Even if book designers and internal formatters make a great job of their professions, book formatting is not the most exciting subject for an author to think about when writing a book. On the other hand, if you don’t know how to structure a book properly, you run the risk of losing a reader’s interest. When compared to talking about the standard 12-point Times New Roman typeface, you appear to be significantly more interested in exploring a new universe in your book.
Even while this page attempts to give general guidelines, some editors, literary agents, or book marketing services near me experts may have their own rules regarding how a book should be formatted. This article does not attempt to address those regulations. Always check for that information on websites, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the site’s administrator.
The following suggestions on how to format books in the United States are appropriate to both fictional and nonfictional works of written expression in the literary canon. Any changes that are logically sound are taken into consideration, and criticism addressing the ways in which domestic and international markets are distinct is always appreciated.
Why is book formatting important
If you do not pay attention to the fundamentals of how your manuscript is organised, you are subtly demonstrating to the editor that you do not care about either your work or them. If you deliver your editor a manuscript that is poorly formatted, they will probably not say anything to you about it, but I can tell you what’s going through their minds:
1. It is quite difficult to read this book.
2. Wasting time by unsuccessfully attempting to alter the format of the manuscript.
In these circumstances, an editor will either not change anything about your book or squander the time that you are paying them for to do work that you could have (and probably should have) done yourself.
However, if you get the hang of using the fundamentals of book formatting to style a manuscript for your editor, you will save a lot of time and avoid a lot of pain.
Benefits of Book Formatting
There are numerous benefits of book formatting. One of the benefits of formatting your book correctly is that it will be more visually appealing to potential readers. A well-formatted book will have consistent margins, spacing, and indentations, which gives it a clean and polished look. In contrast, a poorly formatted book can appear amateurish and may be less likely to catch a reader’s attention.
Another benefit of proper formatting is that it can help to improve the readability of your book. By using clear and easy-to-read fonts, proper paragraph spacing, and headings, you can make your book easier on the eyes and simpler to navigate. This can be especially helpful for non-fiction books, which often contain a lot of information.
Moreover, formatting your book correctly can also help you to avoid copyright issues. If you submit a poorly formatted manuscript to a publisher or agent, they may reject it outright. However, it’s always a wise decision to invest time in book formatting.
10 Tips Editor Wants You To Know Already
1. Use Times New Roman, 12-point, black font.
Even though it’s a demanding font to use, Times New Roman is discovering on almost every computer that has ever been manufactured.
Avoid utilising fancy fonts if you want to do a better job of illustrating your thesis. Hold off on doing that until it is time to design the interior of your book, which will be some time after the editing process has been completed and will take up a large amount of your time.
The outdated typeface known as Times New Roman is no longer utilised by The Times as the newspaper has progressed past the use of such a style.
2. Use the standard U.S. page size of 8.5 inches and set your margins to 1 inch on all sides.
Check the output to ensure that the page size and margins are set correctly if you are exporting to Word from another word processor.
In Microsoft Word, select “File” > “Page Setup” and then look at the “Page Size” drop-down menu. This will allow you to adjust the size of a page.
In Word, you can adjust the margins by going to the Format > Document menu option.
3. Set alignment to the left justified
Text that is aligned to the left is also referred to as “ripped right text,” another name for this type of text. On the left side, the text will be aligned properly, but on the right side, it won’t be consistent.
To establish order in Word, select all of your text, go to the Home tab, and click the icon labelled “Left Justification.” Alternatively, you can go to Format > Paragraph and select “Left” from the Alignment drop-down box.
4. Use a single space after periods
In the age of digital technology that we live in today, there should only be one space. Please refer to the video game “Space Invaders” for an explanation of this matter.
Use the “Find and Replace” function that comes standard on your word processor if the text you’re working with includes two spaces after a period. After you have entered two spaces in the “Find” box and one space in the “Replace” box, you should instantly hit the “Replace All” button without hesitating to ponder what your typing instructor might tell you to do next.
5. Put two spaces between each line.
It’s possible that your editor will find this to be the most helpful thing. Give your words some breathing room on the page if you want to increase the likelihood that whatever you write.
6. Put a half-inch space between each paragraph, and don’t use a tab or space to do this.
It’s possible that this is something that each and every editor detests, but it’s also possible that they just don’t care. Setting tabs is not the same as tapping the tab key repeatedly; it does not produce the same result.
Place your cursor between the words “Indentation” and “Left” in order to insert content. Make your selection in the “Special” drop-down menu by selecting “First line” from the list of possible alternatives.
Note that you do not need to indent the first paragraph of a chapter, the paragraph that comes after a subhead, or the paragraph that comes after a bulleted or numbered list the vast majority of the time. Additionally, you do not need to indent the paragraph that comes after a numbered or bulleted list.
7. Format paragraphs according to the rules of the type of writing
Paragraphs in fiction should indent and not have full paragraph breaks. Nonfiction writers can choose not to indent if they put a full paragraph break between each paragraph. many people wants to know about affiliate marketing content.
A helpful hint is to open a book that is similar to what you write and analyse the structure of the paragraphs. Then you should duplicate them.
8. Use page breaks
In order to start a new chapter, it is not sufficient to simply keep clicking return until you reach a new page. You must take additional steps. Use page breaks instead.
To insert a page break at the end of a chapter in Microsoft Word, first navigate to the last page of the chapter, then from the main menu pick “Insert,” followed by “Break,” and finally “Page Break.”
9. Number your pages
It is improper form to start numbering your pages on the title page of your document. Instead of doing that, you should number the page on which the beginning of your story appears.
You may insert page numbers into a Word document by doing the following: double-clicking the header area of the page where your table begins, selecting “Insert > Page Numbers,” and then picking the options you want from the drop-down menu that appears afterward. There is a choice to be made to position the page numbers at the top left corner of the page.
10. Send your manuscript as a single.doc or.docx file.
You are not needed to produce your masterpiece in Microsoft Word; nevertheless. Given that the “Track Changes” option in Word is still the most generally used technique of editing, your editor will be glad to obtain a Word file from you because it contains the “Track Changes” option.
Also, you should never, ever, under any circumstances, give individual files to your editor for each chapter. Regardless of what you do or how you try to accomplish it.
Conclusion
You won’t have any issue establishing amicable working relations with your editor if you stick to these ten basic recommendations. So make sure you read them carefully. Managing these issues becomes more difficult when they all need to be rectified at the same time. Despite the fact that addressing each one of these problems normally does not require an editor to spend an inordinate amount of time.