Self-Publishing - Part 3

I've been writing about self-publishing this month. A fabulous tool for those of us who are sick enough to enjoy such things. he he

Last week, I talked about the importance of editing. As in hiring someone else to edit your work for you. If you missed that post, read Self-Publishing - Part 2.

This week, we get to issue #2.

[PLEASE NOTE - This post is specifically with regards to PRINTED self-published books.  E-books are whole different animal, but if you learn to properly format e-books, most of the formatting for printed books will already be done.]

Manuscript Formatting

Multiple things here can cause issues.

1 - Font size. Please, for the sake of those with vision problems, don't use what hubby and I less-than-affectionately refer to as "glorious squinto-vision." If the text isn't large enough to be easy for most readers to read, you'll lose readers. The industry standard for Christian fiction seems to be predominantly Times New Roman 12-point, or the similar font Garamond. I've seen everything from 11 to 13 point font recommended in those two styles. Personally, I use TNR 12-pt to make it easy to read (I'm not a fan of Garamond).  (For large print editions, I use TNR 16-pt.)

If you're using a tiny font to decrease page count, there are other ways to accomplish this than to use a glorious squinto-vision font. Which leads us to the next...

2 - Line spacing. Double or line-and-a-half spacing isn't necessary in the finished product. It's great for editing and such, but it shouldn't be in the final manuscript when it goes to print (or e-book for that matter). Personally, I find it detracts from the professional appearance of the finished book. Single spacing is all you need and is much more professional.

3 - Paragraph style. Issues in this area have been interesting to see as I never thought about or expected it. I use standard paragraphs in my books as I see used in professionally done, traditionally published books. Indented first line on each paragraph. All single spaced. No extra spacing between paragraphs. Here's an example (rough draft, so excuse any grammar/sentence structure boo-boos or bad word choices - this is just an example from one of my MSs for paragraph style purposes):

          “It’s been six days, Lord,” Chase whispered, arms folded across the back of the pew in front of him, forehead resting on his arms. “How much longer?”

Each day, he’d come to the church to pray as evening fell. Each day, he felt the same sense of peace that God had things well in hand. And each day, he wondered how much longer it would be before they received some clue to Jordan’s whereabouts. The answer was always the same.

Be still. Be patient. My time, not yours.

“I’m trying, Lord.” Tears choked his voice. “And I’m trying really hard not to be scared for her. Please, wherever she is, take care of her.”

Here's the above example using block paragraphing:

“It’s been six days, Lord,” Chase whispered, arms folded across the back of the pew in front of him, forehead resting on his arms. “How much longer?”

Each day, he’d come to the church to pray as evening fell. Each day, he felt the same sense of peace that God had things well in hand. And each day, he wondered how much longer it would be before they received some clue to Jordan’s whereabouts. The answer was always the same.

Be still. Be patient. My time, not yours.

“I’m trying, Lord.” Tears choked his voice. “And I’m trying really hard not to be scared for her. Please, wherever she is, take care of her.”

See the difference?  No indent of the first line. To keep the paragraphs straight, you have to add the extra space between paragraphs. This is actually a standard business document paragraph style, not intended for creative uses such as fiction writing. For fiction, it adds extra lines to the manuscript, and thus extra pages. Not necessarily a good thing if you're trying to keep the cost of your book down.

What I see a lot of people doing is combining the two styles, which is distracting and totally unnecessary. Here's the above example combining the two styles as I see in many finished books:

            “It’s been six days, Lord,” Chase whispered, arms folded across the back of the pew in front of him, forehead resting on his arms. “How much longer?”

            Each day, he’d come to the church to pray as evening fell. Each day, he felt the same sense of peace that God had things well in hand. And each day, he wondered how much longer it would be before they received some clue to Jordan’s whereabouts. The answer was always the same.

            Be still. Be patient. My time, not yours.

            “I’m trying, Lord.” Tears choked his voice. “And I’m trying really hard not to be scared for her. Please, wherever she is, take care of her.”

This style makes me cringe as it is not structurally correct for either paragraph type. It's also not professional in appearance and screams "AMATEUR", but MAY only be noticeable to other authors, as well as business professionals like secretaries (such as myself) or any student who has been taught proper paragraph formatting. I'm learning to ignore it (sort of). I'm sure my high school and college typing, business, and English teachers/instructors would have a fit over this one, not to mention how many of my fellow secretaries look at it and, like me, are distracted by a nearly overwhelming desire to fix it.

If you want to publish a book that looks professional, pay attention to how the big boys (traditional publishers) have been doing it for years. Follow their example. If you don't, some segment of your readers are bound to notice. And THAT kind of attention isn't necessarily positive. You want your writing to be noticed, not the unprofessional or problematic formatting you choose for the finished product.

Take a look at your finished manuscript and honestly evaluate these factors. If you intend to do e-books, you'll have a whole different set of formatting criteria to deal with (and paragraph style WILL bite you in the butt when you go to format for e-books if you don't do it right - take it from me). There are some great resources online to show you the dos and don'ts of e-book formatting.

The Passive Guy tends to gather a lot of great information from various blogs on these issues, as well as other aspects of publishing. You might check out his blog, The Passive Voice.

Here's one such article I had to read just because the title made me laugh:

Should You Tell a Writer His Baby's Ugly?

And another one that is rather lengthy but well worth taking the time to go through is Take Pride in Your eBook Formatting. I'm going to have to go through it multiple times myself as there's so much to this series.

I'm sure you'll find lots more, but that should get you started with regards to formatting e-books.

Oh, and something else. For those of you who are trying to save space, one of the things I often see overlooked that can make a difference of several pages over the course of an entire novel is that really annoying "widows & orphans" feature in Word. Do yourself a favor. Disable it. If the MS is already typed, "select all" then go into your paragraph style and turn that feature off. You might be surprised how many pages it saves you, not to mention it gives the book a more professional polish since all your pages will be the same length instead of bottoms looking cut off on some pages.

Anyone else have any tips that might help others avoid the mistakes you or others you know have made?