You've just returned from your local bookstore and slip the novel you purchased out of the bag and into your hand. What do you see when you open the book? Letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters. The story. What you probably never notice is the formatting.
What is formatting, anyway, and why does it matter?
When you publish independent of a traditional press, you will be responsible for creating a PDF of your book that has an easy-to-read font, attractive chapter headings, aligned margins and gutters, a correct table of contents, page numbers, headers, copyright page, dedication page.
Is your head spinning?
If you are a somewhat tech-savvy person who doesn't mind tedious digital maneuvering, then you might decide to format your own book. But if you are like many writers, you cringe at the thought of spending weeks setting up formatting software, uploading your document, aligning, checking, proofing, troubleshooting, more troubleshooting. You'd rather be doing something else - like writing!
We take formatting seriously. Our designers - Megan and Juli - have decades of experience in InDesign, the premiere software for book formatting, and they don't mind all the tedious work that comes with giving your book a beautiful inside. The key to good formatting is this: you never notice it. The problem with substandard formatting is that you do notice all those gaps at the bottom of the page, the weird font, the narrow gutters that force you to open the book so wide the spine cracks.
Our formatting goal is to make the inside of your book look so good no one notices it; instead, your readers can focus on the story, which is the point, right?
If you would like to learn more about our interior formatting services, contact us! We would love to give you a free consultation and make your book look beautiful on the inside.
Next week: The Beautiful Outside: A Cover that Communicates