Publisher Offers Ten Tips for Getting Your Book Ready for Formatting

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!

MORE ABOUT THE GUEST BLOGGER

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.

http://www.spunkonastick.net/ - Spunk On A Stick

http://www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com - Spunk On A Stick’s Tips

http://www.dancinglemurpressllc.com/ - Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.

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 )

The Importance of Gifts and a New SharingwithWriters Newsletter Format

Do you remember the Morton Salt icon--a little girl sloshing through puddles (as I recall it) to illustrate the idea "When it rains, it pours!" Consumers were supposed to correlate the motto with the idea that Morton's didn't clump together like salt used to. I really wouldn't know, the clumping part was way before my time! 

But that's what the last few weeks have felt like, clumping. And being unable to stop it!  My computer didn't work . . .and kept not working. We had workers clumping around the house an on our roof!  ("Clumping" seems like the right word, here, too.) Then one of my newsletter subscribers (a poet who is also a silicon valley management consultant) offered to do a new design for my #SharingwithWriters newsletter.  Perhaps she noticed that I violated my own advice to keep branding recognizable using focused topics and, yes, color!

This comes with my heartfelt thanks for making me giving me a new tool! It means so much because she cared enough to do it, but also because it illustrates how important it is for authors (Samanthi is a poet) to support one another—that sparkly essence called networking. But mostly it is proof that authors—generally speaking—are more caring with each other than those in many other industries. I remember once about ten years ago. I was at a meeting for writing instructors at UCLA. I was near the beginning of my foray into independent publishing and a similar viewpoint came bubbling out of my mouth. There was a loud guffaw from the other side of the room where the screenwriting instructors tended to group together. I chose not to react, but that person's disapproval of my Pollyanna attitude proved how important our camaraderie is, even if it didn’t prove that my premise was accurate. Samanthi Fernando—so many years later—dignifies my assertion with her caring.

Samanthi is the author of seven chapbooks. You can learn more about her under the “Thank Yous” segment of this SharingwithWriters newsletter by clicking on the May issue at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/newsletter_copies, on Amazon at http://amazon.com/author/samanthifernando or on the About Me segment of her website at http://www.starsafire.starrayz.com/aboutme.html. And, if you'd like to subscribe, you have time until Thursday to do it before I get my August issue out.  I hope you do! 

Have a happy summer,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson,

http://HowToDoItFrugally.com

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 )

Let's Make Our Submissions Look Professional

Rules of the Road

by

Valerie Allen

To write well and be more successful, every writer needs to be aware of the most common standards in the publishing industry:

ñ  Ultimately your manuscript must be in a word processing program

ñ  Use one inch margins on all sides

ñ  Justify text, including the first sentence

ñ  Indent .5 for all paragraphs after the first one

ñ  Use 12 point type, simple fonts (Times New Roman works well)

ñ  Use one space after the period

ñ  Dialogue requires quotation marks (“Where are you?”)

ñ  Start a new paragraph with each different speaker

ñ  Keep the speaker’s action and dialogue in the same paragraph

ñ  Use subject verb sentence structure

     (USE: “This is important,” Valerie said.

     NOT: “This is important,” said Valerie.)

ñ  For time sequence use both words: and then

     (USE: She picked up a pen, and then wrote a note.

     NOT: She picked up a pen, then wrote a note.)

ñ  Punctuation marks go inside quotation marks (“Here I am,” Valerie said. “Where are you?” she asked.)

ñ  An apostrophe replaces a missing letter (goin’, won’t)

ñ  Use italics for internal character thoughts.

ñ  Limit the use of exclamation points (!) and dashes (-)

ñ  Use only one punctuation mark at the end of a sentence

     (USE: “You did what?” NOT: “You did what?!!!”)

ñ  Avoid clichés

ñ  Avoid over-use of that, very, just

MORE ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER

Valerie Allen, author, playwright, and speaker, writes fiction, non-fiction, short stories, plays, and children's books. She is a popular speaker at writer's conferences, libraries, and community events using her book: Write, Publish, Sell! Quick, Easy, Inexpensive Ideas for the Marketing Challenged 2^nd Edition. It is available at http://bit.ly/ValerieAllen 

She is a co-founder of Authors for Authors, which supports new and experienced authors with book fairs, book launches, book displays, and writing seminars. Authors from across the US  have had their books displayed at two annual Florida book fairs held in March and November sponsored by AuthorsforAuthors.com

Valerie Allen invites questions and comments. She can be reached via FB, Twitter, Google+ and

at VAllenWriter@gmail.com or ValerieAllenWriter.com  or  Amazon.com/author/valerieallen

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including 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. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Converting Your Book for an E-Book on Kindle

Sometimes when I think a tip I run in my SharingwithWriters newsletter than I think is rarely seen by my general audience of writers, I like to include it as a quickie blogpost, too.  This is one of those, something I learned from personal experience that might help you when (if?) you plan to publish an e-book (even a promotional e-book) on Amazon anytime soon.  Here it is:

 

Tip: As I was uploading my newly formatted and expanded second edition of The Frugal Editor to Amazon’s Kindle converter, I realized the converter does a much better job with a Word file than it did with a .pdf file I tried earlier.

For  detailed directions (nitty-gritty basics) for formatting your  book for Kindle, go the Appendices of the new edition of The Frugal Editor and then follow instructions step-by-step. I find tech processes like this easier if I print out the instructions, but many do everything directly from their computer screens these days.

By the way, if you would like to subscribe to my SharingwithWriters newsletter, go to http://howtodoitfrugally.com. The subscription form is on every page of that site, upper right corner. And notice the fun little book on wordtrippers you'll get free when you do.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including 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. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Learning More About Formatting for Kindle and New Features

I’ve been busy this week updating the Kindle edition of my Frugal Book Promoter. What I learned from this effort is that their automatic Kindle formatter shouldn’t be trusted. It’s not that I don’t appreciate how easy they’ve made it to upload a Kindle book (to say nothing of the great 70% in royalties they pay!), but it just doesn’t work quite as smoothly as it should. So, advice from this corner is “Use that preview feature!”

• And don’t just skim. Turn the pages one by one. It’s a lot to go through when you have a 416 page book, but you gotta do it!
• Check to see the links are all alive (this is an e-book, not a paper book so links are important).
• Notice the cool feature that lets them include your book cover.
• Kindle doesn’t support indexes ‘cause it doesn’t use page numbers so remove your index or do what I did—make a Keyword Index of it. Why not download it at www.budurl.com/FrugalBkProKindle and see how I worked that. You know you wanted the digitally searchable iteration of this book anyway and Kindle books work on your regular computer.
• Check to be sure the links in your table of contents are live—and please call it just “Contents!” “Table of Contents” is redundant.
• Forget indented paragraphs (unless you write fiction and just have to use them!). It’s so much easier to leave lines between paragraphs.
• Be sure anything you have in the front matter that’s important to you is there. If not, you may have to remove it to the backmatter. I understand it’s all about putting actual pages up front where they can be searched by would-be readers, but it may also be a Kindle preference for launching their readers right into their books. (With that in mind, you may want to reconsider some of the niceties like a dedication page.)
• You can get frugal help with your formatting! If you have a mag, go for iBookAuthor at Apple's Mac App Store. If you have a PC, my fellow UCLA Extension Writers' Program instructor suggests www.Liberwriter.com. He says their $25 fee is reasonable compared to $100 quote he received from a freelance consultant.    

Oh, and an important reason I’m writing this. If you already have the Kindle edition of The Frugal Book Promoter, it should be updated for you automatically. But if it isn’t, nudge them a bit. You deserve your new copy.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including 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. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Protect Yourself! Why You Should Learn Editing Skills AND Hire an Editor

Every once in a while I like to remind Sharing with Writers subscribers of a sister blog, The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. I consider editing the single most important aspect of promotion. After all, a well-edited query letter is the first thing most agents, editors, publishers and producers ever see from an editor.

Though there are times when an author absolutely must edit her own work, only a foolish writer trusts the editing of her book entirely to a publisher. So knowing how to edit is important. And that means a whole lot more than being good at grammar.

Since I wrote The Frugal Editor, I get letters from people on the subject of editing, especially arguments about why they don't need to hire one. Here are my answers to a few of them:


I don't need to worry about an editor. My book will be traditionally published.

• You can't rely on the editor provided by your publisher--any publisher. I've seen even the biggest publisher let boo-boos in books slip through. And many small publishers hire inexperienced typo hunters, not real editors.


I'm hiring an experience editor. I'm letting her do the work. That's what I'm paying her for.

• You can't rely on even the best editor you hire. You need to be a partner with your editor. If you know little or nothing about the process, how can you know what to accept or what to reject? When you're sure you want to break a rule and when you want to consider what he or she is telling you, even if it goes against your pattern or makes you uncomfortable? "Partner" is the key word here. You want to be able to do that even if you're publishing with Harper's and your editor turns out to be a channeled Jacqueline Kennedy. (-:

I'm just publishing POD for my family.

• No matter how you publish, you need an editor before you go to press. Regardless of how you are publishing or what you call the process. (By the way, many terms used for publishing these days have become almost unintelligible because so many are using them incorrectly. That adds confusion to an already confusing process! I guess that could be considered an editing problem of sorts.)

I know I should have an editor but I keep procrastinating...

The Frugal Editor gives you guidelines for the way to find a good editor. Those guidelines are there for people who have the best intentions and just don't get around to it. It's there for all of us who tend to put off this process. We tend to make a thousand excuses to ourselves for not doing it. Well, OK. I know I made excuse or at least one excuse. (-: My excuse was, I AM an editor! Ahem!

I've already been over this book 15 times. If there is an error in it, I'll eat my hat!

• One pair of eyes is never as good as two different pairs (or three or 10!) of eyes. Two pairs of eyes on people who got As in English or teach English are never as good as one pair of eyes on an editor with years of publishing experience.

I've had lots of people read my book to help clear it of errors. Even my husband who is an engineer and catches every misplace comma!

• People who are good grammarians or good typo hunters aren't necessarily good editors.

I had my college English teacher check my book. If she can't do it, no one can.

• Good editors will be good grammarians, spellers and typo hunters but they bring a whole lot more to the table than those skills. Most teachers have had no publishing experience at all. Thus, they won't know much if anything about frontmatter, backmatter, your table of contents, your index and on an on. So start saving your pennies for a good editor and in the meantime, read up on the process for yourself.


PS: When my first editor edited my novel, This Is the Place, she told me it was the "cleanest" copy she ever saw. OK. I'm an editor. But, I have to tell you. She missed much that I'd missed so that made two of us who had missed things that any good editor would surely have found! I'd love to go back, review that book myself and then have another editor look at it again and then then republish. I probably won't do that. I believe authors should move on and not dwell on past works. But the story illustrates why I am so adamant about it.

PSS: Oh, another thing about the concept of republishing and re-editing. We will all grow--our writing will improve-- as we write more. And as we read. As we take writing classes. So the fact that we would make changes if we were rewriting an old novel is only natural. I don't think we need to be kicking ourselves over it. I think we need to be patting ourselves on the back that we have grown. (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal." Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.