Tag: ebook formatting

Manuscript Formatting and the Nuclear Option

Do your paragraph indentations look like this?
Do your paragraph indentations look like this?

This past fall I published a self-publishing book. It looked great on my computer screen. The formatting was perfect; my spacing, indents, page breaks, etc., were all exactly where they needed to be, so I uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing feeling pretty confident my preview in their online previewer would be error-free.

Boy, was I wrong. My paragraph indents were completely off. Some were indented too far, some not enough, and some just plain missing.

pilcrowI went back to my manuscript and clicked on the pilcrow (the little paragraph symbol on the tool bar that shows all the formatting in your manuscript).  Everything looked fine. Telling myself it must have been an issue on KDP’s end, I uploaded again.

I clicked through the various preview screens. On some devices, the formatting was good. On others, it was clearly off. I couldn’t possibly upload a book that was going to have lousy formatting on half the devices that downloaded it.

I knew what needed to be done; I’d even written about it in the book. I needed to go nuclear. Continue reading “Manuscript Formatting and the Nuclear Option”

eBook Formatting 101

Formatting frustration!Formatting a book for publication as an eBook can be easy, but it can also be frustrating. eBooks are much simpler than print books, simpler in that they allow fewer frills and so have more rigorous constraints. Here is a nuts-and-bolts review of the basics for eBook formatting.

Size/Margins

If you’d previously prepared your book for print publication, you can pretty much undo all that. eBooks do not need headers or footers or page numbers, so get rid of all of those. If you had sized your print book to 6”x9” or 5.5”x8.5” with a ¼” gutter, toss out all of that. Format your book to 8-1/2”x11”, normal margins (as opposed to mirror margins) with a 0 gutter.

Justification

Again, if you’d formatted for print and had your text fully justified (lined up on both the left and right side of the paragraph), now make it all left justified with a ragged right edge. eReaders are a completely different animal than print pages, and because your text will flow from one screen to another based on the size of the text chosen by the reader, right justification will only cause you (and your reader) grief. Continue reading “eBook Formatting 101”

How to Check Your eBook Formatting before Pushing the Publish Button

push the button noweBook formatting catastrophes are avoidable – one just has to take the extra steps to check the files before pushing the publish button. I know, I know, you’re excited, and you want to get your book out into the world! But at what cost? Lenore Skomal told us about her eBook formatting calamity. That caused her a lot of heartache, possible loss of readers, and a lot of bad reviews. Don’t let that happen to you. Continue reading “How to Check Your eBook Formatting before Pushing the Publish Button”

Formatting: What an Author Should Do and Know

Um, it’s not supposed to look like that.

In today’s ever-changing publishing landscape, new ways of doing things are popping up constantly. But doing a good job should never change.

You can choose to format your own books, or, you can pay to have it done professionally. Either way, you should do a little research and understand what needs to be done.

John Low, the founder of EBook Launch (the company most recommended by Smashwords for formatting) provides some insight to authors in his article What Do Formatting Companies Require from Authors and Why.

Melissa Bowersock talks about eBook formatting consistency in her article entitled Book Formatting Checklist.

Watch this space for updated articles on how to work with formatters and how to do it yourself. Meanwhile, visit I’ve Written a Book, How Do I Publish It for other informative articles in the formatting section.