Formatting

Formatting for online distribution and aggregate sites

Once your manuscript is written, it will most likely have been created as 8 1/2 x 11. When choosing a size for printing your book, the manuscript must be set up to ensure proper spacing, indentation, and flow. Working together, we will make your manuscript into a book you will be proud to publish.

From manuscript to final production

The first step is creating a clean, workable manuscript. Office Word® is very powerful, and creating a clean manuscript will make formatting much smoother. 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.

NOTE: Remember, with an ebook, the actual book length 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 book’s layout.

When writing your manuscript, it is particularly important for you, the author, to understand basic formatting techniques. This will save you time and money. The closer you follow these suggestions the more efficiently I can edit your work if you have hired me as your editor.

  • Here are some basics and how your manuscript should be set up at a minimum.
    • Use double or 1.5 line spacing.
    • Use a standard font. Times Roman is fine.
    • Just flush left Chapter headings and subheads. We change this using style sheets later.
    • 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.
    • Don’t overuse the ellipsis … Or, exclamation marks!

There are many other things such as using styles instead of “normal,” formatting the body, creating headers, footers, and pagination, which I can do for you. It’s an exciting part of taking your manuscript to the next step.

If you are struggling with this setup, some online guides can help you. (This one is fairly easy to follow and you can download a template!)

I can also look at your manuscript and give you an estimate on my charges if I need to clean up the manuscript to get it to the editing, proofing and formatting stage. Just contact me for a no-obligation review.

From editing to formatting and layout

After the editing and proofing process, if you have retained me for formatting or layout, I will take care of building your manuscript into a published ebook or print book. This is when the magic starts to happen after all your hard work: when your manuscript starts to evolve into a book.

  • We will collaborate on how the interior of the book will look. There are some fun things that can be done, flourishes between pages, and images on the Chapter headings, for example. I will also help you choose a font and layout. Best of all, color does not cost extra in an ebook.
  • Fonts. I assign fonts to Chapter headings, subheads, and body copy. We’ll discuss the fonts and styles. We may want a serif for the body, sans serif for the chapters, and a smaller size for subheads. Each of these is assigned to a style and can easily be changed throughout the entire manuscript.
  • Images. Remember, images except decoration on the Chapter page in an eBook CANNOT be placed exactly in the same position as in a print version. The reason is simple: the actual number of pages in your book and how the book flows depend upon what the reader uses to access it. (For example, a cellphone page is a lot smaller than a tablet.) But they can be scattered throughout and also added as an addendum if necessary. And speaking if images, I know how to size them and create the high-resolution images required by Ingramspark, Amazon, Lulu, etc.

Final Production

  • Final proofing
  • Final pdfs are created for the interior of the ebook and print book
  • Cover: The ebook cover can be the same as the print version. There are slight variations in sizing however with all the major aggregate sites. I am experienced in building the artwork. You can provide the cover art and I can add title, author, and spine information using the templates on the online sites. If you have someone creating the cover art, I will coordinate with them to make sure the art complies with the publishing site requirements. I can also help you design the cover. These both are uploaded to templates offered by the self-publishing companies. 
  • Uploading to IngramSpark, Lulu, Amazon, BookBaby, Draft2Digital

Now, we’re ready to set up distribution.