Font Choices and The Fontayne Company

This isn’t something many people know about me, but I spend an inordinate amount of time choosing fonts for my writing projects. I can be very picky about fonts when it comes to book covers and chapter headings.

The fonts used on the majority of my published books weren’t ones I selected. I trusted the cover designer to do that part at first, and I’m happy enough with the end result. It was only with my more recent publications (Wraith and the Revolution, Survivor, and The Ballad of Alchemy and Steel) that I chose to do the typography portion myself, and that’s only because it’s something I can do. Also, I can have very strong opinions about fonts. Ask my husband—he’ll agree.

I’m not writing this post to bash on anyone’s font choices. I will say that certain fonts don’t work for given genres, and that other fonts are a bit overused.

I’m writing this post because I have finally decided on a font for my upcoming duology, The Fontayne Company.

Choosing a font isn’t just about its aesthetics (that’s important, but there’s more to it than its looks.) There’s a bit of research involved too, particularly if you’re going to use the font for anything sold commercially. There are many free-for-commercial-use fonts available, but not all of the common ones are.

Case in point: Times New Roman. It is not free for commercial use, despite its prevalence in word processing software. (I use Times New Roman while drafting most of the time, but the finished, published books have a different interior font. For most of my titles, that’s Garamond.)

The primary interior font isn’t the decision was grappling with, though. It was the font I plan to use on the cover and chapter headers. After many months tinkering off and on with text designs and options, I’ve settled on one.

It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it is for me. When I told my husband I knew what font I was going to use for the duology, he said, “Finally! Now you can start planning the rest of the book release.” He knows how I operate, and he tolerates it (although sometimes I wonder why. I know I can be difficult about the weirdest things. Like fonts. And light fixtures—but that’s a different story.)

Here’s what the chapter headings will look like for both books in the duology (along with the first line of book 1):

Anyway, a few more updates on The Fontayne Company:

1. My editor is finished with Rites of Departure (book 1.) I still need to go through her notes and make adjustments, but I’ll do that soon.
2. The cover art for Rites of Departure is in-process. There are 6 characters featured on the cover, and the little pieces I’ve seen so far look amazing. It’s going to be a really fun cover.
3. The 2^nd book, Agent of Chaos, has gone to beta readers, and I’ve received all feedback. I still need to go through it before it also goes to my editor (that will happen later this year.)
4. I’m tentatively planning to release Rites of Departure in March 2027. It will publish for sure in 2027, but it’s the March part I’m not 100% on yet.
5. I will most likely publish Agent of Chaos 6 to 8 months later.

If you’d like to learn more about The Fontayne Company, I have a little bit of info on my website, but the TLDR is this: It’s a cozy fantasy with some romance, a ghost elf main character, and a ghost-hunting crew led by a necromancer.

I had a blast writing it, and I hope readers will enjoy it too.