While I appreciate and encourage personal expression, it's also frustrating to me when people make things difficult to read for others. One of my biggest complaints is when there isn't enough contrast between letters and their background. Why write something that can barely be read? It happens a lot.

It's good to express your personality. However, when you make people struggle to read something, it comes across as... arrogant? inconsiderate? I'm not sure the right word, but I find it irritating.

Hindering comprehension is beyond mere aesthetics.

I have come across a few books that are trying to be artsy and "more than just a book" and if you take away the pictures and fancy typography and and all that ... well, you just end up with a mediocre story.

Nowadays, whenever I see a book doing something different with the layout I'm wondering if its just trying to make itself look much more interesting than it actually is.

Personal expression and unique books are great. But it sounds like the things you mentioned don't make the book better. Things lacking context, random capitalization, and poor readability aren't things I think I would appreciate unless it somehow actually lends itself to the theme of the book, which seems unlikely. It sounds like it might be endearing to you because you already know the author.

I thought this was going to be about book covers, but am I wrong in thinking that this is more about formatting? As someone else said, it sounds like this detracted from the reading experience, and the saving grace was that you were able to more clearly see your friend as you knew them in the writing because of it.

I think to a certain extent authors having control over how their book is formatted works is cool. Lemony Snicket had that one chapter/couple of pages that was just a word repeated over and over, or something like that.

I once started reading a book where all the words were spelled phonetically.

I had to put it down after only a few pages, it was a chore to read.

I believe what you're referring to is typography; the arrangement of the typeface (font), size, line lengths, line-spacing, and letter-spacing etc in relation to the page space available.

As a collector of books from publishers that either have a history, or are still printed, by letterpress where exacting typographic standards are necessary to the overall broader aesthetic of the book; I do find it does very much matter. I have bought the odd mass printed edition over the years that have had awful typography; especially some packed story collections where the publisher tries to jam as much into the pages to save on spending money on splitting them into separate volumes thus making the entire text block jammed and claustrophobic that pushes right up the page edges with barely any margins for the text to "breath." An overall awful reading experience.

I’d say you have better created a masterpiece if you’re going to make people work to read it. You also don’t want to discount the skill necessary to make things quirky and better, instead of quirky and worse. It sounds like your friend isn’t comfortable in their ability to get their story across using their chosen medium, and so is forced to utilise alternative methods to do so. Do you think you would have finished the book if you didn’t know the author?

Here's a thought. Can you look at the book objectively and not as the work of a friend? If his choices are bad for everyone who doesn't know him, then he made a book for a limited group of people, and maybe no one but himself. So what would be the point of publishing independently instead of saying, making 10 copies and handing them out? Anyone can do it "their way" that doesn't make it good or right or appealing to anyone but the writer. Sounds like he made personal journal.

Yes, it definitely matters to me! I prefer easily readable fonts and simple formatting/typography. I don't really want to be distracted by "aesthetics", unless the aesthetics are illustrations or photographs that accompany the story.

I’d say you have better created a masterpiece if you’re going to make people work to read it. You also don’t want to discount the skill necessary to make things quirky and better, instead of quirky and worse. It sounds like your friend isn’t comfortable in their ability to get their story across using their chosen medium, and so is forced to utilise alternative methods to do so. Do you think you would have finished the book if you didn’t know the author?

In my day to day reading, not so much. But my very favourite books I tend to collect in fine editions. Things like leather bound Franklin library editions, Folio Society and such.

One of my favourite books in my collection is a lovely Franklin library edition of Poe's stories. Red leather, a gold inlaid geometric pattern on the cover, heavy paper and every story has an ink illustration. I love reading that book on stormy autumn days, sometimes just stopping to picture the stories while running my fingers over the leather.

One of my biggest splurge purchases recently is a folio society edition of the never ending story that is made exactly as the book itself is described in the story. The shimmering golden silk cover, the depiction of the Auryn. The only difference is that the book has beautiful illustrations while the book described in the story does not.

It's a joy just turning those thick pages. Stuff like this just turns the whole act of reading into an experience for me.

Tolkein wanted the Lord of the Rings to be presented as an ancient manuscript, rediscovered after a library fire, and he wanted copies to actually be scorched a bit before they were sold, to add some tactile and olfactory sensation reinforcing this notion. His publisher said it couldn't be done.

I mean it's entirely up to the author what they want their book to be like, but yeah things like that will narrow the audience and readership for sure.

House of Leaves is a good example of a book that experimented with formatting successfully. That said, it's pretty rare and it's important to understand why best practices exist, and practice working within those bounds, to be able to successfully break them. I think the odds of your friend pulling this off are low, but not impossible.

I'm assuming by "got published", you mean self-published. This would reduce my confidence in the experimentation being successful since there wasn't an additional layer of critique involved. I'm not saying that self-published authors haven't produced good work, because they absolutely have, just that there is value in an additional set of eyes in the decision making process.

I googled it and came up with a hit on the author and now I'm not sure this post is anything more than proof of concept for some marketing experiment.

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Who doesn't like aesthetically pleasing books? But it's not a deal breaker for me if the design or even formatting is off. I've read self-publishing books (e-books mostly) that still got the "this is a preview.indd" in them every chapter, or that have a cover someones teenage kid made in blender. Some of those were awesome books, just very badly designed. Yeah - the formatting can be disturbing, but I overlook it if it's just a minor problem. As long as it's readable enough to not distract from the story too much, it doesn't get an immediate downvote from me.

I'm fine with wonky aesthetics if it suits the theme or narrative of the book in some way, or is otherwise just part of the author's vision. I may not always personally like it, but I will respect it.

However, if it's wonky just because of lazy publishing/editing, then i'll be a bit put off. Quality writing can and will make it tolerable, as long as the work is still legible, but a certain degree of presentation is important to avoid making the act of reading unnecessary unpleasant.

I flip books before I buy them because I don’t want the eye strain caused by an amateurs lack of effort.

A good book designer makes the choices that reflect the vision of the book. A lot of times writers have ideas about what they want. They will mention specific fonts and margins. But if you actually talk to them about WHY they want those things, a good designer can accomplish them better without sacrificing readability.

I think the grey background is a big no from me, but everything else is cool and quirky

Generally, the aesthetics of a book don't matter much to me, but I also never see books with aesthetics like the one you're describing. What you've mentioned would be distracting enough to me that I probably wouldn't read the book.

I don't care about design unless it's detrimental to my ability to read the book, then I care and I am not pleased. I'm surprised the publisher allowed such changes which seem to conflict with accessibility standards. Issues like the typeface and lack of contrast between background color and the text opens up the publisher to problems should someone decide to sue. But, they must not care, or don't know about the importance of accessibility and just wanted to please the author. :|

Yeah... I literally wouldn't read that book based on your description of the aesthetics

Obviously, literature and writing is its own art, but if the goal is to treat a book more as a visual art piece when seen as a whole, then do what you want. But if the goal is to be ready then there's no need to re-invent the wheel here.

I love to read traditional paragraph books and books that have unique styles of writing. I do not want to squint, stare or be confused by what I am looking at or reading.

Yes the aesthetics of a book matter to me. I'm retired, my eyes are not young and I do not want to strain my eyes to read for pleasure. Glasses and good lighting can only get you so far at my age. Thank God for smartphones with lights and zoom features.

A book like that feels more like artistic expression and if that is more important to the author than sales or profits, good for them. As long as they understand that they are limiting their reach by making it inaccessible to some people.

I do like when books are unique, such as visually showing a letter or something like that, but if I can’t quickly and easily read a page, I’m completely turned off. For example, I wouldn’t enjoy what you described in your friend’s book because it would probably slow me down or take away from my immersion in the story.

I really appreciate artistic freedom, but I do think the reader’s experience needs to be kept in mind if you want to publish a successful book.

I appreciate aesthetics as long as they are done in moderation and don't impact the readability of the book. I read because I love to read, and so I don't feel like I need the book itself to be embellished to keep or hold my interest. I'm going to read the book either way. I do get wary when I see books that have a lot of artsy touches on the pages, because I feel like I want the writing to speak for itself and not rely on these types of things to create the aesthetic or mood of the story.

That being said, minor things like small designs around the chapter titles, the font choice, even the font color, etc., are things I do appreciate in novels when done in moderation. Even beautiful jackets on hardcovers, or engraved designs on the hardcover itself are great. They aren't on every page, and don't impact readability. I think more gratuitous artistic choices are great in poetry, and one of my favorite collections has artwork all up and down the pages and worked through the poems themselves.

It sounds like in your friend's case, the aesthetic aspect might be a little overdone for the average reader. I think it's great you have come to like it and can see how it reflects who they are, but I'm not sure if this message will be communicated as well to the average reader who hasn't met your friend and doesn't know them. To them, the style might come off as confusing or distracting and they might miss how the style is a reflection of the author's personality.

The aesthetics do matter, at lest to me. I don’t want the act of reading a book to take me out of the book experience, if that makes any sense? I don’t want to be pulled away from the writing. I remember reading the huge book forever ago. It had lots of necessary footnotes. The author never wanted you to forget you were actively reading, so he stuck all the footnotes at the end of the book. Ugh.

It’s not a simple thing to answer. On the one hand, it’s great that people create the thing they have in their mind! Your friend probably feels very fulfilled that he put out the book he wanted to. As a reader, and this can also apply to music too, it’s not always audience friendly and if the artist doesn’t mind then ok.. I’ll give it a go and try to experience it as they intended. But if they have high expectations on the response then they maybe need to lower them, and get some advice from professionals who understand how to produce things in a way that doesn’t alienate the target audience.

There’s also that people are always learning, so someone’s first project probably isn’t going to be their best and as long as it’s interesting enough I’m usually willing to go with it and see how their art progresses.

The title, the cover, it’s the only thing that matters to me. That’s why I have a bookshelf full of books I haven’t read passed the first five pages.

The presentation is as important as the story. It can be an amazing story, well told, but if it's "arranged" and "presented" on the page in a weird, disruptive, unattractive, or confusing manner ... it's not going to get read. At the very least it will definitely be harder to read, and divert attention from the story as I now instead have to to puzzle out presentation and other decisions.

I look through a lot amateur stuff in certain subject categories. It is absolutely ridiculous how so few, so very few people understand that running spell check, and understanding basic grammar, is essential to making a story readable. How to use "quotation marks to indicate that, in fact, what is being read is dialog and not narrative text." How to begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.

Don't even get me started about Point of View. One of the fastest ways for me to immediately give up on any story is if they insist on writing in first person, but then want to change how many "first person characters" there are. Aka, Bob is "I", but then in the next section "I" is Jane, and then later "I" is Bob again, and then "I" becomes Phil, and on and on. Holy Crap is that annoying and distracting.

It is extremely distracting, to the point of being unreadable, to have to stop constantly to figure out ... is this dialog, or is it something else. Why are they using their instead of they're and your instead of you're constantly. Why does every single word ending in s instead end in 's.

As for "formatting presentation", that matters too. For me, since I read on screens for the past fifteen years, I have my reader app set in a way I like. A beige paper-like background, across which black text flows as I advance pages. The text file, aka the book, should just be formatted to supply the text with basic text formatting, not color or any other kind of formatting. Paragraphs, quotation marks, and we're good; tell your story now because that's what I signed up for. Which shouldn't be a tough ask since presumably the writer wrote it to tell the story in the first place, not show off design.

Now with a paper book, sure there's a thing about page presentation. But even there, I still mostly don't want to notice the presentation. I'm reading for the book, not for "oooh, look at what they did, how cute, how clever." "Presentation" should be invisible, should support the text and the story, not distract from it.

I want text on a page, and if the pages distract from the text, that's bad "presentation" and I'm much less likely to get more than a few pages in before I decide they focused on the wrong thing. If they cared that much about stuff other than the story, I figure they didn't care about the part I do, so we must not be a good match. On to the next story.

They definitely matter. In addition to things like font size and capitalization, the physical size and shape of a book can also be an issue, unconventionally shaped books can really fuck up a nice shelving system! Although I find this is usually more an issue with large art and photography books than fiction or non-fiction.

Back in the 90's there was a magazine called Raygun that used to be "playful" with their type and you'd constantly see shit like one small word being s t r e t c h e d out across a line, it was super irritating.

I'll never make my readers work harder than they already do.

I don't think I could read an entire book like that, especially the grey backgrounds as it'd drive my eyes crazy. It's fine to do things like a page that does interesting things with the text as a visual metaphor, but what you describe sounds like it'd be too much effort to parse for long periods.

There is a YA series where the font is red or green, depending on the character POV. I don't remember the title, and it may be a really good book, but it hurt my eyes too much. Generally, anything other than black doesn't work. And as I get older, white-white pages make my eyes more tired than creamier white pages...

And there have been a few books where the font didn't work well for me. I like ebooks because I can change font, size, background, etc. It definitely is better in that regard!

Aesthetics are fine, as long as the book and text is readable.

Don't do pictures, do line art. Pictures and shadeing don't really work with the printing most books use.

If you are going to have maps/diagrams/charts. Make sure they are legible. Too many times I have seen fine details get lost because it was too fine for the printing process.

A good example of good maps is the Wheel of Time Series. The hard covers have on their endsheets a beautifully done, full colour, shaded map of the world. But a few pages into the bookblock is (ususally) another map of the world. Showing the same area, but done in lineart. So same details, but perfectly legible. Where as a scan of the full colour version attempted in grey scale would have been a mess.

To a certain extent, I think we all benefit when creative people are able to be self-indulgent and odd with their choices. Because the opposite would be every detail of every book being calculated just to sell the most to the widest audience, which would be boring.

Personally i like to be able to read my books easily, so anything that hinders that would discourage me from continuing a book.

Random capitalizations and pictures are intriguing, though. I wish more novels had pictures.

Look, the truth is that your friend is never going to famous author. So best case scenario is he listens to you, makes his book more readable and... no one is gonna buy it because he'll need to spend a few hundred on advertising to make any sales. The worst case scenario is that he's resentful about you "stifling his creativity" or becomes too self-conscious to publish, and the result is still the same, no one buys his book.

So you're risking your friendship for something that won't make any difference in book sales.

A lot of writers are just objectively bad, but the process of writing and designing a book makes them happy, and as their friends, that's what we should support.