Now faced with the added dilemma of the “Look Inside” problem, I considered my options:
A) Leave it and deal with it.
B) Grin and bear it, and change the format.
C) Give up and cry.
You’ll be proud to know I did NOT choose C. The driving force was NOT integrity to quality, rather, that I already had an uphill battle coming with marketing the book.
Initially, I thought about making it vertical U.S. Letter as it had originally been laid out back in 2005. But the formatting would entail much more layout restructure. Even if I could just delete what fell off the page on the left and right edges, there would still be a blank space at the top or bottom of the page (see top row, right image). As I mindlessly stared at the list of standard formats, I focused on one in particular: 8.5” X 8.5”, or square format? Interesting. Fascinating. Not only might it solve my “Look Inside” insanity, but also, the calendar-binding conundrum, the spine text disappearing act, would take less layout re-jiggering, and most importantly, it would address the “Alice doesn’t like landscape format” contradiction.
Indeed, it’s hip to be square.