7 Things to Know About Book Formatting 

Really glad I hired professionals to format the interior and design the cover. You will never regret spending the money on that. Publishing invites the most intense scrutiny of your work - it has to look nice! But also, you have to oversee what they do- they wanted to put a design element at the start of each chapter, like a logo of sorts, and I said no.

Wow you have such positive energy! You’re so friendly, etc. A great RU-vid presenter.

Well you convinced me to hire it done for sure

On this channel, you get all the necessary tools for publishing,

Bleeds, widows, orphans, rags! It sounds so Dickensian! But I can see how these are all things that a do it your selfer wouldn't think of addressing, but are cues that the book was not professionally done.

Very helpful trim size

Great vidoe. Quality info. Always love listening to you Julie. Blessings

I used a professional Formatter for my 1st book, using Word as my creation tool. Everything was uploaded the first time on Amazon and Ingram Spark. This is a terrific video that will be a great help for those in the process. Nicely done, Julie!

Very nice video 🌎 Thanks

I think I enjoyed this part of the process more than most folks. I made a lot of trips to the bookstore to get ideas.

You're fun to listen to! I loved your presentation!

Another helpful video. I had some rags, widows, and orphans on my poetry book between formats (kindle to paperback to hardcover). Format editing can take a while. I was trying to upload my KDP book to IngramSpark but kept getting the color pdf error. So, I created a 6x9 Word File, emulated my KDP format, and began transferring each chapter. I ran out of time before the promo code expired. TAKE AWAY: I updated my KDP manuscript format using your recommendation to have a hook in each chapter heading. So, it was not wasted effort. Thanks 👍

Happy Friday. Thank you for another inform video. The stuff you covered are things that don’t even hit my radar, I am grateful for these insights.

Thank you for all you do.

This sounds like a fun stage I’m looking forward to. Great content!

Preliminary remarks: Atticus software ("0:42"); Adobe InDesign ("1:02") 👉🏼 "1:49" -- "1. Know the file formats" (a.) If an ebook, "you need an e-pub file" ("2:25"). (b.) If "...a printed book, [then] a PDF file" is required for submission to the intended publisher ("2:41"). 👉🏼 "2:46" -- "2. From File Types to FORMATTING GUIDELINES" ☑ "trim size" ("3:03") ♦️ the variety of "standard trim sizes" ("3:21") ♦️ Visit a library or bookstore & use a ruler to do some measuring of book trims if uncertain as to what such possibilities are & so as to chose what is best for personal preference ("4:00"). 👉🏼 "4:11"/"4:23" -- "3. Front Matter, Main Body and Back Matter" 👉🏼 "5:59" -- "4. Margins and bleeds" ☑ Margins: "The blank areas around the edges of your pages, well, those are margins, and they're more important than you think." ♦️ recommendation for nonfiction books... ("6:24") ☑ Bleed: ♦️ definition of "bleed" in the context of book printing & publishing ("6:42") 👉🏼 "7:03" -- "5. Headers and footers" 👉🏼 "7:53" -- "6. Fonts" 👉🏼 "8:38" -- "7. Indents, spaces, and rags" Additional remarks: ☑ "The chapter page design" ("10:34") ♦️ The basics" ("11:10") ♦️ Chapter pages typically commence on the righthand side of the book ("11:16"). ♦️ Exercise some self-restraint with regard to designing as "Less is more" is generally the order of the day. Too much on a page ends up being clutter & confusing ("11:28"). ♦️ "Body text should begin about half way down the chapter page with the chapter heading centered in the top half of the page" ("11:40"). ♦️"Don't indent the first paragraph of a chapter. ....[An alternative if indentation of such is preferable & hard to relinquish], use a drop cap or make the first line all capitalized" ("11:46"). ♦️ "Omit the headers and footers for that particular page" ("11:55"). ♦️ "Including page numbers is optional" ("11:58"). ♦️ "Unless the font on your front cover is too difficult to read, you might want to think about using that same font for your chapter headings. If that's a no-go, then find one that is easy to read, but not the same font as the body text" ("12:00"). Julie, Julie, Julie (@Book Launchers), exceptional information you have so graciously provided here! I want to expression my appreciation to you for it all. You have articulated things here that have become idiosyncratic instincts for me regard to what I find appealing or, on the other hand, as a turn-off for me with regard to book formatting -- & me being an artist & one who is really inclined to realism & quite a perfectionist at heart, &, yes, this while also being a writer, yes, most definitely, these things are incredibly important to me. Also true is that you brought to light a couple or so things about particular standards of book formatting for publishing that I was not previously aware of. For example, I definitely have noticed the style myself, for, to be honest, it really grinds on my nerves when I see it, & especially when I may not have a choice other than to deal with it for it may be in a book recommended for academic course work or in a book that, in spite of the style I do not really like, has a wealth of information for my research needs, but, yeah, I was not privy to why the style of no indentations & that of course necessitating spaces in between paragraphs. For me, the "no indentations" look gives a feeling of uninteresting, blockish plainness, & then the necessitated spaces between the paragraphs causes there to be a feeling of lack of cohesiveness; indeed, it feels like I have to try to put a puzzle together with regard to the printed paragraphs on the page rather than being able to simply follow what ought to be a sensible flow of thought from information to understanding, from the understood information to more information that shall either be made to be understandable & understood or to at least be disclosed for the sake of making the reader aware & thus facilitating pieces for further searching out of, & all this towards some ultimate reality, the main point of the book. So, yeah, that type of thing of book formatting is to me what this silly thing in videography of a presenter looking off in another direction than at me the viewer is to me -- an annoyance & a turn-off. But, of course, you don't have your videos shot like that, because you are more conscious of your viewer & are intending for your words & message to be focused on rather than you & your profile, as if you are acting & the video is about you rather than your intended message. 😉👍🏼 Good job! Well, thanks again, Julie!

fabulous full service marketing oriented

Thanks for this

This was so true and sent me on a road of discovery. Although MSWord really has a lot of presets in its program already. I just had to understand it to use it. Thanks for doing such a great job! I always love your videos.

I used Adobe Indesign when I worked as a journalist in a newsroom, but now that I publish my own puzzle books, I use Affinity Publisher. It's nice that I don't have to pay a monthly fee for a program.

I'm most familiar with the PDF format. I'm looking forward to gaining a broader knowledge base about book formatting beyond that, though. Thank you!

My chapter headings are bold and slightly bigger, should they be a different font too?! So much information, and I love your energy. I plan on watching all your videos this weekend before I start to publish.

Always love your videos ❤️♥️. Some of the fonts suggested are free fonts, some must be paid for to use. But Times New Roman is a MS Word font and not sure if it can be used. MicroSft is very strict about the use of their fonts in book publications. However, I did learn something new about the line spacing. Thank you!

omg yes your chapters MUST start on the RIGHT page. It's a-ok to have a blank left and then the chapter start ON THE RIGHT.

Frontmatter is very important because its the first thing they will see if they bother to look inside. backmatter is comparatively unimportant.

fonts: serif or non; serif is the better choice. Size? 12 not 11 or 10.

Sorry to ask at this late date, but how do we make a page appear the same on different devices? Kobo reader vs. Kindle readers vs. iPad vs Android phones - they all can have different sizes beside the print format. How do we keep it consistent? Thanks.

Readers love riddles: WHY does booklaunchers logo have 2 lines on one page but three on the other? What does it mean?

formatting is very important, but most people 1 don't know that 2) don't know how to format. a) you should for amazon print books submit as a PDF. It's a horrible uneditable format, so you should ALSO submit the same interior as KDP html, even if you don't plan to sell via KDP /as eBook so you have an Editable backup.

Why isn’t Ariel font used?

I have a question I've been asking a few people and that is is it okay for me to write a novel without paragraphs.... They call it a stream of conscious ....I call it uninterrupted... I really don't want paragraphs in my book... Please let me know thank you

Formatting ...it is beyond me...