BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
In fact, book design software (Quark Xpress, InDesign, etc.) is not going to make your publication acceptable to the trade, unless your book adopts the usual page arrangement, which is:
In the front, before the actual text of the novel or poems, comes:
Half title (optional)
. . blank. .
Title
title
author
publisher
Copyright
previous publications (optional)
Library of Congress catalogue number (or equivalent)
ISBN
copyright notice
name and address of publishing company
Acknowledgements
permissions to quote
previous appearances of material
personal acknowlegements (if no Preface exists)
. . blank. .
Dedication (optional)
to person or persons, often in italics
. . blank. .
Epigraph (optional)
quotation that sets tone
. . blank. .
Table Of Contents
subject, chapter or poem title
. . blank. .
Foreward
. . blank. .
Preface
personal acknowledgements:must begin on right-hand page
. . blank. .
Text: must begin on right-hand page. Individual chapters also begin on a fresh right-hand page. Poems start on a fresh page.
Not all these introductory pages are necessary, many being employed to simply mop up what would be otherwise be left blank by the printing process, which operates in multiples of four (and occasionally eight: octavo).
At the back of book, following the main text, will come:
Appendices (optional)
Glossary (optional)
Index
Advertisements (optional)
Binding
The trade jargon is:
Casebound
Hardback books with covers of cloth-covered card and dust wrapper. Expensive: as most books were before paperbacks appeared
Perfect Bound
Typical paperbacks, with the spine squared off and fixed with printer's glue. Cover may be heavy-duty cover stock or (generally) plastic laminated stock.
Saddle-Stitched
Pages are secured by staples along the spine: usual for booklets of 64 pages or less. Covers are cover stock (but may have dust wrappers in deluxe editions).
Stock
Commercial printing paper comes in two categories, coated and uncoated, and is subdivided into weights. Text stock is the lighter weight paper used for the inside of the booklet: 50# and 60# white offset text are the more usual weights. Cover stock is the heavier and more durable paper used for the outside: 80# or 100# gloss cover are often preferred, especially for colour printing. Heavier paper costs more, but suggests quality.
Paper Sizes
US and European usages differ. See here for a handy table of book sizes.