Tuesday’s writing tip for authors

Ina Saltz’s Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working With Type provides authors with an excellent example of successful information architecture and content organization for all types of nonfiction books.

Typography Essentials illustrates why authors should search for inspiration and writing tips outside of their field. It also shows why authors should pay as much attention to choosing the structure of their book as they pay to choosing the words used when they write their book.

Structure: sections and chapters

The right structure helps both authors writing a book and readers reading the book.

Typographic Essentials is organized as 100 short, 2-page chapters. Each chapter describes and illustrates a single idea or principle. The left and the right-hand pages are designed as a unit. The left-hand page contains a headline and brief description of the principle. The remaining space on the spread contains illustrations showing the principle at work.

Organizing chapters into a logical content hierarchy

What makes Typography Essentials so interesting is the way the sections and chapters build on each other. The 100 chapters are divided into 4 sections, organized and presented in an inherently logical order:

• Section 1: The Letter. The letter is the fundamental building block of typography.
• Section 2: The Word. Letters rarely appear by themselves; letters combine to create words.
• Section 3: The Paragraph. Words, in turn, are grouped into paragraphs.
• Section 4: The Page. Paragraphs, in turn, create pages.

The result is a very pleasing organization that provides a logical “micro to macro” progress, or journey, for readers. It’s an idea that can be applied in numerous ways.

Once you have determined the structure of your book, writing your book becomes far easier.

Takeaway

Ask yourself: What is the hiearchy of information in your field? Can you organize your ideas into a book of principles that logically moves from small building blocks to progressively larger topics?

What’s your equivalent of letters, words, paragraphs, and pages?