Catherine Williams

Catherine Williams – Designer

Making books beautifully easy to read. Design + production services from edited script to print-ready + digital files for indie authors.

Overview

With nearly 30 years experience of book design and production, I am happy to offer my services for typesetting/page layout, image optimisation, packaging and getting books to printers/distributors with problem-free files. I have used Adobe InDesign since its first release in 1999, and was using Adobe PageMaker before that.


My experience includes 11 years at Able Publishing, a company that specifically assisted self-publishing authors to get their books produced. The books produced included family and local histories, biographies, educational titles and fiction.


I spent 7 happy years at Robert Hale Ltd, a family-owned independent publisher, with responsibility for producing trade fiction and non-fiction titles in a wide variety of genres. There was plenty of communication with the author through the production of their books. Robert Hale ceased trading at the end of November 2015 and their imprints were taken over by The Crowood Press. I was pleased to be able to finish works in progress and continue to assist with occasional Hale titles.


I also worked in the Life division of DK as a Pre-Production Producer on an extended maternity cover contract. It was an excellent experience working for one of the best illustrated non-fiction publishers but I missed the creativity of the work I had done before. When the contract came to an end, I saw it as an opportunity to return to a more creative role as a freelancer.


I have now been helping independent authors for over 7 years through my own business and have a 5-star rating from authors who have used my services via Reedsy. I am generally booked up (pun intended!) for a couple of months ahead so please keep that in mind when submitting requests.

Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Business & Management Cooking, Food, Wine, & Spirits History Parenting & Families
Fiction
Historical Fiction Mystery & Crime Thriller & Suspense
Languages
English

Work experience

Self-employed

Apr, 2017 — Present
Making books beautifully easy to read. Design and production services for book coaches and independent authors.

DK

Feb, 2016 — Apr, 2017 (about 1 year)
An extended maternity cover contract that involved ensuring the correct set-up for co-editionable illustrated titles for the Life Division including template checking, liaison between creative teams and print producers, preflighting files according to DK standards and archiving.

Robert Hale Ltd

Oct, 2008 — Nov, 2015 (about 7 years)
I managed the production of trade fiction and non-fiction books from receipt of edited script through to signing off printer's proofs. The role included: • Preparation of artwork briefs • Commissioning cover artwork from external illustrators and designers • Procuring images from stock photo libraries and other sources • Preparing images for print production • Typesetting fiction and non-fiction titles, including illustrated books, in both hardback and paperback formats • Instructing external typesetters • Outputting all covers, jackets and text files for printers • Submitting print orders I also managed the production of ebooks via external conversion companies and distributors and undertook conversion from InDesign to epub in-house of the titles that I had typeset.

Able Publishing

Feb, 1997 — Apr, 2008 (about 11 years)
I managed the production of books and marketing materials for self-publishing authors including cover design, typesetting/layout, preparation of images for print production, proofreading, output of files for printing and print orders.

Portfolio

Winners & Losers: Betrayal

McCarthy, Miss Ashley

Book Interior Design
Good Love, Bad Love

McCarthy, Ashley

Book Interior Design
The Heralding

McCarthy, Ashley

Book Interior Design
The Sky Man

Allan, Geoffrey

Book Interior Design
Wax and Gold: Journeys in Ethiopia and other roads less travelled

McManus, Sam

Book Interior Design
Leading From The Jumpseat: How to Create Extraordinary Opportunities by Handing Over Control

Peter Docker

Book Interior Design
The Complete Guide To Property Finance: Toolbox of 50+ Financing Solutions Beyond Buy-To-Let

Brown, Richard W J

Book Interior Design
If You Met My Family, You'd Understand: A Family Systems Primer

Shitama, Jack

Book Interior Design
Anchors Aweigh: Floating White House – Doomsday Ship: Navy Stories Humorous and Mostly True

Davis, Joseph M.

Book Interior Design
The Power of Ageing: A Guide to the Second Half of Life

Duncan, Adam

Book Interior Design
Winter's Bride: Caught Between Two Brothers

Gresham, Sylvia

Book Interior Design
Dead Quiet (Echoes Trilogy)

Caplan, A.M.

Book Interior Design
Reverberation (Echoes Trilogy)

Caplan, A.M.

Book Interior Design
Echoes (Echoes Trilogy)

Caplan, A.M.

Book Interior Design
Fullness: A Memoir

Moyna, Azure

Book Interior Design
Resonate: For Anyone Who Wants To Build An Audience

Alex Wolf

Nobody understands how Alex Wolf built a cult following of over half a million millennials for her first brand in less than a year. Nobody understands why she left it all to become a writer ei... read more
Book Interior Design
Usurpers: How voters stopped the GOP takeover of North Carolina's courts

Corriher, Billy

Book Interior Design
Bigger Government: The Future Of Government Expenditure in Advanced Economies

Robinson, Marc Laurence

Book Interior Design
How To Keep Your Daughter From Slamming the Door: An Awesome Mom Handbook

Davis, Deborah Ann

Book Interior Design
Your Dream Job Toolkit: How to Land a Job You Love

Lott, Mrs Joanna

Cover Design Book Interior Design
No More Job Secrets: How I Went From Unemployment to International Employment (And How You Can Too!)

Taha, Rawan

Book Interior Design
Content DNA: Using consistency and congruence to be the same shape everywhere

Espirian, John

Book Interior Design
The Man With Two Names: A Novel of Ancient Rome: Volume 1 (The Sertorius Scrolls)

Vincent Davis

Book Interior Design
Pony Express (A Black Horse Western)

Harriet Cade

When fifteen-year-old Jack Taylor is offered a job with the newly formed Pony Express Company, it looks as though he will be able to rescue his family from the financial problems which are tro... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
Big Game Hunter: A Biography of Frederick Courteney Selous

Norman Etherington

He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, with just the right alternations between the....
Book Interior Design
Parents Guide to Coping With Autism

Sarah Ziegel

When Sarah Ziegel's twin boys were diagnosed with autism at the age of almost three, she found very....
Book Interior Design
Vaughan Williams: Composer, Patriot, Radical - A Biography

Keith Alldritt

This ground-breaking biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams reveals more than any other the man behind the music. The author examines the considerable range of Vaughan Williams' work, from the En... read more
Book Interior Design
Tolkien

Raymond Edwards

Tolkien
Book Interior Design
The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice

Polly Coles

This is the story of ordinary life in an extraordinary place. The beautiful city of Venice has been a fantasy land for people from around the globe for centuries, but what is it like to live t... read more
Book Interior Design
Smithfield: Past and Present

Alec Forshaw

Famed throughout the world for its meat market, the Smithfield area of London has a long and turbulent history. Originally a 'smooth field' lying just beyond the City wall, over the years Smit... read more
Book Interior Design
Maskelyne: Astronomer Royal

Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1811) was a hugely significant figure in the worlds of British science and mar....
Book Interior Design

Catherine has 23 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Mary L.

Mary L.

Mar, 2024

Pinned
I am an amateur historian of the neighborhood where I lived for forty years. Catherine did an excellent job of making my amateur manuscript sophisticated and professional. She was patient with my long learning curve, gave valuable advice, and produced an end result I am very happy with. I'd hire ...
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Scott T.

Scott T.

Sep, 2023

Pinned
Catherine did an outstanding job designing the interior of my book. She was prompt, thorough, professional and simply a delight to work with. I would love to offer constructive criticism, but it's difficult to think of an area in which she fell short! A wonderful engagement all around.
Maria I.

Maria I.

Aug, 2023

Pinned
Catherine has been a delight to work with. We discussed various options/fonts/layout ahead of time. The manuscript was fairly complicated because there were three threads for the reader to follow in the book, and we wanted each thread to look different throughout. She took this well within her st...
Read more
Art M.

Art M.

Feb, 2025

Catherine is consistently fantastic to work with. This is the third time we've collaborated and I would absolutely do so again. Communication with her is straightforward and she’s polite and professional. She’s prompt with her responses and thorough with edits between proofs. Her rates are very f...
Read more
Kal S.

Kal S.

Dec, 2024

I enjoyed working with Catherine, she was very professional. Since I'm a new author, I had a lot to learn, and Catherine was both patient and responsive. Overall, I'm quite pleased with her work and the book we created.

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