{"id":355,"date":"2013-08-08T09:04:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-08T09:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/dup-adobe-indesign\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:12:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:12:55","slug":"starthere","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/starthere\/","title":{"rendered":"Start Here (Book Formatting Basics)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MmuJktqHIWc\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hi there, I&#8217;m Derek Murphy &#8211; when I published my first book over 20 years ago, formatting was a major pain. As a book designer, I got pretty good at formatting books in Microsoft Word and InDesign, and since then my tutorials and templates have gotten over <strong>4million views<\/strong>. Down below you&#8217;ll find a crash course in book formatting &#8211; don&#8217;t forget to sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/premiumtemplates25\/\">free<\/a> package of formatting templates!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/premiumtemplates25\/\">Download The Free Book Formatting Templates<\/a><\/strong><br \/><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.creativindie.com\/p\/book-formatting-for-print-and-ebook?coupon_code=17\">Black Friday special, get all the premium formats for <del>$97<\/del> <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">$17<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>DIY Book Formatting (What You Need to Know)<\/h2>\n<p>I usually write my books in MS Word, and if you set up your chapter headers right, you can upload your Word file to KDP directly and get a decent ebook. It&#8217;s easy to obsess about getting your book perfect, but the truth is you&#8217;ll sell my ebooks anyway; keep the style simple and match genre conventions. Book formatting has rules, and as long as it&#8217;s clean and professional it&#8217;ll work. If you want a REALLY great look book, consider a book formatting <a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/vellum\/\">software like Vellum.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zW8fjBTYdxc\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Book Formatting Basics<\/h3>\n<p>The goal of formatting is to look professional and make the story easy to read. A little bit of style is OK but you don\u2019t want to take big risks or do anything strange or distracting. In fact, most of my templates are a bit too flashy (I got bored after the first couple). Using a lot of decorations or fancy fonts is probably a bad idea.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Doing research<\/strong><br \/>Go to the library with a ruler. Take pictures of what you like and don\u2019t. Browse through my example gallery. Make some decisions. You don\u2019t want to play around or hesitate or waste too much time fretting about this stuff. It doesn\u2019t matter as much as you think it does, as long as you\u2019re copying professionally done books and not making stuff up on the fly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book size<\/strong><br \/>You\u2019ll need to start by choosing a book size. 6\u201dx9\u201d may seem like the obvious choice but for most books I think it\u2019s a little big. You don\u2019t want a big but very thin book. You want a book that\u2019s got some substance and thickness to it. I\u2019d shoot for at least 200 pages, and not more than 350 pages. That\u2019s enough to give the book some weight without the printing costs eating into your profits.<\/p>\n<p>If you have a shorter book, say around 50,000 words, this might seem tough to do \u2013 but just add in some more spacing (don\u2019t make the font sizes bigger). Extra spacing doesn\u2019t make a book look cheap, it actually makes it look cleaner and more professional.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll need to check your printer \/ distributor to see what options they offer.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Tip:<\/strong> I always recommend KDP over Lightning Source \u2013 LS offers no tangible benefits for self-publishing, higher setup fees and much more complications in the process of preparing files. The argument that LS can get your book in bookstores is entirely false: bookstores won\u2019t stock your book just because it\u2019s easy and available.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/createspace.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-377 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/createspace.jpg\" alt=\"publishing page sizes\" width=\"209\" height=\"309\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is what KDP offers right now. Of those, I\u2019d start with 5.25 by 8, because the 5&#215;8 cover is too tall and narrow. (A 5 by 8 cover is exactly the \u201cideal proportions\u201d Kindle wants for cover art \u2013 1.6 \u2013 but this is a recommendations all traditional publishers ignore because it looks too tall and narrow, perfect for an iPhone 5 screen maybe but on most devices ill-fitting.)<\/p>\n<p>The 1.5 ratio of the 6&#215;9 cover is much more \u201cbookish\u201d and ordinary, and leaves more room for cover art. But as I mentioned, 6&#215;9 can feel a bit big and flimsy and I like the smaller, more compact size of the 5.25 by 8&#8230;. unless you have a longer book and can pad out a 6&#215;9 to at least a couple hundred pages). Whatever you choose, just set the document size and you\u2019re done \u2013 it\u2019s an easy choice to change later and fix, although you may have to redo some stuff so it\u2019s better to decide early.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Page Margins<\/strong><br \/>The margins are how far the text is away from the edge of the page. You want them to be spacious, but not so much that it seems like you\u2019re wasting paper. Half an inch is not quite enough, 1 inch is a little too much.<\/p>\n<p>For the sides, I think between .6\u201d and .8\u201d will do. You can also set the \u201cgutter\u201d \u2013 which is the extra space on the edges that are held together in the bending. This brings the text out from the fold a bit. I\u2019m luke-warm on the issue but a .3\u201d gutter will probably do nicely.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/example.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-378 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/example.jpg\" alt=\"book formatting examples\" width=\"581\" height=\"430\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most of my templates are actually set at around .5&#8243; ~ .6&#8243; margins, and not always with a gutter.<\/p>\n<p>For example, this one (above) has .6&#8243; margins on the sides, .55 on the bottom and .65 on the top, with .3 spacing for the header and footer.<\/p>\n<p>Hugh Howey&#8217;s <em>Dust <\/em>(set in Adobe Caslon) has about 1&#8243; margins and no noticeable gutter. The bottom margin is just under 1&#8243;, and the headers\/page numbers about 3\/4th inch from the top margin.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_1047.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-384\" src=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_1047.jpg\" alt=\"book formatting\" width=\"347\" height=\"461\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_1043.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-379\" src=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_1043.jpg\" alt=\"book formatting\" width=\"347\" height=\"463\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(BTW, I would have gone a font size smaller and added a little more spacing between the lines&#8230; <em>Dust <\/em>is exactly 400 pages, the extra margin spacing and larger size &#8211; 6&#215;9 &#8211; makes it more hefty and epic, but the font size makes it seem more like a YA book and the line spacing is a little cramped).<\/p>\n<p>Also take into account your headers and footers \u2013 they should be roughly evenly spaced between the top or bottom page edges, and the body text. So if your top and bottom margins are .8\u201d (and they should probably be a little bigger than your side margins), then your header or footer would be about .4\u201d in from the edge, with enough spacing between it and the body so it stands out cleanly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Body fonts and line height<\/strong><br \/>Unless you\u2019re writing a children\u2019s book, use a serif font at 11 or 12pt. This is not the place to get creative. You do not need to worry about \u201csight impaired\u201d people or make your text big and easy to read. The majority of your readers are going to be people who read and are used to reading books.<\/p>\n<p>Use the tried-and-true fonts that are consistently used in print for millions and millions of books. Here\u2019s a list of my favorites, in order of preference, and the most common. Some of these have cheaper, common versions &#8211; if you can, try to find a &#8220;pro&#8221; version (if you have to pay for it, it&#8217;s probably better).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 Adobe Caslon Pro<br \/>\u2022 Sabon<br \/>\u2022 Dante<br \/>\u2022 Minion Pro<br \/>\u2022 Adobe Garamond Pro<br \/>\u2022 Goudy Bookletter 1911<br \/>\u2022 ITC New Baskerville<br \/>\u2022 Dante<br \/>\u2022 Minion Pro<br \/>\u2022 Cardo<br \/>\u2022 Janson<br \/>\u2022 Bookman Old style<br \/>\u2022 Palatino Linotype<br \/>\u2022 Bembo<br \/>\u2022 Theano Didot<br \/>\u2022 Tryst<br \/>\u2022 Fournier<br \/>\u2022 Filosophia<br \/>\u2022 Electra<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>BEST FREE FONTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">These may not be ideal, but these <a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/freefonts\/\">free fonts<\/a> might work too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Theano Didot<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/google\/noto-serif\">Noto Serif<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/roger-white\/cardiff\">Cardiff<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/roger-white\/oxford\">Oxford<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/google\/droid-serif\">DroidSerif<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/luke-owens\/portland-ldo\">Portland<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/roger-white\/queens-park\">Queen&#8217;s Park<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/pablo-impallari\/libre-baskerville\">LibreBaskerville<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/linux-libertine\/linux-libertine\">Linux Libertine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/open-baskerville-project\/open-baskerville\">Open Baskerville<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/gust-e-foundry\/tex-gyre-bonum\">TexGyre<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/american-philological-association\/new-athena-unicode\">New Athena<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/peter-s-baker\/junicode\">Junicode<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/gnu-freefont\/freeserif\">Free Serif<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/21326\/neuton\">Neuton<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/eduardo-tunni\/gilda-display\">Gilda Display<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/category\/Serif?p=33\">Cardo<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/arro\/medio\">Medio<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/adobe\/source-serif-pro\">SourceSerifPro<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/rogier-van-dalen\/garogier\">Garogier<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/sil-international\/doulos-sil\">Doulous<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/eduardo-tunni\/average\">Average<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/daniel-johnson\/judson\">Judson<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/every-witch-way\/chrysanthi-unicode\">Chrysanthi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/cheapskate-fonts\/dustismo-roman\">Dustimo<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/herman-miller\/thryomanes\">Thryomanes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/reading-type\/bentham\">Bentham<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/eduardo-tunni\/mate\">Mate<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fontspace.com\/digital-graphics-labs\/angleterre-book\">Angleterre<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Tip:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>check out the computers at<\/em><em> your local library or ask your friends to see what fonts they have installed &#8211; if they have one you want you can borrow it, or just finish formatting on their computer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Some fonts look a little smaller than others \u2013 Garamond Premiere Pro at 12pt for example looks significantly smaller than some of the other fonts at 12pt. Usually I\u2019d use 11pt or 11.5, but it depends on the size you picked. YA text can be a little bigger (a larger 12) whereas some academic or non-fiction could be a smaller 11.<\/p>\n<p>In general, your line height should be around 1.3.<br \/>1 is too tight and 1.5 is often too wide and spread out \u2013 although for some genres, especially self-help or spiritual, this extra spacing can really suit the subject matter.<\/p>\n<p>For a<strong> 6&#215;9 book<\/strong>, shoot for an average of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.creativindie.com\/how-many-pages-should-a-novel-have-and-how-many-words-per-chapter\/\">350 words per page<\/a> \u2013 for a 5&#215;8, around 300.<\/p>\n<p>But as I mentioned, I firmly believe making the book a little weighty goes a long way in increasing customer satisfaction, so if your print book is under 100 pages for example, I\u2019d increase the line height and margins to push it up closer to 200 pages.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t cheating \u2013 people are buying the same book and paying the same money for it. The book will just seem less flimsy or insubstantial.<\/p>\n<h2>Book Formatting in MS Word<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re ready to get started, download my templates and then watch my detailed tutorials for <a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/formatbookinword\/\">book formatting in Microsoft Word<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Make Your Book Beautiful \u2014 Without the Formatting Headache<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Psst&#8230;<\/strong> learning to format your own books can be a major pain. It&#8217;s easier with our beautifully designed, 100% free templates. They&#8217;ve already helped over 20,000 authors publish successfully. <a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/premiumtemplates25\/\">Click here to download them all.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1644 aligncenter\" title=\"book formatting examples\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set2.jpg\" alt=\"book formatting examples\" width=\"565\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set2.jpg 800w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set2-300x111.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set2-768x283.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1643 aligncenter\" title=\"book formatting examples\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set1.jpg\" alt=\"book formatting examples\" width=\"567\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set1-300x111.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/set1-768x283.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 567px) 100vw, 567px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/premiumtemplates25\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2009 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/button-download-now-orange-1-1.png\" alt=\"book formatting templates\" width=\"345\" height=\"116\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/button-download-now-orange-1-1.png 345w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/button-download-now-orange-1-1-300x101.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 345px) 100vw, 345px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1998\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7c56a0798b23751d28e91bbb4852d1c869113dd4.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7c56a0798b23751d28e91bbb4852d1c869113dd4.jpg 928w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7c56a0798b23751d28e91bbb4852d1c869113dd4-300x35.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/7c56a0798b23751d28e91bbb4852d1c869113dd4-768x89.jpg 768w\" alt=\"\" width=\"928\" height=\"108\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1994\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/bb4862c099939ad572e757b4a62d93f7309781fe-1.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/bb4862c099939ad572e757b4a62d93f7309781fe-1.jpg 922w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/bb4862c099939ad572e757b4a62d93f7309781fe-1-300x31.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/bb4862c099939ad572e757b4a62d93f7309781fe-1-768x80.jpg 768w\" alt=\"\" width=\"922\" height=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Using styles (important!)<\/h3>\n<p>The biggest mistake I see with authors trying to DIY their interior formatting is that they don\u2019t use styles.<\/p>\n<p>Both Word and InDesign allow you to set a character or paragraph style \u2013 for example, in MS Word, you can click \u201cHeader 1\u201d and it will automatically change the font, size, line height, color and spacing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/styles.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-385\" title=\"microsoft word using styles book formatting\" src=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/styles.jpg\" alt=\"microsoft word using styles book formatting\" width=\"493\" height=\"215\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What you don\u2019t want to do is decide to change your header font and then go back and have to manually fix every instance. When an author uses nothing but the default \u201cnormal\u201d style \u2013 if I change and update that style it erases everything from all the headers, headings and other elements back to \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>So set up your styles first and remember to use them!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Type out a paragraph, set the font, and line height, and remove the indent or set it to \u201c0\u201d. Select that paragraph and save it as a style called \u201cFirstparagraph.\u201d That\u2019s your standard, non-indented first paragraph that\u2019s virtually a given in all print books and ebooks (even if you change it later, you\u2019ll want a first paragraph style that\u2019s easy to change).<\/p>\n<p>Copy that paragraph, set the indent to .3\u201d and save it as \u201cnormal.\u201d That&#8217;s your regular body paragraph.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Make styles for&#8230;<\/strong><br \/>\u2022 Chapter-headings<br \/>\u2022 Subtitle<br \/>\u2022 Quotes<br \/>\u2022 Page-numbers<br \/>\u2022 Title-page<br \/>\u2022 Copyright-page<br \/>\u2022 Footers<br \/>\u2022 Headers<\/p>\n<p>Get those sorted and start using them \u2013 that way when the book is all laid out and you decide to change the subtitle font or style, you don\u2019t have to go through and fix everything manually, or screw everything up and have to start from scratch.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, you\u2019d just edit one version of the subtitle, highlight it and update the style based on the new settings \u2013 and the changes will automatically be made throughout the book (more on the specifics of this later, in the respective software guides.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Front matter pages<\/strong><br \/>You\u2019ll want a title page, a copyright page, a TOC (table of contents), preface or introduction, and\/or dedication. Both Word and InDesign will let you make an automatic table of contents that you can update without having to do it all manually &#8211; those are also important for converting to ebook formats (I\u2019ll tell you how to make those later).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter Pages<\/strong><br \/>Chapter pages usually have a little bit of flair and style, depending on the genre, but don\u2019t overdo it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 The body text should start about halfway down the page.<br \/>\u2022 The top half of the page should be for \u201cChapter One\u201d or something similar.<br \/>\u2022 The fonts and style should match your book cover.<\/p>\n<p>You may wish to add a special divider or style but unless you\u2019re writing YA romance, conservative is probably best. Simple and stylish.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>These are the decisions you have to make:<\/strong><br \/>1. The first paragraph is almost always non-indented; although I\u2019ve also seen it super-indented.<br \/>2. Drop caps on the first paragraph are common, but with or without is fine.<br \/>3. All caps for the first few words is common, sometimes in a nice sans-serif for contrast.<br \/>4. Chapter pages don\u2019t have headers, and rarely page numbers, although a single page number at the bottom (usually centered) is OK &#8211; even if the page numbers are usually in the headers on the top of the page.<br \/>5. Some books make sure all chapter pages are on the right hand side, leaving a blank page on the left if necessary. But it&#8217;s not obligatory, and needs more effort.<\/p>\n<p>Word and InDesign are different when it comes to setting up these pages so I\u2019ll talk more about that later. For me personally, I just style one chapter page and the first few pages of the book, and then outsource for fiverr.com for someone to copy my style and finish it up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yet another word of caution&#8230;<br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t want to throw up a bunch of minimalist templates, so made these with some kick. But while they may work for YA or Children&#8217;s books, it&#8217;s probably best to go even simpler. If you use a fancy dropcap, don&#8217;t also use page decorations or a fancy font for the chapter titles. Pair something stylish with something uber-minimalist (a very small, simple serif). Most of my chapter headings are also much too big and bold. Compare my templates with all the ones on the Gallery page to get a sense of what I&#8217;m talking about &#8211; almost all of them look the same apart for the &#8220;decisions&#8221; I listed above. Small, simple, stylish, lots of space, fonts that match the cover font &#8211; decoration can be fun if used well and sparingly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section breaks<\/strong><br \/>Sometimes a chapter will have different sections, and you want to add a break without using a full on new chapter heading.<\/p>\n<p>You can skip a couple spaces.<\/p>\n<p>You can non-indent the first sentence after the break, or make it bolded or all-caps. A dropcap is probably over-doing it.<\/p>\n<p>If you choose a divider, choose carefully.<br \/>I\u2019ve come to realize that I\u2019m not a fan of the very common, three asterisks:<\/p>\n<h2>* * *<\/h2>\n<p>I think three large periods is more stylish, especially for non-fiction:<\/p>\n<h2>. . .<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re writing romance or fantasy you can use a flourish:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Simple-Line-Dark-9.gif.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-386\" src=\"http:\/\/www.diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Simple-Line-Dark-9.gif.png\" alt=\"Simple-Line-Dark-9.gif\" width=\"92\" height=\"62\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But for most books, I find the little glyphs or symbols more distracting than not. Keep them small and as subtle as possible. Get something custom made that really matches your book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Or play it safe, and just add a space and a non-indent.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Tip:<\/strong> if you want a really easy way to add something unique, search for symbol fonts, that add symbols or flourishes rather than letters. That way you can just type the symbol, center it and use it just like text. <em>Here\u2019s a list of some you can use: <\/em>Fraktur-Schmuck,\u00a0Swinging,\u00a0TheFrench,\u00a0Tribalism Free,\u00a0WWDesigns,\u00a0artistic swash,\u00a0Calligraphic Frames, ccdiv, ccdiv2,\u00a0Cornucopia Caligrafica, Destiny&#8217;s Decorative,\u00a0Floral Garnish,\u00a0Floreale Two,\u00a0NeoclassicFleuronsFree,\u00a0NatVignetteOne (and Two),\u00a0Nymphette<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Something to watch out for\u2026<\/strong><br \/>Be careful when you center things like chapter headings or break symbols \u2013 there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re starting from the \u201cnormal\u201d style that includes an indent. So you\u2019re \u201ccentering\u201d it but it\u2019s really adding in the .3\u201d indent, which makes the center a little off. If you add section symbols or other centered text, make sure it\u2019s set to \u201c0\u201d indent, then center it, then save or update the style.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Headers and footers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>You can also use your headers of footers to cement your book\u2019s unique style.<br \/>In general, use the book cover fonts (or subtitle\/author name fonts if the title font is too messy or unclear). You basically want a simple serif or sans-serif, although italics can look nice too. Page numbers and headings should be a bit smaller, probably 9 or 10pt).<\/p>\n<p>Often left and right pages alternate, so that the text and page numbers are always on the edges.<br \/>Often one page will have the author name, the other the title.<br \/>The text is often in all-caps.<\/p>\n<p>The page number can be up next to the text in the header \u2013 if so you can remove some of the footer space or bottom margin.<\/p>\n<p>Or, the page number can be on the bottom.<br \/>Having headers and footers centered, rather than at the edges, seems to be pretty common as well \u2013 so if figuring out whether you need to align them right or left is getting confusing, there\u2019s nothing wrong with centering them all so you don\u2019t have to worry one page will be screwed up and ruin the book.<\/p>\n<p>Out of hundreds and hundreds of books I researched, I found a couple with headings on the bottom (which I hate \u2013 as I also hate Windows 8 for trying to do the same thing) and one with the headings and numbers on the side margins (interesting, but why try so hard to be different?)<\/p>\n<p>Remember, risks distract from the story and can rarely improve the experience. The story is what matters.<br \/>The job of the formatting is to disappear and use convention to present the story in a format readers recognize and expect, so they can get right into it without getting pulled out of the story by distracting elements.<\/p>\n<p>Plus &#8211; <em>you&#8217;ve already made the sale. <\/em>You don&#8217;t need to impress the readers with anything other than great content.<\/p>\n<p>Got it? Great \u2013 the following sections will deal with formatting in Word and InDesign more directly.<\/p>\n<p>PS honestly you can&#8217;t learn this stuff from a long article, but my formatting tutorials should help!<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ileJXCJpiXc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>InDesign vs Word Formatting<\/h2>\n<p>InDesign is a legacy typesetting program so you might have run into it before &#8211; I did make some templates if you want to master that particular skillset, but I wouldn&#8217;t recommend it. If you need to add images and fancy things, InDesign lets you customize and adjust the placement of everything &#8211; but it&#8217;s still difficult to learn.<\/p>\n<p>Word, meanwhile, will break if you move anything somewhere else, BUT if you set up all your styles, you should still be able to format a full book in about 20 minutes, and I like the total ability to tweak and customize. For most people though&#8230; learning to format from free templates might just barely get you across the finish line, but may not be worth the effort.<\/p>\n<p>Vellum is great but only works for Mac (you can use mac in cloud as a work around, which I do sometimes&#8230;) but mostly and mainly, even though Word isn&#8217;t perfect, it&#8217;s the most obvious tool to use if you&#8217;ve already got access.<\/p>\n<h2>Format for Kindle \/ Epub<\/h2>\n<p>I have a whole other guide for<a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/ebooks\"> formatting epub for kindle,<\/a> but let&#8217;s cover some of the most important stuff here: basically an &#8220;epub&#8221; is an ebook meant to display on a digital device &#8211; it&#8217;s &#8220;reflowable&#8221; meaning people can make the text bigger or smaller, which will break the sentences in different places.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The most important thing is that it works, and it&#8217;s accepted on publishing platforms like KDP (kindle direct publishing &#8211; you could also use something like Draft2Digital to distribute your ebook. If you&#8217;re starting with a Word file and you formatted it with my guides or templates, conversion to epub should be simple &#8211; you can even upload a Word document directly to KDP and they will convert it to an epub automatically! It may not look amazing but simple is better than broken.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/vellum\/\">Vellum <\/a>is the next best choice if you want it to look fancy, or better than average. But there are also plenty of online or offline tools, like Calibre, that are made for creating ebooks (I actually have my own book conversion tool, it&#8217;s being moved from another site but I&#8217;ll share it soon).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/store.vellum.pub\/?via=derek49\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2226 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/vellum2.jpg\" alt=\"vellum book formatting\" width=\"600\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/vellum2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/vellum2-300x106.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The problem is you can&#8217;t really EDIT ebooks, without something like Sigil to open it up and dig around, and that can get messy. So you usually need to update your Word document then convert it again.<\/p>\n<p>This may sound too complicated, and yes there should be an instant drag\/drop tool that formats your book beautifully&#8230; maybe someday soon I&#8217;ll crack that challenge but in the meantime, my formats and tutorials should help you get everything you need to publish your ebook and paperback, with the least amount of stress.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Book Formatting Resources<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/ebooks\/\">Ebook Formatting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/formatbookinword\/\">MS Word Formatting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/indesigntemplates\/\">InDesign Formatting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/freebookformatting\/\">Free book formatting templates<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>PS<\/strong> if you get stuck, try a great formatting software like<a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/vellum\/\"> Vellum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Still here?\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><em>You&#8217;re working too hard.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Get started quickly<\/b>\u00a0with our beautifully designed, 100% free templates. They&#8217;ve already helped over 20,000 authors publish successfully.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/premiumtemplates25\/\">Click here to download them all.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/formatting2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"765\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/formatting2.jpg\" alt=\"book formatting scifi and fantasy templates\" class=\"wp-image-1589\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/formatting2.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/formatting2-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/formatting2-768x588.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/premiumtemplates25\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"554\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SIGNUP-DIYbookformatting-1024x554.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2019\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SIGNUP-DIYbookformatting-1024x554.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SIGNUP-DIYbookformatting-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SIGNUP-DIYbookformatting-768x415.jpg 768w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SIGNUP-DIYbookformatting.jpg 1034w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Self-Publishing Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m on a quest to make a full-time living with my writing, and I share everything I learn! I have several free guides to writing, publishing and book marketing &#8211; they&#8217;ll help you avoid serious mistakes that can ruin your journey. You can find them on my main blog, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.creativindie.com\/books\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.creativindie.com\/books\/\">CreativIndie<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.creativindie.com\/books\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1323\" height=\"796\" src=\"http:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/freebooks.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/freebooks.jpg 1323w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/freebooks-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/freebooks-1024x616.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/freebooks-768x462.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1323px) 100vw, 1323px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi there, I&#8217;m Derek Murphy &#8211; when I published my first book over 20 years ago, formatting was a major pain. As a book designer, I got pretty good at formatting books in Microsoft Word and InDesign, and since then my tutorials and templates have gotten over 4million views. Down below you&#8217;ll find a crash [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-355","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4qNdl-5J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/355\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diybookformats.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}