Of Widows, Orphans and Rivers Of White

During our ‘How to Self Publish’ courses, we stress to authors the importance of producing the most professional book they can. What we really mean is that paying attention to the small details can pay big dividends in terms of how seriously your work is regarded. In this week’s self-publishing blog, I am going to look at some of the small distractions that can affect print-on-demand books.

Widows and Orphans

 Widows and Orphans are terms that describe words or single sentences at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are isolated at the top or bottom of a page, separated from the rest of the parent paragraph.

A widow is a single line from the previous paragraph that appears at the top of the next page.

An orphan is the first line of a paragraph that continues on the next page.

It is important to look for these simple problems before you submit your book for printing as they can have a jarring effect and interrupt the flow of the text for the reader.

Rivers of White

 A ‘river of white’ is caused when the gap between words occurs at approximately the same place in a line of text for a number of lines consecutively within a paragraph. While someone is reading, that river effect will catch his or her eye, even if it is on a facing page. You will find that these ‘rivers’ do appear in many books but it is a good idea to minimise them, particularly if the gap occurs for seven or eight lines in a row.

All of these problems can be solved using various techniques including making small adjustments to kerning. During our course we give you a more comprehensive description of these minor issues and the techniques you can use to remove them.

By paying attention to even the smallest details, you can produce a book that is professional and will remove all distractions to allow people to enjoy what you have written.