Of course, it’s subjective, but what do you typically include for the body part of a paperback other than chapter number and page number? Do you have the name of the author in the heading on each left page and the title of the book in the heading of each right page…or is it a bit of an overkill?
The book title in the left page Header, the Chapter title in the right page Header, the page number centered in the Footers.
And the Content in the middle.
If you don’t have chapter title, do you keep it as blank or do you say chapter one, chapter two, etc. ?
I am out of pocket, but I recall Bringhurst saying that, insofar as the point of these elements are for book navigation, you should think about what sort of navigation a reader needs in the sort of book you are writing. Obviously only one factor to consider, of course. No doubt books have page numbers on both recto and verso pages for symmetry, not because anyone needs both!
Look at a few recently published books similar to yours and see what they do. Grabbing a few books at random from my shelf, I found:
Fiction:
- Book title on left, chapter title on right, page numbers in header.
- Author on left, book title on right, page numbers in footer.
- No header, page numbers in footer.
- Author on left, book title on right, page numbers in header.
Non-fiction:
- Chapter title and section number on left, section title and section number on right, page numbers in header.
- Page number only on left, chapter number and title on right.
- Chapter title on both right and left, page numbers in footer.
- Left header blank, part title on right, page numbers in footer.
thank you very much for the great info. this is very useful.