Anyway, Sunday I said I'd talk about formatting in my Monday post, but then I forgot. No post on Monday at all. I blame pre-publication insanity.
So here's the formatting post.
Yeah, formatting isn't really anything like editing. Except it can make one crazypants just as much as, if not more so than, editing. I had hoped to remove some of the insanity-making by creating a checklist.
It looks like this:
Formatting
checklist
Ebook:
1) Type THE END
2) Find and replace all double spacing between
sentences with single spacing
3) Remove all Bookmarks.
4) Create Bookmarks: START, TOC, END
5) Make sure everything is 12 pt font, Cambria
6) Format all chapter headings as Headings. Including THE END.
7) Format all scene breaks for continuity within
book and within series
8) Create title page
9) Create Copyright and Acknowledgements page
10) Add in About the Author Page at the end
11) Add in back matter.
12) Create Table of Contents.
13) Scan entire manuscript for continuity.
14) Email book to Kindle and scan through again
for continuity and formatting errors.
15) Publish to Amazon
Print:
1) Type THE END
2) Find and replace all double spacing between
sentences with single spacing
3) Remove all Bookmarks.
4) Make sure everything is the font you’ve
chosen for the book.
5) Format all chapter headings as Headings. Including THE END.
6) Apply print font for Headings to all.
7) Format all scene breaks for continuity within
book and within series
8) Create title page
9) Create Copyright and Acknowledgements page
10) Add in About the Author Page at the end
11) Add in back matter.
12) Create Section Breaks after Acknowledgements
and after THE END
13) Add Pages Numbers to manuscript section
centered bottom
14) Verify ‘Link to
Previous’ is unchecked
15) Format Page Numbers to chosen look
16) Set to ‘Different First Page’ in manuscript
section
17) Delete page number from first page of manuscript
section
18) Verify no page numbers in front matter
section or back matter section
19) Set page size to 5.5” x 8.5”
20) Set margins to Top .88”, Bottom .88”, Inside
.75”, Outside .63”
21) Make sure margins are ‘mirrored’
22) Verify all chapters start on right hand page.
23) Print a few pages to verify it will look how
you want it to look.
24) Upload to Createspace
Then I started to format Natural Causes on Wednesday. Umm, yeah... there are things I forgot and the list wasn't helping and so I formatted the first page of NC and made notes all over it so I would know exactly what needed doing to each subsequent chapter beginning...
Then I started to work on the formatting for Accidental Death because I want that book to match this book's formatting. I decided to start by updating the back matter, because I had all that laid out already from doing NC. But I couldn't get WORD to let me move a freakin' line, which was making it all farqued up. Which was making me a babbling idiot, so I deleted all the back matter and copied it from one of my other books where it wasn't messed up. Tada.
As of typing this post, I still have some things to do, but I'm on track. This book will be in your hands soon.
I'd still rather do it myself than pay someone else, but if anyone tells you this stuff is easy, slap them in the back of the head for me. (Okay, so maybe it isn't that hard, but it is tedious as all get-out.)
I. Hate. Formatting. Period.
ReplyDelete'nuff said.
Yay for you getting it done! New book to read soon! Double Yay! Get it done and go fishing. Gonna be a nice weekend. :)
I told Hubby I could never self-publish because I didn't want to format my books. He said he'd do it for me (and learned how to do it, too). Then he created his own business and formats others, too. And he's not that expensive. For others. I get him for free! :)
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