What Are the Standard Book Sizes in Publishing?

瞥了一眼最近的书架。您是否注意到书籍有各种形状和大小？与普遍的看法相反，这并不是因为出版商违反了我们书架的完美对称性。事实是，书籍规模根据每本书而变化，并且出版商根据经济，实用和艺术因素来确定这些规模。

If you’re a self-publisher planning toproduce physical copies of your book，，，，you might be wondering if this should matter to you. The answer: yes. Your choice of book size will not only affecthow you go about typesetting your manuscript但是您的听众的阅读经验和潜在的利润率。

In this post, we’ll take you through the standard book sizes in the industry, why they’re important, and what should be on your mind as you pick out the best trim size for your own book.

什么是修剪尺寸？

“修剪大小”本质上是“书籍大小”的出版术语。打印并绑定每个副本后，本书被机械地“修剪”，以使每个页面的大小都是均匀的。修剪大小以宽度x高度格式相关联。

In the U.S., the trim size is denoted in inches; in Europe, it’s in millimeters. For future reference, we’ll be using the U.S. format and talking about U.S. book sizes in this post.

Why does trim size matter?

询问为什么您应该关心书的修剪大小类似于问：“为什么人们会大惊小怪iPhone的形状？”您想要一部光滑且喜悦的手机，而不是一个笨拙的笨拙的电话。以几乎相同的方式，您可以将修剪尺寸的重要性归结为三件事：阅读经验，可销售性和成本。

修剪大小决定了书的演示

如果您想象自己的物理书是房子，那么修剪大小就是它的足迹。它的大小与“房地产”的大小相关，并影响您书的内部和外部。

In a nutshell, the trim size dictates your page count. The smaller your trim size, the more pages will be required for your content. It also impacts your book’s spine: the more pages in your book, the thicker its spine will be — and the more substantial it will appear on the bookshelf. Your choice of trim size will also assert a ripple effect on most aspects of your book’s interior. How many words will fit comfortably on a page? How wide can your margins go?

在排版书籍时，您需要在页面上操纵许多成分：从基线网格到字体大小的所有内容。页面修剪大小是这种复杂平衡的关键部分，这是您需要决定的第一个，这将创造出一本漂亮的书。

要了解有关排版艺术的更多信息，查看此底漆。

Trim size affects costs and pricing

Another important reason to care about your choice of trim size: it can affect your printing costs. Since print-on-demand presses charge you based on page count (and page count depends on trim size), your book’s size could possess a knock-on effect on your final profit margin.

但是更多地谈论成本和定价！首先，我们将直接深入研究您可能想知道的东西：出版行业的标准书籍规模是多少？

PSST - 想找出您是否100％准备好自行出版书籍？在下面进行简短的测验，以发现您可能错过的哪些步骤。

What are the industry's terms for trim sizes?

标准书籍尺寸可能会因您的类型而异。首先，让我们定义一些熟悉的行业术语，为您提供接下来的数字的一些背景。

大众市场平装本：紧凑且廉价制作的书籍（也称为袖珍书）约为4.25英寸x 6.87英寸。您会在杂货店和超市的架子上找到它们。

贸易平装本:你可能会选择在一个更好的书Barnes & Noble bookstore, trade paperbacks are probably what you picture when you think of a paperback book. Trade paperback sizes will range anywhere from 5.5” x 8.5” (a size that’s called digest) to 6” x 9” (also known as US trade). In today’s market, this is the go-to paperback size range for many novels, memoirs, and non-fiction books.

Hardcover: You’ll probably be familiar with these premium formats. These book sizes tend to range from 6” x 9” to 8.5” x 11”.

这是对某些贸易平装本规模的现实比较：

现在，您已经有了参考框架，现在该变得广泛了！让我们通过流派分解书籍大小。

What are the standard book sizes in publishing?

For your reference, the standard book sizes in inches are:

• 小说: 4.25 x 6.87, 5 x 8, 5.25 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9
• 中篇小说: 5 x 8
• Children’s: 7.5 x 7.5, 7 x 10, 10 x 8
• Textbooks: 6 x 9, 7 x 10, 8.5 x 11
• Non-fiction: 5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9, 7 x 10"
• 回忆录: 5.25 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5
• 摄影：无论您认为合适！

信息图：每种类型的标准书籍大小

Here is a visual comparison of these sizes below:

我应该如何选择我的书的尺寸？

没有明确的方法来确定书籍的“最佳”装饰尺寸，因为它最终取决于您的个人美学偏好。也就是说，我们已经指出了下面的决策过程的一些关键考虑。

Digital or offset?

例如，您想打印一本不寻常的4英寸x 20英寸的书。那可能吗？

Sure, if you use something called offset printing. An offset printing company will charge you upfront, and you can use them to print almost any custom size you want.

但是，共识是偏移打印仅是财务上有意义的when you’re planning on doing a big print run— or when you absolutely must get your book printed in a size that no print-on-demand company offers. Otherwise, most authors are fine choosing one of the book sizes offered by print-on-demand companies.

We’re focusing on digital printing in this post and the following tips are for picking a POD size. Speaking of which...

在选择装饰尺寸之前，我应该考虑什么？

Before settling on a paperback size, consider these three factors which will play a很大role in your decision (get it?):

Choose a trim size that suits your word count

A general guidepost: the more words in your manuscript, the bigger your book’s trim size can be. It makes sense, since that’ll reduce page count. (Take饥饿游戏，是101,900个单词。它的贸易平装本尺寸为5.5英寸x 8.5英寸。）反之亦然，如果您的书短，则较小的装饰尺寸可以使其看起来更加实质。欧内斯特·海明威（Ernest Hemingway）太阳也升起例如，是67,707个单词，其企鹅经典的平装本版本相对较小的5.2“ x 8”框架。

Tailor your trim size to genre standards

When readers are searching for their next book, you can bet that they’ll gravitate to the familiar.“这本书看起来像我喜欢的另一本书 - 也许我会检查一下。”So if you publish a Harlequin-style romance novel using a 9” x 7” trim size, it’ll almost certainly throw fans of the genre off — and not in a good way.

由于您最好的营销移动（十分之九）是使您的书满足潜在的读者的期望，绝对要仔细检查在外挡和选择该类型中极为罕见的装饰尺寸之前，对特定类型的典型测量值进行了仔细检查。大多数作者选择的装饰尺寸可与主流贸易平装本的类型发行相当。

考虑成本的影响

If you plan on printing digitally, keep in mind that print-on-demand printing presses will charge you based on your page count. The more pages in your book, the more the cost of printing will be — and the smaller your profit margin!

Page count also plays a role in the royalties you’ll retain (since print-on-demand companies will share part of your compensation). Based on a retail price of $11 and a standard book size of 5.5” x 8.5”, we broke down a theoretical situation for you below. Here are your royalties if your page count was:

即使这可能会使较大的书籍大小（较少的页面）突然看起来很有吸引力，但您不一定想直接以最便宜的方式奔跑。为了与我们当天的主题保持一致，这取决于您的目标受众。粉丝cookbooks例如，将欣赏高级产品。如果读者是6“ x 9”，读者是否可以轻松地将您的书丢弃？可能不会。如果您希望人们在旅途中阅读您的书，则可能希望以5.5“ x 8.5”或更便携的相似尺寸的目标目标。

我们最好的建议是在书店里花一些时间以磁带度量。在您的类型中研究书籍，并衡量平装本。然后拿起一本书。感觉如何？笨拙，还是正确？内容是否舒适地贴在页面上？当您将其放回架子上时，它会脱颖而出还是在您的类型中“匹配”其他书籍？如果您已经决定打印书籍，那么值得记住的是，物理书应始终在电子书上增加一些价值。所以要计算！

Putting it together

下一个是什么？

As we mentioned earlier, print-on-demand presses such as Blurb, KDP Print, and IngramSpark will offer you a sheet of trim sizes (布鲁尔的，，，，KDP’s，，，，IngramSpark’s). Look through them carefully and take into account the different distribution options. Familiarize yourself with the dimensions on offer. And make sure you view a sample chapter to find out what your content will look like on the page.

For our review of four major print-on-demand services,查看这篇文章。

If you want to experiment with book sizes and the way they might impact your typesetting choices, theReedsy Book Editorallows you to do so for free. The Editor also provides four popular trim sizes for formatting (4.25 x 6.87 in, 5 x 8 in, 5.5 x 8.5 in, 6 x 9 in).

在您身边有一些现实生活中的例子，您应该更好地了解哪种修剪尺寸最适合您的书。而且，如果您发现自己真的很努力地在书籍大小之间进行选择（尤其是对于那些从事插图内容或需要正确纸张和格式的独特产品的人），为什么不接触专业书籍生产经理有一些建议？他们在这些问题上的专业知识是无与伦比的，他们将能够打磨您的项目 - 尤其是如果您正在研究一本书中必须在书架上显得专业的书籍。

Trim sizes, with all their complicated, similar-sounding numbers can be confusing — but they're worth wrapping your mind around if you keep the end product in sight: a beautiful book.