Formatting Your Novel

You've completed the editing process, your cover design is complete, and you have purchased your ISBN and bar code, now you must decided on the look for your final product.

Huh? (Is that what you just said?)  What size do you want your novel to be? 8x11? 6x9? Large? Smaller? Or somewhere in between?

Once you decide on a size, you have to format your manuscript and cover to fit into those dimensions.  How do you format your manuscript?

I'm making the assumption that you have written your manuscript using Microsoft Word, if you have used something different you will have to do some research on how to format the size and margins of the manuscript if you don't already have that knowledge.

In word, you want to click on the "Page Layout" tab.  You will see the following options: Margins, Orientation, Size, and few others.  Make your margins 1 inch all the way around (top, bottom, left, right) as you will need the spacing for binding, page numbers, and page headers.  Most books are printed in Portrait mode, however, if you are writing a children's book you may want to use Landscape.  Now for the real work in formatting, Page size.  Click on size and a drop down menu will open, more than likely the size you want isn't visible so click on More Paper Sizes.  A pop-up window will open, and you can either select one of the "Traditional" paper sizes or you can simply just adjust the width and height settings your desired specifications and click "OK".  Word will automatically format your text to fit on the page with within the boundaries you have set.  Now you must review your entire manuscript to make sure that each chapter (if your book is broken down this way) starts and ends on a page properly.  If by chance you have created "Sections" within your manuscript, you want to very the page numbers as they may have been altered during the formatting process.

Note1: "New Line" operates differently that a "Hard Return" during formatting so be sure to watch for odd spacing between lines and/or paragraphs.

Note2: A "New Line" is created when you hold down the "Shift and Enter" keys at the same time.  A "Hard Return" is created when you hit the "Enter" key by itself.

Once your manuscript is formatted exactly how you want to see it in print, save it once as a word document and once as a PDF.  To save your document as a PDF, click on the "Windows Logo" button in the upper left-hand corner of Word, hover your mouse over Save As, and then click on PDF or XPS.  Adding ".pdf" after the title or your manuscript will save it in PDF format (necessary for the printer and it keeps your manuscript from being "altered" after you have submitted to the printer).

Your manuscript is now formatted exactly how you want it, now you (or your designer) must now format your cover to match the width and height of your manuscript.  At this point, only the front and back covers can be formatted to the exact size.

Note3:  You won't now the width of your novel's "Spine" until you have submitted your manuscript to the printer and they provide you with the spine dimensions after setting it up in their printer.

Once you get the width of your spine, then that can be formatted with the title and your name.  All sections of the cover (front, back, and spine) will then need to be merged together into a single PDF document which will submit to the printer for layout with your manuscript.

Once your manuscript and cover have been formatted and sent to the printer, all you have to do is sit back and wait for the proof of your book is ready.  We'll about that in the next blog!

Until next time,
Happy Writing/Editing/Designing/Formatting!
G

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