Publishing Your Book: Formatting for Print

In the previous we discussed how the publishing industry has changed through technology. One of the benefits to writers is that it is easier to get your book into the public’s hands. In this article, I will begin discuss how we prepare a book for print publication. If you have the time and the inclination, anyone can do it. It requires some tools, too, but they are readily available and inexpensive.
Let’s assume you have your nonfiction or fiction work ready to go. You have written and rewritten, let it sit, edited it, had others edit it, and are reasonable sure that it is in publishable condition. There are still a few steps left before it can be sent out into the world: Here are the steps we will cover (we are on step 1):

• Introduction
• Formatting for print
• Formatting for eBook
• Cover design
• Setup, review, and upload for CreateSpace
• Preparing an ePub for Kindle and iBooks
• Setup and upload to Kindle
• Set up and upload to iBooks

Each of those has steps and options under each category. In this article, we’ll look at the first one.

The Original Document’s Format

When we receive a submission for publication here at Sulis, we ask that it be in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages format. The three of us do not like Word—it’s user interface is bloated, unintuitive, and quirky. But it is an app that almost everyone has (or can save as), it has options that few other programs have (especially ones needed for formatting books), it is the format that most independent publishers expect for upload, and we are intimately familiar with it. (If we worked on an island, all alone, we would choose Pages, Nisus Writer Pro or Express, or Mellel). Even if you send us a Pages document, we will export it to Word (though if you are publishing to iBooks, Pages is a great option).
We use Scrivener for our own research, writing, and editing tasks. (See our three-part series on how we use Scrivener to write our own books.) But we export to Word from Scrivener to do the formatting for publication. (We suspect that if we spent enough time with the voluminous options on formatting an export from Scrivener, it would save us work—we’re working on it.)
Once we have the book in Word, we begin working through the entire manuscript from beginning to end, assigning styles if it has not been done by the author.  We are often amazed at how many writers do not make use of Styles in Word. It makes life so much easier. Here is what we do.

The Main Text

Word’s style palette showing paragraph styles.
We find every chapter heading, and assign it to a style called “Chapter Title.” Here is how it works. We click in the chapter head and format it as we want all chapter heads to appear. In the example below, it is Baskerville Italic 14 point, centered, with a space after of 12 points, “widow” and “keep with next” options turned on. Once it has all the attributes we need (and there may be more, depending on the style of the book), we select “New Style from the Styles palette and assign it the name “Chapter Title.” (in the example here all the styles are prefixed with CSP because we were formatting for CreateSpace). We also add “Start a new section” and “start on new page” to every heading that we want to begin on a new page. This is necessary for two reasons: headers and page numbers are usually different on these pages, and we will need to add blank pages later. More on that below.
If there are subtitles, we do the same, naming it “Subhead” and “Subsubhead.” For the main text, we do the same, but we use a non-indented style for the first paragraph after any heading, then a duplicate style but with a first-line indent for all other paragraphs. (This is the proper way it is done, look at any book.) If there are any other types of text that get repeated more than once, we do those, too (block quotes or call-outs, bibliographies, etc.). We work through the entire manuscript, assigning the new styles or adding new ones as we encounter them. When we finish, we have every element of the main text of the book consistently formatted. If  there are any special character styles (as opposed to paragraph styles), we do those as well. For example, we have published some books that have Greek text within them, we choose a Greek font and then assign a style.

Headers and Footers

There is a lot of stylistic leeway in headers. In most print books, the left and right headers are different: one usually has the author’s name, the other the book’s name. Another variation is the book name and the chapter name on opposite sides. Pages numbers are usually on one side of a header, or in the middle of the footer. Headers and footers do not appear on every page; they are usually absent from front matter, the beginnings of chapters, and blank pages.
Inserting a section break allows for varying the formatting of headers and footers. You can also insert new sections in the “document” dialogue box, and set different headers and footers  for odd and even pages, and different headers and footers for the first page of the section.
This necessitates the use of “sections” in Word, which allow various options for the first page of each section, but also allow you to employ continuous numbering. It is also necessary to turn on the function “different headers for right and left pages.”
In a lengthy book, you might have thirty or forty section changes. This can get quite confusing—turning on “show invisibles” helps. Sometimes, Word gets confused itself, and the formatting and codes you see on the screen seem to have nothing to do with what is formatted. We find it best to just remove all formatting and page breaks from the offending section and start again.

Title Page, Front and Back Matter

A print book usually has a title page, a copyright page, and may include a dedication and other text. These have their own format and we usually do not use styles for them, since they only are used once.

1. The title page contains, in large text, the full title of the book, the subtitle (if there is one), and the author of the book. It will also sometimes include the publisher’s name and information. These are usually all centered, but there is no rule. Make it readable and clean.
2. The copyright page usually includes the publisher’s name and address, the title of the book and the copyright notice (owner of copyright, usually the author), a statement of copyright laws, the ISBN(s), and the BISAC (categories). It can also include information about typesetting, design, or front cover photo information. This text is usually right-aligned or centered.  Again, there is no rule about the formatting—since it is an information page, make it clean and professional.
3. A dedication is usually on its own page, in 11 to 14 point (same as body text).
4. Additional front matter might include an acknowledgement, glossary, a forward by the author or someone else, or maps. Again, there are no rules about formatting. A good practice is to examine a number of books that the layout pleases you, and use that as a basis.

These pages can be all one section, since they should not have headers or page numbers. An exception might be for a forward, or perhaps a glossary or maps. These might include the header, and should have page numbers. Usually, the page numbers in front matter, if present, are lower case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc.). Page 1 should start in the first page of the primary text of the book.

Table of Contents

This is where you tell Word which Styles will be used in the Table of Contents.
This is another place where using Word’s styles helps us. If you have assigned the same style to every section or chapter head, then compiling the ToC is a breeze. Insert a new page (usually after the dedication or maps, but before such front matter as acknowledgements or prefaces. Make sure it is the beginning of a new section as well. Then, choose “Index and Tables” from the “Insert Menu.” Select the style of ToC you want (you can reformat it later—we always do). Then click “Options” to see a window with all of your styles listed. This box allows you to set numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) for each level in your ToC. Most only have one: the chapters. Find the style name (“Chapter title” in my examples), and type “1” in the field next to it. Make sure that all other boxes are blank (you will have to delete the ones Word inserted by default). If you have subchapters or subsections you want in the ToC, find that style and type “2” in the box next to it. you will have to scroll down manually to see all the styles and delete/add numbers. Unfortunately, the box lists every style, not just the ones you used. Furthermore, tabbing through the fields does not scroll down (after so many versions of Word you’d think they would have fixed this).
Once you are finished, click “Okay” to close the options window, and then “Okay” again to close the “Index and Tables” box. Word will compile and place a ToC where the cursor was located, complete with page numbers. If you move text, delete or add pages, Word will update this table automatically. (Usually—to be sure, we always control-click on the ToC itself and choose “Update Field.” This will give you the option to update page numbers or page numbers and text. The latter is important if you change the name or edit a chapter heading in any way. You will need to reformat the text of the Table of Contents, unless you prefer Word-ugly. You can do this by simply selecting the text and formatting as usual, or use the “Modify” button in the “”Index and Tables” window.

Blank pages

You may have noticed that in print books, chapters and other sections always start on a right-hand, odd-numbered page. This entails working through the manuscript again and adding blank pages where a chapter or section happens to end. This is another reason why we started a new “section” in Word styles for each chapter heading: we need the header and footer format to be the same. Below are the two options.
Above. Chapter three ended on a left-hand, even numbered page, we did not need to insert a blank page: chapter four started on a right-hand, odd-numbered page, just as it should. (Note that we started a new “Section” here, too, in Word, so we could tell Word to make the first page of the chapter hide  the header and page number.) Right.  Note here that Chapter two ended on a right-hand, odd-number page, so we needed to insert a blank page for Chapter 3 to begin on the proper page (right-hand, odd-numbered). It should also be a new section in Word, so the header and footers can be deleted without affecting the rest of the chapter. (The header and page number on the bottom left has not been deleted yet in this example—blank pages should normally be completely blank.
This step must come last! If you do the other steps after this, it is likely you will throw off the page count and have to do it all again (which means working through the entire manuscript again).

Conclusion

Now it is time to scan back through the entire manuscript and make sure it all looks the way you intend. Don’t read—look at the layout of each pages: headers, footers, page numbers, titles, indents, etc. If you have footnotes, check them to make sure they are formatted properly (again, this would be a particular style). At this point, we have another editor or formatter scan it—not the one that did the work. Sometimes we have two editors or formatters do this. When we have done this, we send it to the author (as a PDF—we don’t want anyone mucking about with all our hard work!) to review it. This is to make sure the author is happy with the design, the fonts used, and the layout, and catch any formatting errors—there can never be too many eyes on a book.
Once it comes back from the author, and we have made any necessary changes and repeated the process if necessary, we are ready to proceed to the next step. We’ll discuss that in our next article.
Sulis is available to help you with any of these stages—view our services or email us here. 
As always, feel free to enter a comment or a question in the Comment field below this post.