Category: Blog

Tips, tricks, some sharing and info for writers.

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Do you know the parts of a book?

All books follow the same order: front matter, body matter, and back matter. Each of these three parts is made up of several different items.

Lots of stuff and some of the sizzle

Front matter: Just as it sounds, the front matter is the material that appears at the very beginning of the book and covers everything that isn’t part of the actual content, narrative, or composition. These are the elements of front matter. (Note: Not all of these are always necessary. For example, a fictional work most likely won’t have an introduction. But this is the order in which they generally appear. Of course, a book is a work of art so there is leeway in where and how parts appear. However, these are the standard conventions.)

  1. Title page — Simply, this is the title (and subtitle) of the book, the author and publisher.
  2. Colophon — This information is on the back of the title page and includes the copyright, edition dates, and publisher information. Here is where you might put an email address or ordering information as well. And, your cover art designer or illustrator.
  3. Table of contents — The list of chapter headings, subheadings, and their page numbers within the book. It includes all the front matter headings and should appear after the title page.
  4. Forward — Written by someone other than the author and tells of the interaction between the book author and the forward author.
  5. Preface — Written by the author and explains how the book came about.
  6. Acknowledgment — This is the acknowledgment of the people who contributed to the production of the book which is written by the author. This is usually a part of the preface. It sometimes appears in the back matter.
  7. Introduction — Written by the author to describe the purpose and goals of the book.
  8. Dedication — The Dedication precedes the text and is written by the author. It names the person or persons for whom the author has written the book or who assisted the author with the book in some manner.
  9. Epigraph — This is a phrase, quotation, or poem that has particular meaning to the author and meaning to the work.
  10. Prologue — This is written in the voice of the narrator or a character in the book, establishes the setting, and gives the background details, often using an earlier story that ties into the main one. It can also include other miscellaneous information.

This is what you wrote. The content.

Body matter: This is the narrative (the story or “meat of the book”). A hierarchical structure is important here and could involve more than just chapters:

      1. The highest level would be “volumes.”
      2. The next level of organization would be “books or parts.”
      3. The final level would be “chapters or sections.”

More housekeeping and generally more for non-fiction.

Back matter: this follows the body matter and provides summary information at the end of the book. In order of appearance in the book, the following covers most elements in the back matter of a book:

  1. Epilogue – Written in the voice of the narrator or a character in the book and usually serves to bring the book to closure if needed.
  2. Afterword — this may be written by the author or someone else and maybe a discussion about the work’s historical importance or commentary.
  3. Conclusion — This is written by the author if needed. (Often the Epilogue).
  4. Appendix or addendum — Also written by the author and provides supplemental information such as corrections, updates, or further detail for the information provided in the narrative.
  5. Glossary — Again written by the author, it provides the definitions of words of importance within the body of the book. The words are normally alphabetized and may include items, places, and characters.
  6. Bibliography — Also written by the author, it lists the citations of the books consulted during the writing of the book. It is a separate list of references from the footnotes or endnotes.
  7. Index —Commonly written by the publisher (or an indexer) and lists the names, places, or terms of importance along with the page numbers where they can be found in the body of the narrative. In non-fiction works, the index can  be very important and the items listed need to be chosen carefully.

Again, not all these items appear in all books. However, this is the structure of the “parts of a book” and how it is sequenced.

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Tips to make final formatting and layout go smoothly

Here are some things to remember when creating your manuscript

Create a clean, workable manuscript.

Yes, I know, you want to JUST WRITE the book. However, Office Word® is very powerful and we can do a lot with it.  If you plan on doing an e-book and print version – a POD (and I recommend it) – we do the e-book first. The reason is it’s cleaner and the e-book version can often be used to create the print-on-demand (unless there are lots of images and that’s a whole different can of worms).

One reason for creating a clean manuscript is formatting and layout will be a lot smoother. Remember, the actual book length with an e-book will change based on what the reader is using to read it: Tablet, phone, computer, or reader … so, if the document isn’t formatted correctly, it can cause lots of problems when designing the layout of the book.

PAGES®  on Mac OS does a good job creating an eBook as well if you don’t have Word®. My least favorite is Google Docs, but it’s workable.

Regardless of what program is used, usually, there are glitches and tweaks required.

If you google “setting up a manuscript” you’ll find many articles and videos about it.
  • Here are the basics and these apply to the e-book and print book:
    • Use double or 1.5 line spacing.
    • Use a standard font. Times Roman is fine.
    • Using styles can cut formatting time … a lot.
    • Make sure to use font size 12.
    • Use standard margins. 1″ all around is fine.
    • Chapter breaks should be marked by page breaks (no return, return, return. 🙂
    • Insert page numbers (though this will change).
    • Indent paragraphs.
    • Do not add extra space between paragraphs.
    • ONE space after a period. One. We aren’t on a mid-century typewriter.
    • Don’t overuse the ellipsis… Or, exclamation marks!
Images in an eBook CANNOT be placed exactly in the same position as in a print version.
  • The reason is that the actual number of pages in your book and how the book flows depend upon what the reader uses to access it. (A cellphone page is a lot smaller than a tablet, for example.) However, Ingramspark and KDP have made it possible to include images in your ebook on the chapter pages. Best of all, with an ebook, images can be in color, and it won’t cost extra.
  • The e-book cover can be the same as the print version.

Getting your manuscript ready for print-on-demand

If you’ve created a clean manuscript for your e-book, it will make creating the final pages for your print book go more smoothly. If you’ve written it in Word®, using STYLES and HEADINGS can really help. I can do these for you, of course, but it really isn’t too hard to do in the beginning rather than after the fact. The Word® tutorials will show you how.

Use body and heading styles and not just use normal.

By following the setup for e-Books, adding this step can really help with formatting. Remember, too, that a badly created manuscript makes editing or proofing more difficult. Often I find I have to rebuild the manuscript to just do the editing. More time and money. This is one of the most time-consuming things that happens when I format a book. When we change the size of your manuscript to, say, 7 x 10, if styles have been used, the indents, spacing, and breaks will all translate to the new size. If they haven’t been used, then the indents will be off (tabs are the worst), pages will not break properly and spacing will be a disaster.

When creating a body style, let’s say you write your book in Times Roman. Later, we want to change the body to a different font. If you’ve used a style for the body, that can be changed easily.

If you have subheads or chapter titles and headings have been created for them in a different font, those remain intact. If everything has been written using “normal” all the changes have to be made one at a time.

It is actually quite simple to set up styles.

And it’s a lot easier to start with them. However, I can create them if you haven’t… but as I say, it just adds extra cost.

If you have images, don’t put them in your 8 1/2 x 11 document.

Placing them in the 8 ½ x 11 manuscript that is going to then be reduced to a new size isn’t going to go well unless you’ve mastered how to set it up. And even then, Word® doesn’t always play nice. Best to use placeholders for images that can be imported after the layout. This is simply done by numbering a box where the image should go and then I put the image in after it’s been sized properly.

The cover of the book has to be sized specifically for print.

And the popular online companies all have slightly different templates. I can do this for you.

The final for both interior and exterior are pdf. I use Adobe Creative Suite® and create this for you.

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This is a thing: Amazon is closing KDP accounts. Check out this video.

Dave Chesson, CEO of Kindlepreneur, an excellent resource for ” how-tos,” “tips,” and expert advice on self-publishing and marketing, has put together this information video on what is going on with KDP accounts.

I’ve worked with a number of authors who I’ve helped create and manage their KDP accounts so their books are on Amazon. We also make sure the books are available through other distributors and aggregators such as Ingramspark and, in the case of eBooks, Draft2Digital. Dave is also the creator of Atticus, the software I use now to format and finalize the interiors of my author’s books. I highly recommend it for authors to use as well, as it is a robust program that makes writing flow and formatting easier (and adding images is a lot simpler than any other writing and publishing program I’ve used – and fairly inexpensive.

Metadata issues

This is apparently one of the major places the KDP/Amazon algorithm (yes, it’s not a human doing this) checks. If this is causing you issues or you just don’t want to deal with it, let me know. This is one of the services I offer. You’ll see Amazon has a list of what goes into the Metadata on their “how to” on KDP.  It is very important that the metadata is handled correctly, so be sure to pay close attention to it.

Take a few minutes to review this video if you haven’t seen it yet or didn’t know about it.

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When writing your book are you making these errors?

 

How many of these errors are in your manuscript?

Congratulations on wanting to write a book. But you really will do yourself a favor if you learn to set up your manuscript correctly from the beginning. If you haven’t, or you’re not sure, I’ve included a link to a great article that will show you how to fix these. You can actually find them by googling “how to set up your manuscript.” Here’s the list:

  1. Extra spaces or tabs are used to create an indent for the first line of each paragraph
  2. Two or more paragraph breaks between paragraphs
  3. Two spaces between sentences instead of one
  4. Manual line breaks at the end of each line of text in a paragraph
  5. Two line breaks inserted at the end of a paragraph instead of a paragraph break
  6. Using tabs at the end of a paragraph to create a new paragraph
  7. Creating complex tables, charts, and graphs at a page size larger than your book size
  8. Using only a paragraph break to create a scene break between paragraphs
  9. A series of paragraph breaks (created by hitting the enter key) to force text onto the next page

I have worked with authors who have actually submitted their manuscripts with every one of these examples. I have also had authors who were more than happy to pay the extra cost for me to go through the manuscript and correct these. I don’t mind doing it; after all, it’s a service I offer,  but if you are on a tight budget, the fastest way to bust that budget is to leave these errors for me to fix.

#1 Bottom line: They have to be corrected.

In working with you to provide copy editing, formatting, and building your book for print-on-demand (POD), including ebooks, of course, I cannot get to the first step in formatting and layout of the book if these errors are still in the manuscript. The reason is publishing software programs don’t play nice when these formatting errors are in your book. Amazon, Lulu, Smashbooks, Ingramspark, and ePub Draft2Digital, et al., need clean manuscripts that follow these procedures, too.

And if you are doing both an ebook and POD (which I highly recommend), importing the finished Word.docx into the software program first actually makes creating the print version much easier.

Plus,  with the eBook, we can add color images at no additional charge (you’re not printing it, remember?) Those images can be redone into b/w and resized for the print version, so it is imperative to have a clean Word.docx before doing any additional embellishments, such as images or graphics.

I’ve included the link below, which shares the ways to fix the errors. As I say, I can do it, but if you want to save time and money, here’s what needs to be done and how you can do it. Here’s the list: 

https://www.self-pub.net/blog/common-mistakes-made-when-writing-a-book-in-microsoft-word

 

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It’s worse than you think

From the article:
In his new book, “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is,” Justin E. H. Smith, a professor of philosophy at the Université Paris Cité, argues that “the present situation is intolerable, but there is also no going back.” Too much of human experience has been flattened into a single “technological portal,” Smith writes. “The more you use the Internet, the more your individuality warps into a brand, and your subjectivity transforms into an algorithmically plottable vector of activity.”

Read on: The article in New Yorker

https://bit.ly/3MkZCHt

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Affinity Publisher Giving InDesign a Run For Its Money

Anyone who has had to contend with the learning curve of InDesign and the high cost of it, may find Affinity Publisher to be a great alternative. I have. It integrates with existing photoshop files as well and Affinity Photo is also an excellent alternative to Photoshop.

PS They don’t offer affiliate marketing. I’m just sharing … I discovered the programs when I also found out that Mac OS Systems – Catalina and Big Sur – would not be supporting the old 32-bit software anymore (These are 64-bit and work fine). And if you’re like me, and are budget minded, I didn’t want to pay Adobe high prices to rent their programs; you may want to look at these.

Affinity Publisher Review: An InDesign Alternative

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Proofreading marks

Blast from the past

Just for fun … many of us still use quite a few of these today. (Slashes, underlines, the Paragraph symbol), the loops. However, you won’t see this too often unless you’re in journalism school or taking writing classes. (Click to enlarge).

But if you ask someone to “proof” your paper, you my see these. How many have you seen before?

Proofreading marks