How to Format a Book for Printing

If you are an aspiring author looking to self-publish, you need to understand the process of book formatting properly. There are many tools and softwares available that will help you with it. Still, book formatting might seem like a tricky task for many.

In this 5 step guide, we are going to guide you through the process of book formatting to produce a professional print book. Before we dive into it, let us look at the significance of book formatting.

Why is Book Formatting Essential?

Most authors create their draft manuscript using word processor software such as Google Docs. Pages, Scrivener, or Microsoft Word etc. But when it comes to creating a printed book, you need to know how to format a book. As an author, make sure that you deliver the best experience for your reader.

You need book formatting to produce a professional print book, which is equivalent to a traditionally published print book that your buyer would find in any bookstore.

The last thing you want to have is a reader who leaves a poor book review because they were distracted by printing problems or typesetting errors.

Step 1:

Prepare Your Manuscript before Formatting

1. Clear All Formatting

The simplest and fastest way to make sure that your book reads the same way in every chapter is to remove all the formatting from the entire Word document and start again.

2. Remove the Forced Line Breaks and Paragraph Breaks

For Word:Press Ctrl +A to select the entire document.  Click the Home tab in the header, then the Clear all formatting button in the Font menu.

For Google Docs:Press Ctrl +A to select the whole document, then go to Format and select Clear formatting.

3. Ensure all your Chapters start on a New Page

For Word and Google Docs:To ensure that each new chapter starts on a new page, use the Ctrl +Enter keys to insert a Page Break.

4. Remove Tabs

Many authors use tabs to indent the first word of each paragraph in the text – they must be deleted.

5. Images

The correct way to add an image to your book is to use the Insert Image function of your word processor. Place the image In Line With Text which locks it on a separate line between two paragraphs.

6. Final Spelling Check and Proofread

You should now have a “clean” version of your manuscript, ready to format as a print document.

Step 2:

Set the Trim Size of your Finished Printed Book

The term “trim size” is used by publishing companies to describe your printed book’s finished width and height.

There are five factors which determine the ideal trim size for your book:

1. 1. 1. The page count of your book
      2. The spine width. Your book should have at least 110 double-sided printed pages to ensure that the finished paperback will be thick enough to have lettering on the spine.
      3. Printing costs/profit margin
      4. Your genre or niche expectations
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