E-book formatting tips for all my lovelies who've been wanting some help and what I've been reading on all the sites. Information for those getting into it, and if you have done it, feel free to add to what I've added, or let me know of things that have changed, whatnot. This is all things I've learned right now, but can change.
Info:
1) Don't have more than five hard returns (clicking the enter button) between paragraphs, headings, what have you. It ends up reading wrong on the e-reader and you'll end up with blank pages.
2) Indent using Microsoft's formatting, not the Tab button. If you don't know how, go into your paragraph formatting and you'll see the Indents and Spacing, then Indentation, then in the drop-down menu, you'll see "Special" and "First Line" and choose .5 or less. .25 (have to manually type it in probably like I did) is better, unless you want a large looking gap between the side edge and the indented words.
3) Insert page break after the end of your paragraph (insert one hard return after the last line of your paragraph, and one before your Heading for the chapter is best, that way if the e-book formatting gets screwy and your pages do run together, you'll be left with a gap between the end of Chapter One and say Chapter Two), where you'll move to the next page [or chapter]. Don't use only hard returns or your pages will run into each other.
4) Indent special at .25 is what Smashwords wants, and most do best at, but can go up to .50. Don't go over.
5) Use easy on the eyes font (stick with Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial {Arial being a sans-serif tends to be easier on the eyes when read on digital means}) and set it at 10pt, 12pt (best), but don't exceed 14 pt. Exceeding 14 will make your readers eyes have to refocus on the words which won't make them happy (may lose readership) and most of the time, the font will be forced smaller anyway by some vendors.
6) Edit, Edit, Edit the piece (unless using someone with editing experience, copy editors and the like) until you don't think anyone can do better. Look at it with fresh eyes: leave it and come back to it; edit one more time and make sure it is the best you can do because when you hit publish, you will be faced with all critique and when working with e-books, the grammar and spelling errors do stand out to everyone, not just friends and the world is critical.
7) Don't think that when you format it for one vender (Amazon, B&N, etc) that another will want the exact same formatting. Go through their guidelines as one person's formatting isn't anothers and the e-readers will change what it looks like.
8) Don't worry too much--for the Kindle particularly--about exact font type. Your font will be changed to what the Kindle chooses. They have their own particular font and you'll give yourself a severe headache trying to figure out what the heck you're doing wrong with the converter... I should know. Been there done that. haha
9) Line spacing should be at single break or up to 1.15, don't make it bigger just to fill pages because then the e-reader again, changes it, and you'll end up with a bigger looking book then people will want to touch. Make sure your space between paragraphs is zero. It will show up better on the reader than a big paragraph break. Don't use a hard return between paragraphs if you're doing most fiction style books.
10) Don't worry about page numbers when formatting for an e-book. Remember this guideline: less is more. Simpler is better. The eyes will see different on the e-reader.
11) Table of Contents is not absolutely necessary, but is recommended. Just remember... there will always be that one person who now has no interest in the book because they don't have it and would like to be able to skip ahead to chapter twenty and go back to one, and it's much easier to use the TOC than figuring out what page it was since pages are always a little different on e-readers (see number 10). So just take the time to put one in yourself and don't worry about it later. It's really simple to do, but if you can't figure it out, I found that this video here - Microsoft Word 2007 - Generating a Table of Contents cloudDVD Tutorial helped me the most. I was having a terrible time figuring it out until I watched this video.
ETA: Step 20 in the Smashwords Style Guide talks about manually doing your TOC so that there aren't any funkies happening when your e-book is converted. I was having issues so I decided to go that route. It IS more time-consuming, but you have the option to link your chapter headings back up to the TOC in which case, it provides your readers a more advanced way of playing around with your book. For me, I like that idea so I'm actually changing over to that method. It's not as complicated as you may think. Just read each step in the Style Guide and take your time.
12) Bookmark your TOC, cover, etc. Guidelines for making sure that your converter program is using them (especially if using MobiPocket) can be found on this site - Cj's Easy as Pie Kindle Tutorials - Add Guide Items to Link Table of Contents and Go to Beginning Best one I found anywhere.
13) When making a Table of Contents, don't forget to give people something extra at the back (like a message thanking them for reading! Read Smashwords Guide on how to do it Step 22), which you can incorporate into your TOC. Smashwords Style Guide is a wonderful help for all that and has some great information on everything. Basic steps are adding a "contact me" option and include info at the back of the book, which you then click on a "Header" format and label it, then go over to your TOC and click update, then it will automatically add a bookmark to the front of the book in your TOC where readers can just click on it and be taken to your info.
14) Text Alignment. The two best chosen are Justified and Left alignment. Now personally I think Justified reads much better on the e-reader and I like books that are Justified and indented properly. But Kindle will do it automatically for you anyway, and other places, like Smashwords (the style guide) recommends using "left" alignment. That one seems to be more a personal choice, but stick with one or the either.
15) If writing a book of non-fiction, use the block method of writing, and not the indented paragraphs. I don't worry about that since I'm not, but they say it's better format. In which case you will want to use space between paragraphs, but only for non-fiction. Read the - Smashwords Style Guide for more information on it. Step 7 gives the paragraph information.
Now I know a LOT of this may be confusing so feel free to ask me anything you're confused over! And if I find out something is wrong, or has changed, I'll try and come back and update this. :D
Tootles!
Info:
1) Don't have more than five hard returns (clicking the enter button) between paragraphs, headings, what have you. It ends up reading wrong on the e-reader and you'll end up with blank pages.
2) Indent using Microsoft's formatting, not the Tab button. If you don't know how, go into your paragraph formatting and you'll see the Indents and Spacing, then Indentation, then in the drop-down menu, you'll see "Special" and "First Line" and choose .5 or less. .25 (have to manually type it in probably like I did) is better, unless you want a large looking gap between the side edge and the indented words.
3) Insert page break after the end of your paragraph (insert one hard return after the last line of your paragraph, and one before your Heading for the chapter is best, that way if the e-book formatting gets screwy and your pages do run together, you'll be left with a gap between the end of Chapter One and say Chapter Two), where you'll move to the next page [or chapter]. Don't use only hard returns or your pages will run into each other.
4) Indent special at .25 is what Smashwords wants, and most do best at, but can go up to .50. Don't go over.
5) Use easy on the eyes font (stick with Times New Roman, Garamond or Arial {Arial being a sans-serif tends to be easier on the eyes when read on digital means}) and set it at 10pt, 12pt (best), but don't exceed 14 pt. Exceeding 14 will make your readers eyes have to refocus on the words which won't make them happy (may lose readership) and most of the time, the font will be forced smaller anyway by some vendors.
6) Edit, Edit, Edit the piece (unless using someone with editing experience, copy editors and the like) until you don't think anyone can do better. Look at it with fresh eyes: leave it and come back to it; edit one more time and make sure it is the best you can do because when you hit publish, you will be faced with all critique and when working with e-books, the grammar and spelling errors do stand out to everyone, not just friends and the world is critical.
7) Don't think that when you format it for one vender (Amazon, B&N, etc) that another will want the exact same formatting. Go through their guidelines as one person's formatting isn't anothers and the e-readers will change what it looks like.
8) Don't worry too much--for the Kindle particularly--about exact font type. Your font will be changed to what the Kindle chooses. They have their own particular font and you'll give yourself a severe headache trying to figure out what the heck you're doing wrong with the converter... I should know. Been there done that. haha
9) Line spacing should be at single break or up to 1.15, don't make it bigger just to fill pages because then the e-reader again, changes it, and you'll end up with a bigger looking book then people will want to touch. Make sure your space between paragraphs is zero. It will show up better on the reader than a big paragraph break. Don't use a hard return between paragraphs if you're doing most fiction style books.
10) Don't worry about page numbers when formatting for an e-book. Remember this guideline: less is more. Simpler is better. The eyes will see different on the e-reader.
11) Table of Contents is not absolutely necessary, but is recommended. Just remember... there will always be that one person who now has no interest in the book because they don't have it and would like to be able to skip ahead to chapter twenty and go back to one, and it's much easier to use the TOC than figuring out what page it was since pages are always a little different on e-readers (see number 10). So just take the time to put one in yourself and don't worry about it later. It's really simple to do, but if you can't figure it out, I found that this video here - Microsoft Word 2007 - Generating a Table of Contents cloudDVD Tutorial helped me the most. I was having a terrible time figuring it out until I watched this video.
ETA: Step 20 in the Smashwords Style Guide talks about manually doing your TOC so that there aren't any funkies happening when your e-book is converted. I was having issues so I decided to go that route. It IS more time-consuming, but you have the option to link your chapter headings back up to the TOC in which case, it provides your readers a more advanced way of playing around with your book. For me, I like that idea so I'm actually changing over to that method. It's not as complicated as you may think. Just read each step in the Style Guide and take your time.
12) Bookmark your TOC, cover, etc. Guidelines for making sure that your converter program is using them (especially if using MobiPocket) can be found on this site - Cj's Easy as Pie Kindle Tutorials - Add Guide Items to Link Table of Contents and Go to Beginning Best one I found anywhere.
13) When making a Table of Contents, don't forget to give people something extra at the back (like a message thanking them for reading! Read Smashwords Guide on how to do it Step 22), which you can incorporate into your TOC. Smashwords Style Guide is a wonderful help for all that and has some great information on everything. Basic steps are adding a "contact me" option and include info at the back of the book, which you then click on a "Header" format and label it, then go over to your TOC and click update, then it will automatically add a bookmark to the front of the book in your TOC where readers can just click on it and be taken to your info.
14) Text Alignment. The two best chosen are Justified and Left alignment. Now personally I think Justified reads much better on the e-reader and I like books that are Justified and indented properly. But Kindle will do it automatically for you anyway, and other places, like Smashwords (the style guide) recommends using "left" alignment. That one seems to be more a personal choice, but stick with one or the either.
15) If writing a book of non-fiction, use the block method of writing, and not the indented paragraphs. I don't worry about that since I'm not, but they say it's better format. In which case you will want to use space between paragraphs, but only for non-fiction. Read the - Smashwords Style Guide for more information on it. Step 7 gives the paragraph information.
Now I know a LOT of this may be confusing so feel free to ask me anything you're confused over! And if I find out something is wrong, or has changed, I'll try and come back and update this. :D
Tootles!
Good points. I like to keep my formatting as simple as possible. This helps me make alternate versions as needed. So if they will be printing my book, the formatting is pretty close. I didn’t know the indentation rule, so that’s great to know. Is there a way to make the tab feature work as the indent?
ReplyDeleteHey Kristina! Thanks! And thanks for stopping by and reading.
ReplyDeleteFrom everything I've been reading, there doesn't seem to be. When you use the tab key, the character which comes up on the page just doesn't represent an indent so you'll end up with something other than an indent for a program which doesn't recognize it. The best, and only way so far I've found, is the paragraph formatting option. If you set it BEFORE you work on your document, then it'll be much easier to make sure it's there. Just remember to make sure that for headings and such (unless it's needed/wanted), you highlight them and make sure they haven't been indented, or else (as I found out) they will be indented too since they are "technically" on a separate line, which Word will indent. I learned that the hard way.
Thanks for reading!