For writers and self-publishers, book formatting isn’t the most exciting process. It’s frequently addressed with a sigh and a sour mood. After all, it’s time-consuming and tedious, and you’d rather be working on your next great novel.
On the other hand, self-publishers make the error of overlooking how important internal book layout is and how it may impact reader satisfaction—or lack thereof—while reading your book.
If you’re not cautious, you may wind up with a sloppy, untidy document that an editor won’t touch unless you clean it up.
Worse, because your book was released with mistakes, your audience will smash it with bad reviews.
An unprofessionally designed book will not only distract readers, but it will also hurt your brand and portray you as an amateur, harming both future and existing book sales.
You’ll learn about the most common book formatting mistakes in this article. By avoiding these blunders, you’ll not only have a polished document, but you’ll also create a strong impression on your readers.
1. Organizing Paragraph Styles
Paragraphs are useful for organizing thoughts and communicating to the reader that a new concept has begun. They’re supposed to break up the flow of content in a natural way that encourages readers to keep reading.
In a printed book, there are basically two ways to distinguish paragraphs. Note that we’re discussing printed books here, not online or e-reading, because e-readers may frequently be adjusted to the reader’s preferred format.
You should choose one or the other, not both because doing so might result in a formatting mistake, and errors are the last thing you want in your book.
Option 1: Indent the paragraph’s initial line.
Option 2: Separate paragraphs with space.
2. Irregular Chapter Breaks
The length of a chapter is important since it creates expectations for your readers. It has an impact on the way your tale flows and generates emotional reactions. A reader may be confused by a two-page chapter followed by a twenty-page chapter, resulting in a bad reading experience. Even in the most engaging novels, a chapter that takes up half of a book may become dull to follow.
Unless you have a compelling creative reason to do otherwise, you should strive to keep the length of your chapters consistent throughout your work. They don’t have to be precise, but they should be within a few pages of each other.
Consider using an extra space between paragraphs or a type ornament (also known as printer’s ornaments) to break up the flow of the text in lengthy chapters. Type ornaments can indicate a chapter break, the conclusion of a chapter, or the end of a book. They can give a printed page a good aesthetic appeal.
They inform the reader that something in the tale has changed, such as the timeline or point of view, without requiring the creation of a new chapter.
3. Lack of Running Heads
Running heads (also known as page headers) is a line of text at the top of each page of a book that provides vital information to the reader, such as the title of a chapter or author. The goal is to select running heads that are most useful to your reader based on their needs and the sort of book you’re self-publishing.
Since it adheres to the styles that readers are used to seeing, running heads may help your book seem more professional and of better quality, increasing the reader’s experience. The lack of running heads might be noticeable.
4. Improper Hyphenation
Improper hyphenation is a frequent mistake that can be difficult to avoid since hyphenation rules vary based on grammatical circumstance.
Keep these basic rules in mind:
- A hyphen connects two or more words that serve as an adjective when used together. Dark-pink skirt, for example, or two-way street.
- A hyphen connects two or more words that create a number. Consider the number twenty-one.
- A hyphen is not required for compound words, which are two words linked together to form a single word. Brushes or starfish, for example.
- Two or more distinct words are combined to form a single term or concept. For instance, action-packed, high-quality, or larger-than-life.
5. Poor Pagination
Pagination refers to the numbering of pages of a book in a certain order. Books with superfluous page numbers or pages that are improperly formatted do not appear professional or reach the quality that most readers expect.
In the United States, it’s normal practice to paginate a book’s front and back content, such as a prologue or introduction, with roman numbers ( i, ii, iii, iv, etc.) and a conventional numbering sequence (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) for the main body.
This speeds up the publishing process by allowing self-publishers to add material to a book without having to repaginate the entire text, which is both time-consuming and inefficient.
6. Using the Enter Key Unnecessarily
You’ll want to go to a new page or create a blank page several times during your book.
When it comes to getting your work ready to publish, using paragraph breaks or pressing enter to generate a new page might cause plenty of issues.
Using paragraph breaks can waste space when it isn’t needed and will alter the page layouts of your book, making it appear unprofessional.
If you’re wondering why your chapter headers are no longer at the top of the page but halfway down after changing the paper size, it’s because you used a lot of paragraph breaks.
Use the page break function instead.
This generates a new page right away, and it stays that way even if you modify the page size, layout, or add more material above.
7. Incorrect Margins
Since books aren’t completely flat, you’ll need to leave space on the inside margins (gutters) closest to the binding to accommodate for the curve of the binding.
Your margins must be suitable for your book, which is determined by the trim size (width and height) you choose for publishing; trim size refers to the dimensions (width and height) of your printed book, such as 6X9 or 5X8, and so on.
Every page has four margins: three on the outside (top, bottom, and side) and one on the inside (top, bottom, and side)
Margins are necessary because they prevent text from being chopped off during manufacturing. As margins are dependent on page count, which is directly related to the page size so, keep that in mind before you set your margins.
8. Bad Font Choices
For chapter titles, headers, and other display pages, save the scripted fonts. Your book’s main body content must be legible, and those beautiful typefaces might be difficult to read.
Would you want to read a full novel in a typeface like Blackadder ITC, for example? It’s not only difficult to read, but it may also cause misunderstanding.
The following characteristics should guide your font selection:
- Make Yourself Readable
- Make use of contrast.
- The use of different fonts for chapter headings, section titles, and body text can make reading more enjoyable. Just don’t go “font crazy.” Limit yourself to two fonts for fiction and no more than four for nonfiction.
- Don’t break the law. Use a typeface that isn’t covered by intellectual property rights. The majority of typefaces supplied with your program are licensed for commercial usage, but double-check your license agreement.
- Make Appropriate Decisions. For instance, the Comic Sans font is probably not the best choice for your science textbook. However, it might be perfect for your graphic novel!
Conclusion
Isn’t it amazing how many details self-publishing entails? The procedure may be time-consuming, laborious, and unpleasant.
However, don’t allow your book’s formatting or grammatical faults, on the other hand, to sabotage its success. The best advice would be to seek the help of an expert. Professional editors make your job so much easier without any worries of your book not becoming the best seller due to some formatting issues.
-Isabell S.
