What Do Authors Need to Know Before Book Formatting?

What Do Authors Need to Know Before Book Formatting?

Before you look at book formatting, it’s important to make sure that everything is perfect! Indie authors and self-published authors pay attention! In the following blog, we will go through all the steps that you need to take to ensure that your book is ready to be formatted!

We all get excited once a book is finally finished, but that doesn’t mean you should rush through the next steps to get it published. Once the book is completed, you’ll need to get it formatted, but there are a few things which you need to do before taking it to get formatted ready for print or eBook.

When you submit your manuscript to be formatted, it should be 100% complete. There are sometimes unavoidable changes which you need to make, but you’ll want to limit those as much as possible.

Once the book is finished, you need to send it to your editor. Don’t have one? We can help with that or if you want to check around then ask around, or jump online and find one. There are some great editors available through book groups and clubs, freelancing sites, as well as professional editors. If you haven’t looked at freelancing sites before, then check out Fiverr. If you’re looking for a friendly group of Indie authors, then try groups like this one on Goodreads. But this is a danger area as well, not all proofreaders and editors are qualified so make sure you read their reviews and ask questions on previous work.

Once the editor has had a good look through your book and any changes, have been implemented or ignored! Then it’s time to take your manuscript to a proofreader. This is vital! You want all spelling and grammar mistakes cleaned up before you take it to get formatted. When your book is being formatted, a small change at the beginning of the document could force the entire book to be moved, ruining the formatting.

Most formatters are happy to make changes when there is a formatting error, but they will only allow so many changes for spelling mistakes and your personal changes for free. If you don’t want to rack up an expensive bill because of changes, make sure your document is perfect!

Remember to do your research on the editing and proofreading areas of your book. This will really cost you money if you have to get a reformat done or tons of edits. We have had plenty of clients upset over edits. Once they get the formatted book they find hundreds of errors making it impossible to publish without fixing. Errors will cost you not only money but reviews. If you receive a bad review on Amazon or Goodreads etc for formatting, editing or proofing errors it can look really bad to other readers wanting to read your book! Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have!