Ten Tips for Preparing a Book for Formatting
Whether you are formatting yourself, sending it to a formatter, or sending it to your publisher, cleaning up a manuscript will save everyone a lot of time.
Here are ten things you can do to insure your manuscript is format-ready:
1 - Remove all extra spaces at the beginning and end of sentences. Use the Show/Hide Paragraph Marks to find these.
2 - Make sure there is only one space (not two) between sentences. This is standard.
3 - Don’t use the tab key to indent sentences. Remove all such indentions and set your paragraph indention the Paragraph dialog box in the Word tool bar.
4 - Make sure the font is uniform in style and the main body the same size font. You can request different fonts and sizes for chapter headings, etc. when placing a formatting order.
5 - Remove all headers and footers.
6 - Remove all page breaks if sending it to someone else. Formatting in InDesign for print requires a different page break than formatting in Word for ebook.
7 - Run a full Spellcheck. Look for misspellings and grammar issues and fix them before formatting.
8 - Send actual web links (http://) for eBook formatting and www. for print formatting.
9 - Prepare the dedication, about the author, copyright page, table of contents, etc. as needed and send in addition to your manuscript.
10 - If there are interior illustrations, send those as well. For print, they must be 300 dpi. If the interior is black and white, the images need to be greyscale.
Those simple considerations will save you and your formatter time and headache in the long run!
L. Diane Wolfe
Speaker, Author, and Owner of Dancing Lemur Press LLC
Known as “Spunk On A Stick,” Wolfe is a member of the National Speakers Association. She conducts seminars on book publishing, promoting, leadership, and goal-setting, and she offers book formatting and author consultation. Wolfe owns Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C. and is the author of seven books. She travels for media interviews and speaking engagements and maintains numerous websites and blogs, including the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER
Howard-Johnson is the author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the award-winning second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter (where she talks more about choosing and the advantages of winning contests and how to use those honors) and The Frugal Editor. Her latest is in the series is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page, http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and, another booklet, The Great First Impression Book Proposal helps writers who want to be traditionally published. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. In addition to this blog, she helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com )
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