Putting your words in order
Formatting is all about making your words easy to read and look nice on the page. There are different considerations depending on what form the page takes, be it digital or paper. Modern formatting will create the many files required for publication.
Before we get started, there is a difference between manuscript formatting and book formatting. The former is about preparing a manuscript for publishers, editors, and agents. Their websites have guidelines – disregard them at your peril. The latter, book formatting, concerns the interior of an ebook or print book for production and is the focus of this article.
Choices
The indie author has a few options from which to choose: find a professional freelance formatter or company and leave it all to them, do the formatting yourself using free tools available, or purchase formatting software.
Obviously, employing a specialist is quite costly and there is the added trouble of) for a list of approved services providers. There are, unfortunately, people ready to take your money who are not, or only barely qualified for the job in hand. So check their credentials and use recommendation if possible. If your budget allows, handing over your manuscript for formatting leaves you to get on with other tasks and saves you the bother of learning something else. Even if this is your plan, I urge you to read on as an overview of the process helps toward achieving a quality product. However, if you outsource this task, be aware that when your interior files require modifications, you must pay again. No matter how high a standard your writing is – at some point you must make some changes. More on this later. Some companies and freelance formatters offer an agreed amount of revisions within their price. This is well worth negotiating up front.
