![]() This means you will always get a blank page between the odd page with the part heading and the odd page with the chapter heading.If you have Parts in your book (Part1, Part2 etc) then they will be on odd pages, and the chapter heading that follows will also be on an odd page.All the books on your shelf will work that way. Why? Because the facing pages always have the odd page numbers. ![]() In word processors, these are called odd pages. The title at the beginning of the book is on a facing page.If you were looking at adult fiction books then you should have found some variation but a typical approach works like this: Take a selection of professionally produced physical books off your shelves and have a look at how they’re laid out. Tip#2 – Plan your layout strategy for your pages I’ve produced dozens of books now, and I can say that the two formatting errors that are most likely to sneak up and bite you are: inconsistent formatting from not using styles, and botched attempts at justifying text. I’d also suggest that where you have an entire paragraph in italics, that you create a style for this too (I have ‘italic’ versions of my first paragraph and body text styles. For fiction books, you probably want styles for: title, headings, front matter, first paragraphs of a scene (with zero indent), body text (with first line indent), a ‘blank line’ style (with spacing above and below - very useful for Smashwords), and centred text. Microsoft Word has the Style Set concept, which is perfect for this.ĭo yourself a favour and invest in a little time to consider how you can use styles. Concentrate on becoming familiar with a set of styles, and apply them as you go. By the way, this is even more true for eBooks, which have a habit of revealing subtly inconsistent formatting that is difficult or impossible to spot.ĭon’t worry about locking yourself down to a particular font or size, because you can modify the style definition at a later stage. Also dividing the book into sections as you go, and setting headers and footers will save a little time too. If you don’t use styles in your writing then now’s the time to start. You can save yourself a lot of grief by picking the styles you will use and applying them as you write. Tip#1 Don’t start from here! Start formatting as you write your book I used Microsoft Word 2007 on Windows XP, but the concepts should translate easily enough to other desktop publishing and word processing packages, such as Open Office. ![]() Drift is a novel, and I’ve used standard fiction layout. The book I formatted is called Drift, by author Andrew Cyrus Hudson. ![]() You also need to know some conventions about how to lay out books professionally, because some reviewers will consider your book to be amateurish if you don’t. The book will also be listed at places such as for customers to purchase and have the book printed and delivered by Amazon without you getting involved at all (except to get paid!)Īctually, it’s not quite as simple as that to get the formatting looking good. Once you’re happy, you tell Createspace to print however many books you want and then wait for them to be delivered. The idea is that you supply Createspace with a pdf or other file for the book’s interior, and do the same for the cover (or use one of their templates). Certainly if you are self-publishing then it is a great help to think from the beginning about writing your manuscript so that it lends itself safely and easily to being built into a print book or an eBook.Ĭreatespace is one of a number of print-on-demand companies (Lulu is another main player in this market). I won’t be explaining how to build professional-looking eBooks in this article, but I will point out where eBook design is radically different from print. Yesterday I completed a commission to format a book interior for Createspace, and wanted to share some tips to help you create your own great-looking Createspace books.Īlthough these tips will help you format printed books, the self-publishing authors who would find it useful will often also be interested in designing eBooks too. ![]()
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