Scrivener Formatting

After the nightmare of Word formatting, I sincerely thought Scrivener 3 would just be a different headache.

Boy, was I wrong.

It's really just a matter of nailing down your settings, but I'll throw out what I did.

Most of your formatting WILL be in the final Compile setting, so...

Keep a couple things in mind here. If you want to visually separate your scenes with separators, there is a built-in option for that later. If you want to preserve any format choices you make in your Editor options (fonts, etc.) make sure you select all text and Format>Preserve Formatting. Ideally, you will want to create separate files for each distinct category. I'll give you a visual representation at the end of this description, but start with this:

• Parts: Create a folder for each part, if you're using Parts. Later, you can designate the folder as a Part and choose whether it defaults text with "PART ONE: (name of folder)" or just "(name of folder)". If that's confusing, just make sure you name the folder.
• Chapters: If you are using formal chapters, create a subfolder in a Parts folder ( it will indent to the right to show it's in the main folder). Again, you can either name it 'Chapter #:(name of chapter)' or it can add the chapter number and the folder name as you request it.
• Scenes: These will be text files in your chapter folder, if you are using that tier. I only worked with Parts and Scenes for my last book (no formal chapters), but these will be text files with side note sections (any notes or comments you use are omitted by default). As mentioned above, rather than using these to separate just actual scenes, consider using them to frame out any paragraphs that are single-spaced. If you are tempted to double space to change locations or time spans, go ahead and start a new scene instead. Scenes are usually separated by double-space or separators, depending on your options.
• Front/Back Matter: Title page, dedication page, table of contents, etc. Use a separate file for each of these. You will designate these as Front Matter in most cases, but you can drag these to where they need to go prior to compiling. For now, just make sure you have them somewhere.

Visually, this is pretty much the tier I'm describing:

Front matter files (text)

PART FOLDER

          CHAPTER FOLDER

                   Scene (text)

You'll have setting and character folders/files in the default list, but these are also not compiled by default either, so don't worry about them ending up in your converted files accidentally.

Compiling for Print:

Since this is the more involved of the two, we'll start here. Before we hit compile, keep in mind that the first selected page will be a right-facing page. If your front matter has a title page, a copyright page and a dedication, then you will need a blank page to start your text on the right-facing page. Create blank pages with the <$blank_page> tag (I also put it in a new text file labeled 'blank' so I know it's there and can easily not compile it later for ebooks).

When all of your elements are in place, hit Compile in the File menu.

There is a Paperback Book option. Right click on that and Duplicate and Edit Format. Name it what you want. When you're done toggling these options, you can save your options. I'll get to exporting them for later use once you set up the rest. For now, just make sure you choose PDF as the output.

First up, Section Layouts. This is where you can choose what Scrivener shows. You'll see As Is is a frequent option for each section. Choose from Part Headings, Chapter Heading, Scenes, Front Matter. When you hit Compile, you'll see labels to the right of each checked element. Make sure they are all appropriately attached to one of the section types and whatever formats you choose in Section Layouts will adhere to those selections. The layouts will show if they support page breaks, As Is, etc. so just look at the types and choose which ones you want for yours. It's very visual, so there's little chance you'll be confused. There are even Previews in some of these settings options for extra clarification.

Next, Separators. If you want special characters or spaces to display between scenes, this is where it does it for you. Again, self-explanatory, but part of the reason I mentioned how important it is to use your scenes to create sections.

Page Settings. Start with Page Setup and define what sized book you're using. For me, it was 5x8. When you click on Page Setup, it's under Paper Size and Manage Custom Sizes. For margins, you'll need to know what your publisher requires. This will vary by page count. Max page count for KDP is 828. My recent book was at 767, but anything above 701 needs a .875" inner (left) margin. You'll having facing pages set by default. Your minimum margins for all other edges will be .25" (for black and white print). Again, look up the requirements for your page count. If you don't know the page count (you can get an estimate from the Project tab under Statistics), you can always run a test compile to see where you are. If you're a page hog like me, you can reduce font size to lower your page count. For KDP, again, minimum font size is 7 pt, but keep in mind, most people aren't trying to read your book with a magnifying lens anyway so try not to reduce font too much and alienate the visually impaired.

In Page Settings, check out Headers and Footers. By default, it will put your author name on the top of the left page and the Manuscript name on the top of the right. You can go into the page options (Main Body, Facing page, etc.) and manually remove whatever p-tags you don't want. Page number is not defaulted, but honestly, don't. The page numbering doesn't really jibe with margin requirements for self-publishing. I'll tell you how to add page numbers to the PDF later. I got rid of all of the tags, just because their footers aren't really margin friendly. Again, Adobe Acrobat can help here.

I didn't really have a need for any other options. When done, I went ahead and clicked the little gear under the Formats list to Export Format. This will save a file with all of these settings that you can import in other projects, pulling up all of your settings you used here. Name the format, save it where you like to use later.

Once you're ready, Compile. It doesn't take long, even for massive projects, so you can always preview the resulting PDF in Adobe Acrobat and note any changes you need to make in settings. If you exported the format, remember to save it with the updated settings.

As for page numbering, your PDF will have three options on the right side of a toolbar: Tools, Comment Share. Choose the Tools option and you'll see Header and Footer under Edit Page Design. Choose Add Header and Footer on that. For bottom margin, I lowered it to .4 then clicked in the box labeled Center Footer Text. Then you just click on the tab that says Insert Page Number. You can limit the Page Range Options and all that, but I just manually deleted wherever I didn't want the page to be numbered. There are help pages for all of the options, but I'll keep it simple--this will at least guide you in the right direction.

Remember to save the PDF once satisfied. Your final test will be in the submission process, so good luck!

Compiling for Ebook:

Once you've done print, this will be a lot easier.

For this one I just opened a New Format, rather than Duplicate & Edit. I set all Margins to .5", toggled Section Layouts and Page Settings again. Make sure front and back matter is where you want it (most people put all but the title page at the back for an ebook). If you're using D2D, you do NOT need to create a Table of Contents; their system does this automatically and you can hit the "these aren't my chapters! Help!" button to fix any mistakes.

In fact, I highly recommend using D2D to make sure your ebook is all good. Great interface...

I recommend choosing to save it both as an epub and a docx in Scrivener this time. Depending on whether you use D2D or Smashwords or KDP, they all seem to have different favorite files. KDP favors mobi files.

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I know this probably seems like a lot, but if you've seen my Word formatting post, you'd also see this one is a LOT simpler by comparison. Scrivener more easily honors your styles and doesn't end up throwing in some poorly coded garbage you don't want. It lets you use your initial style choices or can just as easily unify your fonts. It DOESN'T make your italics or bracket styles disappear on font changes, which is HUGE for me. This means I don't need a lot of pictures and troubleshooting to explain it to you.

Truly, if you do NaNoWriMo, use that Scrivener discount to snag it for only $22.50. Best investment I've ever made as a writer. The learning curve is SO generous and it's really difficult to really screw things up. Self-publishing is not such a daunting task and I'm thrilled that writers can focus more on writing than reinventing the wheel of formatting. I don't regret that I often have to learn everything the hard way before things get easier. In fact, I'm often proud that, as an early adopter, I help a lot of programs become more refined through all my bitching about bad settings and coding (I say bitching, but I'm diplomatic. Diplomatting isn't a word).

Anyways, I hope that was helpful in your own publishing journey. I was thinking I'd be spending the next two weeks in a formatting haze, but no: two days and I was squared away. Less ahead, now that I have everything set up. Now I can take a mini vacation and enjoy some gaming. Sounds pretty sweet to me!

Things to Come

This will be short and sweet.

While I plan on using a tutorial someone else already wrote to guide the task, tomorrow I start the Scrivener 3 to print format journey. I'm going to take notes, make note of the adjustments and preferences, and link the page I used with my notes. Following the success of making this PDF, I'll jump over to the ebook portion. I'll post two separate blogs for print and ebook. I still have to peruse KDP and D2D, see what their requirements are before choosing, but I'm fairly sure I'll do wide distribution of the ebook to Smashwords unless D2D makes that easier. I hear a lot of good things about D2D.

Regardless, distribution will still be aimed at all major markets. Amazon seems to like their Direct exclusivity, but I'm not sold on the royalties by page count factor, so I'll continue to leave it open to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Books, iBooks, etc. I'd rather be more flexible to the readers than throw all of my eggs in one basket. 

Not quite sure where I'll go next, to be perfectly honest. I've been thinking of adjusting cover art, drafting the third book more, going on a drawing spree, and so on, but I'm going to reserve the decision for where my head is when I get there. Formatting often throws in a lot of hoops to jump through, but I'm never the sort to stick to what works. I always want to take advantage of the best options, even if that means starting from scratch for a new learning curve.

Crazy, I know, but sometimes you just want to push the vision. If you always think within the lines of what you know you're capable of, you're rarely stumbling on those precious instances that expand what's possible. The vision is never too precious to be tested.

Living a Life of Non-Excitement (So My Characters Don't Have To)

Third day of no school for the kids and I could no longer wait to clean when there was no audience to trip over. So I started by throwing laundry at the washer then waiting for my sister to get out of the shower so I could do the fish tank. Somehow, I got roped into playing Cuphead on my nephew's Xbox One X while waiting and realizing I'm quite used to having things thrown at me in different directions so, while I wasn't actually good at dodging things, I took it with the stoicism only parenting could instill. Glutton for punishment, check.

Back to the fish tank, blah blah blah, then I preceded to dump bleach powder on my head and poorly lighten my non-color hair to some other lighter non-color.

I blew out the top floor electricity by turning on the vacuum with too many things on and then proceeded to lie on my unmade bed (laundry still in progress) and only mentally tackle how I'm going to format this finished book I'm saddled with. Because I've never actually done it from Scrivener before and I'm determined to alienate Microsoft Word forever more.

And this is a busy day because most days are spent poking at computers and video games, work, research, on my ass.

So yeah, it's not my life wholly inspiring these books. Yet there are tools like patience, fortitude, adaptability and a whole shitload of psychological knowledge that get to play in here. Conversations come from curiosity, sarcasm, what I would and wouldn't do. Places come from, well, memories. Fantasy scapes I've seen, combining in odd ways in my head. On edge of sleep or just waking up, at the wrong and right times where they fit into my day.

So as I dive into the uninspirational process of formatting, I'll probably be daydreaming of the next draft, or putting on some music to add a little rhythm to the task. It's definitely not exciting, all the writier things, but anything I can do to fake it and make it happen? Worth it. The chances of me becoming wildly successful as a writer are slim, but the chances of housework needing done will at least be certain. 

Those certain things are where you draw those ideas, not necessarily of where you'd rather be, but damn sure where your characters can play.

Even in a not-so-great temp gig, those minutes mean money, that money means a little more pizzazz to that ComicCon booth. Another goal without guarantees, but I can't say I'll regret the effort. Weighing milestones by expectations is a great way to destroy their value, for good or bad.

Is It That Time Already?

Yesterday marked the deadline for submissions concerning the fantasy anthology I will be a part of. Wow. In a couple of months (on Halloween), it becomes a thing. Because I've really only been working on my long game, it will be the first officially published short story I've done. I've free-published a lot of things over the years, but there's always something special about doing more than just poking at a keyboard and hitting the Publish button (coughbloggingcough). That's not to say blogs can't be researched and well-edited, but it's not the same beast.

If you flip through my many posts on self-publishing-- formatting, covers, etc. it still only covers the tip of the iceberg. I had to go through a lot of processes to make sure the quality was to my standards.

Namely from the time I finally finished my first series (I had decided early on that I wouldn't publish them until I'd written and edited them all meticulously), it took at least a month per book to get them all publishing ready. While a lot of that was learning, correcting, and trial and error, getting better at it really only shaved minute amounts of time off of the process. 

The first big hitch in my process came in formatting, the very first place I started. I've talked about it in detail before so the short version is that Word HATES imported text and styles and makes a mess of it. I did a lot of transferring the file to different versions of Word or mobile word processors without realizing that I confused the hell out of them. The first three books suffer from this problem since they were in various stages of completion over the ten years I started them and poked at them half-heartedly. Even when I've had to go back and reformat them for Smashwords Premium or do some minute edits, they've consistently been uncooperative. The best solution had been to import them into a generic text program to strip the formatting before pasting them into a clean file and NOT messing with the Normal style to create new body and header texts. (I'll paste the links for my tutorials at the end here since I'm bringing them up more than once.)

Editing is where a lot of people lose confidence or just get frustrated, but it can be enjoyable once you develop some effectiveness for the process. I know this goes against most "rules" writers are fed, but the first edit is usually more creative than my first draft. I'm taking everything I was wobbly with at first and refining it, developing the characters and story, and so on. If I ever ask anyone to read my work, I've already done two or three basic content edits by that time. My first draft is more like 1/8 of a treasure map and not one with the location on it. I usually develop the most confidence in my story well into the second draft, if not the third. Editing about 80K words take approximately 2-3 full days or a week with more of a part-time dedication. This includes content, grammar and corrective edits. If I end up having to add entire scenes, it can take another week. (Sometimes I consider this more drafting than editing since it's new content that I'll have to pass through editing.)

Design. It is what I went to school for, but graphic design also took me through formatting (I had to do catalogues, pamphlets, package design, copyediting-- so it's not just making collages and doodling). Book design carries a number of factors. Marketing or vision or both, it's creative control and also substantial time spent in the designing itself. The font and placement factors aren't such a huge deal with time, but remembering that the image will need to leave room for them is important (something I didn't much consider in the beginning-- oops).

Eh, for the hell of it, I'll share one of the first book designs I did for school.

Not bad for a beginner, but it's a tad bit cheesy and I'd use less glow and more textured backgrounds these days.

This tends to be where a lot of writers decide to outsource, but when you're an artist first, it just seems like a missed opportunity to improve that skill. If you do decide to go for it, I'd say it can take anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks to make a decent cover. Sometimes I do a cover design while writing the book and decide to tweak it or redo it, which throws the time off from any window of certainty, but I tend to be a quick though quality designer. While interning, I heard that a lot so it must be true.

The hamster wheel. Even when you're sure you have everything formatted, edited, and designed, self-pub services aren't perfect. They'll flag you for correction of weird and invisible mistakes, not auto-adjust an image that is 1/32" off-- fun stuff, you know? Every time, you must go through approximately ten minutes of uploading a new file. Smashwords gave me so much shit over my third book, the ebook constantly making odd sections of text bold when this anomaly wasn't showing up in anything but the epub file. I eventually fixed it, but it was an odd one that took a couple of weeks to iron out. Smashwords records all old and new updates so anyone can view the many times it took me to fix that.

To put it into perspective, I was finished writing all nine books by May 2017. The first was published August 7, 2017. The final one was published July 11, 2018. It seems 'fast' (when you consider most authors publish one book a year) but fast writers actually finish books in about 2-6 months on average. This is actually considered the slower part of the process since it entails most of the editing, formatting, wording process. However, you can expect about a solid month of aftercare, if that's also a fulltime+overtime level of dedication. One year is both ambitious and generous for a new writer. If you do take the six month deadline, then it's probably best to spend the next six months marketing.

Marketing... yup, I'm still not there yet. But props to my friends/fans for dropping my name here and there while my head is still in the writing game.

I could add more but the weather is making me lazy about hanging out on my desktop to blog these days, so I want to surround myself with sketchbooks and notebooks on my floor instead. I'll throw my technical links below for easy use. 

Cover Design at a Glance

So You Want to Get Technical? Formatting 101

Where to Self-Publish 

Self-Publishing: A Process (This one takes you through some steps and requirements)

I've done tons of blogs dabbling in editing and method so it would be tricky linking those specifically. I've gone over some methods as I 'discovered' their use through trial and error to see what best fit any story I was working on. Most of these weren't described in great detail, but I might condense that into a post later, just some editing methods, what they were useful for and why. Editing is one I haven't specifically focused on, other than the mentality you can use to turn it into something fun rather than the chore some people make it out to be. I have picked up quite a few tricks to content and grammar editing. I'll have to bullet-point this one to hash it out best, but what is editing if not effective organization?

From time to time, I'll repost those links, but I'm going to tag this post with 'book links' for easy access.

Where to Self-Publish

Despite my intent to slow down my blog posting frequency, I did decide to pop back on after a long day of more formatting hell when I realized I've never really gone into the wheres and hows of self-publishing. First off, if you haven't read my post on Formatting you'll need to go through it and make sure that's squared away. Uploading is not a quick process and you'll quickly run into hitches in the review and vetting process if you're not tight as a whistle here. 

If your formatting is absolutely wretched due to Word's butchering of copy-pasted material, one quick way to fix this is to drop everything you want cleaned up into TextEdit, Notepad, one of those default text programs that came with your computer. It will strip all of the funky formatting garbage Word is confused about. You can then safely copy-paste it into Word or your program of choice and not worry about the mess it makes of text that just will not adhere to your manual changes.

Without further ado, I'm going to make this as simple and free as possible. One of the reasons for this is because, if you're as determined as I am to do everything yourself, then you're already dumping massive amounts of time and energy and I just want to give you the least complicated, least costly, stellar services possible.

CREATESPACE/KDP:

I used to use CreateSpace. At one point, it had the better options for print. KDP Print now tops that, offering both expanded distribution and a ton of industry standard size options. You DO NOT need to commit to Amazon with KDP Select and unless you're already banking on your name, I'd even suggest you don't. I'll come to why later. First and foremost, you'll at least want to take advantage of printing through KDP Print. I love, love, love the smallest print size, but between the 5x8 and 6x9, there is no printing cost difference between them. Most people I've surveyed like the smaller sizes for paperbacks. The best part is that if you do want to go ahead and get the book right to Kindle, it can easily take your print files and convert them for you. They offer templates (but please use the exact measurements unless your page count is EXACTLY on the mark, 300, 310, and so on. Yes, the reviewer does reject your PDF if you're a tiny bit off. I've left feedback requesting an autostretch option to save us time on the minute difference). You will need two separate PDFs for the book file and the cover, but it's pretty simple to find and follow the requirements. When I started out, reviews could take as long as 72 hours, but since I've been around a while, I rarely wait longer than 6-12 hours to get the approval. So start with KDP Print for your print paperback option. Author copies are only the printing cost and shipping so it's a great way to load up for conventions or signings.

SMASHWORDS:

Before I found this one, I used Pronoun, but they had to close suddenly. I was floored that I might have to distribute to each retailer I wanted individually. Not so. Smashwords is a terrific place to get the widest distribution options on digital. Kobo, Apple, Google Play, Nook and a lot of prestigious services that handle international distribution. Very simple to use-- you'll need an ebook cover file and a regular .doc (not .docx) file. If you are up to par and your review clears, you'll make it to their Premium status which automatically sends your work everywhere possible (if you don't, then your book is limited to their site, so it's worth it to clean it up). Charge what you want or let your fans choose, and you can even make it free. The Dashboard is easy to use when you need to check the status or issues that come up. The Publish link is where you start. Very clean interface and you won't have issues navigating it. Smashwords can be a little slow, sometimes taking a week before being cleared for Premium, but it's another site that does all the conversion and distribution for you. One other thing, after submitting, hop over to the ISBN manager and set that up. If you don't it, will remind you, but I like to beat the reminder.

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Hardcover options aren't going to be free but IngramSpark/Lightning Source are pretty cheap. I think the baseline is $35. I don't currently offer a hardcover option so I can't vouch for it, but the consensus seems to be for it. I know you see some pretty fancy print options coming out of publishers, but it's also through their topsellers. Self-pub is a great way to get your work out there and you're perfectly able to shop for trad-pub options if you'd rather leave those details to someone else. Self-pubbing is a lot of work, a lot of creative decisions, and... a lot of marketing. Even though I don't do much of that yet. I know, I know-- I should get on that. I will. For now, I'm just happy to be writing my stories.

I don't mind helping out new authors in the troubleshooting process with SW and KDP. I'm pretty sure I've been through it all by now and I'm happy to share.

Phew, this day went quick, but it's cleansing to pack it up on this note. Don't hesitate to ask though-- I see it as a good opportunity to add it to previous teaching posts and do what I can to build a solid database of helpful posts.

Why You Go Ahead and Publish

You've completed your novel! No mean feat! For first timers, it feels like it's in the bag, so you start looking for the lucky agent/publisher who has the opportunity of a lifetime to cash in on your bestseller.

High as a kite on aspiration, your fingers float over the keyboard. You type something to the effect of 'publishing' into that search bar.

Huh, editing... Well, I guess I did that. I ran spell checker after every chapter for sure! Professional? Yikes, how about self-editing? Ouch, steep curve... No wonder some people pay someone else.

Formatting... (And you thought editing was a curve...)

Beta readers? Can I trust my precious to just anyone? If I like it, someone else will, right? No guaranteed feedback. Should I get an NDA? 

Brain freeze! Wait, I'm drinking hot coffee...

Let's suppose you get past the intimidation of the basics. You formatted, edited, read it to the point where there's nothing left to nitpick. Still, something just never feels right. You find a misspelled word in the first chapter--ugh, it's ruined. You edit again-- ugh, you hate that dialogue, that character, why did you give that a pass? You dismantle, you rearrange, you rewrite.

Guess what? You're probably ready. For what, I can't say. If you don't have the confidence yet to put a value on it, you have to know that most authors,,even best selling ones, never love their work when they took the leap of faith and never looked at it since. They often need fans to even help them revive the memory of it.

Wait, shouldn't they know it like the back of their hand? Funny how accurate that saying is. Try drawing the back of your hand from memory. No peeking. Even when I tell you to draw it while looking, you'll probably look constantly as you do. Let's say you have a photographic memory or you truly memorized the back of your hand because you're kind of an asshole (don't worry; I've done it just to debunk an argument too). The recall of even a pristine memory is often very clinical, devoid of emotion in order to exact perfect recall of the visual. Something gives. Your mood, your confidence, your nerve, your dog ate your hard drive, what novel? The point is, your novel is not sentient. Although I would love to see you write a book to that effect, you're probably looking for an out that isn't really rational.

Name any famous author. Their work is shit. What about--? Yup, them too. Because any famous author is just not someone else's favorite. There is no universally beloved author. None that come close even have an entire don't of work that can do no wrong. They've cashed in on their fame, become hated on Twitter... Well, you would trade in fame for a small, loving fan base anyway. Ooo, you want a hugbox? Do you think trolls are less evil when they find you? Oh ho ho, no no no no...

I'm not here to frighten you away from this. To make fans and friends, the work has to get out there and that means trolls and assholes too. You'll get passive aggressives that insinuate how similar your work is to someone else (coughripoffcough) too. Oh, give you a troll over the crusty grey assholes any day. 

Just ask yourself if you're ever going to burn this manuscript or if you'll pine over the what-ifs. Ask yourself if you're truly a storyteller or just a rabid fanchild. 

Why do you publish? Because you know its value. Because you're ready. Because you have more stories to tell and this one is just the beginning of a pattern of completion you're setting. I can't give you that answer, but in this day and age, with all that's available to you?

Because you fucking can.

You can also pull it, learn from it, grow from it. This is for YOU to decide. Scary, wonderful, terrible, terrific, yours.

So You Want to Get Technical? Formatting 101

This is going to be pretty lengthy, but this was a tough one to figure out. I'm going to assume that you haven't even begun your book yet and get you to the finish line.

One of the reason I'm doing this is because I managed to bungle this so badly that I actually broke my first few manuscripts when I thought different word processors would play well together. Sure, save it here and here and here and somehow confuse Word so badly that it thinks I'm using multilingual fonts, randomly panics on punctuation and changes fonts and can't be cleared of this formatting nightmare. (This wasn't true, but if you do manage to break it similarly, I'll be happy to share how to fix this-- this post is going to cover how to do it right the first time).

First off, definitely use templates if you're deviating from the normal font settings for whatever reason. I'd advise leaving the default font alone and not even bother using it. If I'm losing you with the vocabulary already, don't worry-- I'm going to get simpler as I walk you through it. Don't worry; I'll use screenshots and get you there.

For one, if you're going to self-publish in print at all, start there. Formatting to digital is a cinch, but keep in mind, digital users get to alter the font to a uniform one so you'll lose all of your fancy choices there. I'd advise that if you do want to offer those in the print version, at least remember to put double spaces between those so that they are at least separated for effect for the digital.

I'm going to assume you do know how to open a new document and save. Right away, you need to name and save your new document. You can set up autosaving in preferences, but I prefer to manually save every few minutes on my own, something I have built in out of habit. After each of these steps and any new addition, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. You don't want to be stuck wondering what you've lost if it crashes for any reason.

Let's get going.

Template:

KDP and CreateSpace both offer templates for your book. Figure out what size you want (I use 5x8 or 6x9). Follow the instructions to load them into Word. You will need to do more than this later, but the template will start you out until you are finished. The last step is easier done once you are finished and this is mainly because you may have multiple sections that can just be altered all together. Just get your template up for now...

Title Page:

Do yourself a favor and don't use an image, even if you took liberties with the title design on the cover. Keep it simple and use the style, but format it as text in your word processor. Why? Because in order to get this to line up for digital, you then have to use HTML coding to get it to size and align right, which I'm not going to cover either. I can tell you how if you went and got stubborn, but again, that could be its own post. For now, just do this.

 I'm going to walk you through the Home tab settings...

Go the Styles Pane here. You can be kind of flexible in creating your styles, but leave the default alone. Just trust me on that. I don't remember if it's called Normal or Body, but I don't use either. Always, always set your own even if you like the defaults. From the Styles Pane, click on the button that says New Style...

 I will show you and walk you through the only three windows you will ever need for basic formatting.

For one...

Before creating your Title font, go ahead and make your main body font. Name it something like Main Text, just remember what you use. I don't change the style type or even what the style is based on for the next two. Haven't need to use them ever. The style for the following paragraph? Use the name of the style you are making right now. That will tell it continue using it when you make a new paragraph. As for the other settings, under Formatting, choose the font and size, pick Justify Text from the first four box cluster. You can usually leave the rest alone.

 Do you see the drop-down menu in the bottom left that says Format? Drop that and pick Paragraph to get this next window. The first tab Index and Spacing in blue is where we'll start. If alignment doesn't say Justify, you can change that here too.

In Indentation, go to Special: choose First Line in the drop-down and pick .5". This will indent every paragraph for you.

In Spacing, again, just change Line Spacing's first dropdown to Multiple then type in 1.2. This is the industry standard. 

You're pretty much done with this, just click on the tab beside Indents and Spacing (Line and Page Breaks) for the next part.

This is pretty simple. I usually check Widow/Orphan control, keep lines together and don't hyphenate. You might not like how Keep Lines Together works, but don't skimp on Don't Hyphenate. You will end up with a mess of cut-off words that is a nightmare to read if you don't.

Once done, go ahead and click OK. You can always modify your new style later by highlighting it and clicking on Modify Style, which is beside the New Style button.

Now your Title Page font can be done in the same way, you might want to fiddle with size and font a bit before you find what you like. Once you have your Title Page the way you like it? Do this:

Next to Home is Insert. Go to the third option Page Break and hit that.

Dedication Page:

You can use your Main Text font or New Style/create another. I recommend naming it Author and using it both for the dedication and then again at the end to add a message to your readers. Personal preference there, but it unifies the usage of your personal message. For every separate page you want to add, MAKE SURE YOU INSERT> PAGE BREAK AFTER EACH ONE. This goes for every chapter, but I'll remind you again.

Before I take you through Table of Contents, go ahead and create your heading text. Name it something like Chapter Title.

Go through the process for your Main Text font, but pick these options:

 Properties> Style for Following Paragraph> Main Text (or whatever you named your main font)
Formatting> Center text (you may want to choose a slightly bigger font size and even put it in bold too)

 Indents and Spacing:

General- Just check to make sure Alignment says Center

You don't need indentation or spacing unless you want to. After typing your heading, tapping Return twice is sufficent, but you can set line spacing to double-spacing if you only ever fit headers into one line.

Eh, you probably won't need it, but go ahead and choose Widow/Orphan Control and Don't Hyphenate. This will manage the look of your headers if they're a little long winded.

If you also want a "Part 1, Part 2" whatever heading in your Table of Contents, make that style now. This will be assigned 1 in the hierarchy if you do, with your Chapters as a 2. I'm not going into that here, but I will explain the hierarchy deal with a screenshot since it will need to be set for your TOC regardless of whether you need more than one option or not.

Let's assume you only want Chapters to show up and you have that style now.

Table of Contents:

In the References tab, you'll find Table of Contents on the far left. When you click on that, it gives you this window. See Custom Table of Contents? That's the one you need.

 This is actually the part that people get hung up on, but I'll get you through it in one piece. You're going to leave most of the intro page alone and head straight down to the bottom left button, Modify...

 TOC1 stands in for your first font. Click on Modify here too. If you're doing a Part heading, make it look how you want that to look. You will then highlight TOC2 for the Chapter look.

If you are only doing Chapters, you will only need to modify TOC1 to look like it.

All this does is control what your headings look like in the table. Don't overthink this part. You can actually make this look completely different from the ones you use in the book itself.

Once you've clicked on OK for your Modify, click on Options in the main window instead. THIS is your hierarchy and for this, you need to find the actual style fonts you made and are using in your story and label them 1, 2, and so on. 

If you used Parts and Chapters, Part is 1 and Chapters is 2.

If you only use Chapters, find it and put 1 in the TOC level box. Click OK then OK again and we're done.

Now, by default, your chapters will fill in like this waste of space. Hate it. Luckily, there's a way to confine them into a single line and it's pretty simple. 

You probably notice that beside the ruler to the right are two facing arrows.

Do you also see the little white upward facing around at the beginning of the grey? Drag the bent arrow on the far right to the white one and it will disappear. Your TOC will then look like:

I had to highlight each chunk in separate sections and repeatedly drag the arrow, but it works and cleaned it up nicely.

Now, if you're doing this first, nothing will show up right away. If you're doing this last, your TOC will populate if you followed my instructions. You can choose to manually populate the TOC any time you add a new heading by updating the table.

Right click on the table and you will see Update Table in the list. Keep in mind that each time you update the entire table, you will have to do the arrow fix again. That won't happen if you're just updating the page numbers (something you might need to do if you change the font size of a style).

When you click on the page number of your chapter, it will warp you to that chapter so it may come in handy to keep updating.

It took me a LOT of trial and error to get this process to cooperate. Hopefully, it works for you right away. If you think you might have messed up or if I've left anything out, contact me so I can address it. If you help me catch something, I'll credit you in the updated blog post.

Margins:

Before you go too far, let's set this up.

 

 In the Layout tab, Margins is once more on the far left. At the very bottom once more is Custom Margins... Not the one with the star image but below that.

When you click on that, it takes you to:

Here.

For most books, a .5" all around keeps it simple, but if you write big novels exceeding 50K words, you might need a print allowance of .75 or .8 on the OUTSIDE option. Why outside not in? Because your first page needs to be on the right side, not the left. Your first page is on the right.

Notice also that you have to click mirror margin if your inside and outside are different. For ebook, .5" all around will work. I'll cover the final setting for print and ebook later though.

You'll notice Apply to: This Section. Generally, I go with Whole Document, but if you're doing the funky section breaks in your formatting, this might offset pages wrong. Just make sure you skim your sections.

Page Numbering:

This might be considered extra, but it's a pretty simple one. I'm going to assume you DIDN'T make this a pain in the ass by creating section breaks that will need to be altered for each section. You can go back and change numbering conventions for each section as needed. Maybe the Whole Document option will work, but always skim through and make sure this is working on your final manuscript.

 

In the Insert tab, you'll see Page Number off to the right of the strip this time.

 When you click on it, you get these options. Ignore that Add Page Numbers is a pop-up that is partially concealing the Page Number one that you need to click on.

 Clicking on Page Number takes you here. Set it to these (if you want centered numbers on the bottom). These are your options to choose from, but these are the setting I like. Once done, hit Format in the bottom left.

Again, this is yours to play with but the defaults are usually fine. Very self-explantory. I do want to point out for the section break users, that the Continue from Previous and Start at: options are  important. The Continue will pick up from the last number in the previous section. However, if you have a picture or don't want to count a page or two as the next in the sequence, you can use Start at: to make it continue from any number you like.

Content:

If you've done everything in order, you should be ready to go with your story. Start with your first Chapters entry, which should turn into Main Text when you hit Return/Enter. Another point of advice here is that if you have anything that needs to be italicized, create an Italic Main Text font. If for any reason you change the main font, this is a precaution against losing an italics. I don't trust Word's font + style additions deal, where you just click on a new setting without modifying the font. Whenever possible, unify all changes into their own font so you don't lose them on accident.

The only thing I want you to remember is that you should ALWAYS Page Break after a chapter, even if it creates a blank page. You will need those for the ebook format. Now you can take out blanks for the print, but it's a bit of a hassle, involving creating a section break and making sure the page numbering and mirroring stays fluid. My advice is to keep the blank pages unless you're really set on always starting the chapter on a right page or some other specific look. In my case, as long as the print flows, I'm not concerned about those choices. Again, I can help you if you want to, but this is a big area to cover and that's extra. 

Finishing:

Let's assume you're done writing and want to make sure your basic formatting is ready.

Did you:

Update your table of contents?

Insert all proper page breaks?

Use the right styles?

Once you've got the fine details done, I usually save the page set-up for the final step.

 For this, you'll need the top option bar of your computer. Go to File> Page Setup... in the pull down.

 It will take you here. Now in Paper Size, you won't have the Trade Paperback option. I made that for this purpose and you will too.

 The first options are what you will see, minus Trade Paperback yet. Go to Manage Custom Sizes... for now.

 You'll probably get untitled in purple, but you can double-click to rename it. But in 6 and 9 for your width and height and make everything else zeroes. You already set margins earlier. Keep in mind if you are doing 5x8, these settings still work without problems.

 OK back to this screen then take note of the Page Attributes drop down menu at the top.












Switch to Microsoft Word in that menu.

I think it always says apply to This Section in the default. Just make sure that gets switched to Whole Document then click OK.

At this point, you should be set to save for print.

 File> Save As... (and tell me you've been saving a LOT along the way) to get to the right menu.

 Make sure it's named something you can remember... In the file format drop-down menu...

You'll find Export Formats> PDF. That's what you need. It will change the blue Save button to Export. Just click on that to save.

You may get an error message about page numbers falling outside of a margin, but I'll never had this become an issue when publishing so you can ignore it. The Previewers on CreateSpace or KDP will catch this if it is a problem. If that is the case, go into Margins and just hike the bottom margin up .1 or .2" and that should solve it.

Your last check? Open your document in Adobe Acrobat and check for any blank pages or wrong facing pages. If you need to delete a page (sometimes formatting throws one in), there is a Tools option in AA's top bar that has a Delete Page option and you can then save the document in AA with the changes. How it looks on the AA pages is how it will look in print. If you followed my instructions, it should be sized right (the Page Setup is where that happened).

For Ebook:

Once you are sure your print PDF is in order, I would go ahead and do a Save As and name your regular docx file TITLENAME_Ebook so your ebook settings can be altered next.

Don't worry about changing your fonts because digital lets the reader choose these anyway. The only thing that needs to be done is to make sure all margins are .5". You will not need the Page Setup as you did for print. I hope you didn't use images because they are a pain unless you use fixed layout, which will also make your ebook useless for small digital screens. I opted not to learn this and just use ebooks for text only. You'll have to look elsewhere for that route and I will warn you, it's a pretty deep hole and there's a reason most people decide it's not worth it.

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I may have missed a thing or two along the way, so if I did, let me know what I overlooked. I kept notes so I could try to be as thorough as possible but these things are also second nature to me now, so it's possible I overlooked something important. If something doesn't work for you, that's where I'll need to be more specific for others.

Phew, this was a long one, so I'm bowing out. I do hope this helps some of you self-starters beat the frustration of the process. Not everyone is as stubborn as I am.