “out there” more quickly. I should only need one more revision pass to get the text ready.

Yes, you can do this, but do you really want to? One great thing about eBooks is you can upload and publish new versions anytime, with some limitations.

In your case, you might decide to make the two books discrete products—a print version and an illustrated version. But take care to make each version a quality product, putting your best foot forward with what you’ve got to offer. If the book is really lacking without the illustrations, wait until you’re ready to include them.

But yes, it is technically possible to upload new and improved versions of your book. Doing this and nothing else will change the deliverable that readers download. Do you really want to deal with readers’ disappointments over needing to “upgrade” their books? Or worse, pay for an upgrade if you sell the illustrated version separately?

Another consideration is that you want to avoid disappointing the buyers of the non-illustrated version once the illustrated version comes out. You might offer the second version free or at a steep discount. It’s all about building and taking care of your readers and your brand.

So, this is a win-lose situation most of the time.

Self-publishing reads

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Get some help and learning from the folks who track with the latest in self-publishing news about people, tools, and technologies. How much time is enough to stay current? You need to be selective. I follow these experts:

  • Mark Dawson: The Self Publishing Formula and Self Publishing Show podcast. Lawyer turned best-seller author, Mark and his partner and former BBC producer James Blatch produce a best-in-class podcast worth a weekly hour. 
  • Joanna Penn is, fair to say, the fount of everything worth knowing about self-publishing with her books, courses, Kickstarters, and podcast.
  • The Independent Book Publishers Association: professional association for self-publishers and small presses. A great community for engaging with publishing peers.
  • Jane Friedman: author, speaker, teacher, and professional publishing veteran Jane has long reported on the publishing industry via her newsletters and courses. A quality read/listen from an insider.  

Is there a poetry template available somewhere for Word?

Published on by Mike McCandless1 Comment

I haven’t come across one. Poetry, by its nature, lends itself to create structure and layout, that would defy templatizing. If your poetry is relatively simple and straightforward, break the lines where it feels good to break them. Don’t agonize over punctuation, but use it to give the reader the pacing you think the poem calls for. Exercise your creativity.