Dear Book Alchemist,
How can I prepare my manuscript for the next step? And what is the next step, if I’m self-publishing?
— Only Slightly Confused
***
Dear Only Slightly,
If you’re self-publishing, and your manuscript has already been proofread, the next step is to deliver it to your book designer or a graphic artist. A little formatting can save a lot of time—and money—at this stage. Even better: Take care of these formatting issues before your proofreader reviews the manuscript, and ask the proofreader to include them in his or her review.
- In Word, set your paragraph style to Normal.
- Use a hard return at the end of each paragraph. (Do not add an extra blank line at the end of a paragraph.)
- Do not use individual spaces or the “tabs” function to indent the first line of a paragraph.
- Use one space—not two—at the end of each sentence.
- Use an em-dash (—) rather than one or two hyphens (- -) to amplify or set off a thought within a sentence.
- Be sure you are using ellipses (…) consistently. There are lots of different “standards” for using ellipses… Choose a style and stick to it.
Using these six basic tips will ensure that the formatting process is efficient. (If you really want to go all-out, Smashwords has an excellent 70-page guide to formatting.)
