F is for…Formatting: Have you ever seen a book where the formatting just seemed off? there was one too many spaces between words or a weird paragraph indent? A bad formatting can turn readers off.
As I was preparing this post, Elizabeth Briggs (author of the CHASING THE DREAM sexy NA series) tweeted:
Bad formatting can happen to anyone but when you have control over the process (when you are self-pubbing, you are the one pushing the “publish” button), you really need to make sure it’s not all over the place.
In addition, once more you need to decide what format you’re going for: is it ebook? print? Are you going to publish on Smashwords? Which portal are you going to use?
For ONE TWO THREE, I used Caitlin Greer (she’s awesome, just saying) and she formatted the books for me in those formats:
- .pdf,
- .mobi (Kindle)
- .epub (every other ereader)
- and final Word .doc.
The process was very easy, Cait sent me a list of documents she would need and told me she would need 3 to 5 days to complete the job at the time I “booked” her. She also did an ARC version and a final version. How did I find Cait? Thanks to the recommendation of Jennifer Ellision (Author of THREATS OF SKY AND SEA series)
There are a lot of do-your-own formatting resources that you can use. As I’m trying to save money and have more time, I am learning how to format both print and e books. I think this decision here should come from your business plan. You should know how much time you approximately have, if you usually are good with formatting, how much money you would be spending and so on and so on.
Articles or resources about formatting:
- Publishing: 5 Top Tips for Formatting Ebooks
- DIY Book Formats
- Advance Novel Formatting with Scrivener
Join me on tomorrow for G…Goodreads
Elodie Nowodazkij 
I am nowhere near writing or publishing a book, but I still like reading your tipps.
I once had to read a book (it was a nominee for a book prize) that was one paragraph from the beginning until the end. The paragraph lasted for more than 170 pages… It was intentionally done, but made the reading a pain, because I always lost where I had stopped.
Wow, one long paragraph? Even if it’s intentional, that’s one long paragraph 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 7:22 AM, Elodie Nowodazkij wrote:
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Yeah, with my class (it was for the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, you might know it, I looked around your blog and saw that you are from France) we met the author and she said it was on purpose, to be different. Well it made it hard to read, because paragraphs are definitely visual aides when you look up from your book or take a break.
I used to always buy the books winning that prize 🙂 I just checked your blog und wir koennten dann auch Franzoesisch oder Deutsch sprechen 😛
On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Elodie Nowodazkij wrote:
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Wie du willst.
J’espère que tu vas apprécier mon blog. 🙂
Cait is AMAZING. She does my print formatting–because I tried forever to figure it out on my own and it ALWAYS came back wonky. I will never, ever leave her. *clings to Cait*
Cait really is amazing and always so responsive! 🙂
On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 7:23 AM, Elodie Nowodazkij wrote:
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Hehe, thanks for including my tweet. The crazy thing is, I’m reformatting that book just so I can read it. It’s taking me forever cause it’s such a hot mess, but I’m weird cause I really like formatting. I do it all myself in Sigil and do the print one in Word, which is not as fun.
🙂 I’ve been playing around with formatting quite a bit and it’s kind of like solving a math problem…I do enjoy it, weirdly enough 🙂 Depending on how I do, I might forego a formatter next time.
On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 11:21 AM, Elodie Nowodazkij wrote:
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