Formatting your book

Some may think this part isn’t fun, but this is my favorite part of the writing process. There are so many programs that help with formatting if it's not your strong suit. I do all of my formatting for my paperbacks and hardcovers through Word. I am familiar with Word and don’t see a reason to change my software when it comes to this stage of writing my books. It can be a pain sometimes when I go to upload my manuscript and pages are messed up, but I have finally worked out the kinks and got a system for myself.

            When I am in the writing stage of a book, I will make sure I have the main elements of the book formatted. Page size, margins, headers or footers, page number, etc. When I am in the formatting stage, this is when I go through and make sure everything is lined up the way I like on the page. I add chapter images or scene break images if I want. I just recently found out how to do colored pages so I’m experimenting with that at the moment. Formatting for me is basically the final touches to make the inside of my book look aesthetically pleasing for my readers. When I’m done with formatting through Word, I do find that converting my manuscript to PDF works better when uploading through wherever you plan to publish. I simply just save it as a PDF, and it opens through Adobe for me.

            I do pay monthly for my Adobe subscription, but it is so worth it. I use PDF files for basically everything. My monthly subscription is $19.99 USD and I definitely get my money's worth. After I save it into PDF, I can click on organize pages and go through my book one last time before uploading it to my publishing platform. I’ve noticed that Word likes to add some blank pages here and there so using the organize pages feature helps me spot them quicker. This also saves me time and money from ordering proofs and having extra pages where they don’t belong.

            Formatting my eBook is a bit different and takes more time. Thankfully since I publish through Amazon with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) I can upload my manuscript through Kindle Create. Once it's uploaded, I can use the tools through that software to change the formatting of my e-book. Kindle Create is completely free to use and after I published a few of my books, I got the hang of everything it had to offer.

            There are multiple other formatting programs you can use. Atticus, Scrivener, Vellum, and probably so many more. I haven’t used any of these because I try to keep my costs as low as possible, but I’ve heard great things about these other programs. Atticus is a one-time payment of $147 USD and I’ve noticed that a lot of authors opt to use this program. Eventually, I wouldn’t mind checking it out to see if it makes my writing timeline easier. The next two are Scrivener and Vellum. Both of these programs are only available on Mac. I don’t know much about Scrivener, but I have seen great interiors from Vellum. Scrivener only costs $50-60 USD and is a one-time payment. Vellum is more on the pricier side, but I have personally seen the results from this program, and I think it's worth the money if you are writing on a Mac.

            Vellum has two tiers, one just for e-books and then the other one includes paperbacks as well. Vellum ebooks is $199.99 USD and Vellum ebooks and paperbacks is $249.99. Again, only one-time payments, no monthly subscription. I personally don’t like using Macs, mainly because I didn’t grow up around that system so I will probably never use Vellum, but I have heard nothing but good things about it.

            I think formatting and cover design could go hand and hand, but I have a vault of book covers for myself. I get an idea and a cover is one of the first things I do. I'll get into how I design my book covers in my next author insight. I hope this helped a bit with formatting. Remember to always check the formatting requirements through whatever publishing platform you are using and format your work accordingly. Then you can make your book as beautiful as you want or let the words be the beauty all on their own. Happy writing!!!