The new word in book publishing is “formatting”. If you are a writer book formatting is one of the most important things you will ever understand. To be able to do it yourself is the challenge.
Have you ever read a book and in the middle of the sentence the rest of the line is dropped and ends up on another line?
Have you ever read a book where the paragraphs are indented and some are not?
Have you ever read a book where the lines run on so long you can’t read the middle of the book without folding it in half?
Margins are a huge part of book formatting. When writing a book you need to find out from the start what size book it is going to be. A 5” x 8”, or 6” x 9”. There are many book sizes which are good for different kinds of books.
The margins are critical.
When I start a book the first thing I do is adjust the margins to the book size.
The next thing I do is set up the paragraphing. In this way, the paragraphs are set up automatically as you write.
If you have Microsoft Word you can do all this by using the Change Styles menu or set it up under paragraph. This software is vast and has many different kinds and years. It is confusing.
Try to understand what the word formatting means while you are writing your next book or writing a book now. It makes writing and editing a lot easier.
Linda Meckler, author copyright 2017
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