The complete guide to print and ebook formatting for Canadian authors self-publishing their book!
In our print and ebook formatting guide for Canadian authors and writers, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the final step in the self-publishing process before you upload your manuscript, print, and ebook formatting.
Finishing your manuscript is just the start of the self-publishing process. Once you write those famous words, ‘the end,’ it may be the end of the writing process, but that’s where the real self-publishing starts and includes things like editing, proofreading, cover design, print, and ebook formatting.
For almost a decade, our professional print and ebook formatting team at Indie Publishing Group has been assisting Canadian authors, both new and experienced, by taking their completed manuscript, professionally formatting it, and transforming it into print-ready, beautiful books ready to be uploaded to popular self-publishing sites, including Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark Publishing, and many others. We’re incredibly proud of the professional self-publishing services we provide to authors in Canada, including print and ebook formatting services.
If you’re a new Canadian author still considering where to self-publish your book, read The Best Self-Publishing Platforms for Canadian Authors! We cover everything there is to know about the most popular self-publishing platforms in Canada, including Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark Publishing, Apple Books, and many more.
For authors considering self-publishing on Amazon KDP, check out Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for Canadian Authors, where we discuss everything you need to know about setting up your Amazon KDP account, uploading print and ebooks, and managing titles through your author dashboard.
Why Typesetting, Interior Design, or Print and Ebook Formatting Is Essential for Canadian Authors
Your cover is the first thing a potential reader sees. It’s often what convinces them to pick up your book off a shelf, but it’s the interior formatting and typesetting that seals the deal.
Formatting isn’t just the technical layout of your book’s interior. It can directly influence the reading experience for readers and ultimately how they perceive the overall quality of work.
When your interior margins aren’t even or too small, line spacing is too tight or too large, headings and sub-headings lack consistency throughout the manuscript, text is too big or too small, or the table of contents is clunky and not numbered correctly, it can cause the reader to feel disconnected from your book.
As a new Canadian author, you’re trying to attract new readers to your book or series, not turn them off, and even the best story is hard to read when the book has been formatted poorly.
When your interior print and ebook formatting is flawless, it allows the reader to progress through your book seamlessly, fully absorbing your work and creating the impression that you’re a professional who invests both time and money in your book.
Canada’s self-publishing market is highly competitive, and many authors, especially new Canadian authors, juggle a variety of book-related tasks —writing, editing, formatting, and marketing —which makes it extremely tempting to cut corners and save a few dollars.
A pre-designed template can be cheap and give you a manuscript that meets the requirements, but it’s a cheap solution that rarely delivers the same look and feel of a professionally formatted manuscript. For professional authors who want their books to stand alongside traditionally published books, or look even better, it’s the visual details that professional interior print and ebook formatting bring to the table that matter.
While the interior formatting is often one of the most overlooked parts of the self-publishing process, it can have a significant impact on a reader’s experience, the review they leave, reader trust, and even how book retailers and libraries view your book.
If you have been considering self-publishing your book on IngramSpark Publishing, check out the Complete Guide to IngramSpark Publishing for Canadian Authors, where we cover account setup, title uploading, royalties, pricing, and much more!
What is Print and Ebook Formatting and Typesetting?
Book formatting takes your Microsoft Word document and turns it into a book, with all the correct margins, gutters, font sizes, headings, front matter, back matter, and displays it in either a print-ready format for printed books like paperback and hardcover books, or a digital-ready format for ebooks.
Typesetting typically refers to the page layout of text and concerns font size, line spacing, justification, hyphenation, and typography.
The Difference Between Typesetting and Formatting
Both terms —typesetting and formatting —are used interchangeably by authors and many publishing companies and self-publishing service providers, but the two services are slightly different. At Indie Publishing Group, we offer affordable print and ebook formatting services, including typesetting as a complete package, perfect for both fiction and non-fiction books across all genres and suited to new and experienced authors, regardless of your budget.
It’s easier to think of formatting as the overall design, and the typesetting as the finetuning of that design.
Common Publishing Industry Standards and Formatting Rules In Canada
Just like traditional publishing, professional formatters in Canada who provide formatting and typesetting services follow standards. At Indie Publishing Group, we follow the standards set out in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS).
It covers topics such as margin size, trim size, gutters, bleeds, front and back matter placement, chapter starts, heading consistency, table of contents, copyright information, ISBN information, font size, and more.
If you’re a Canadian author and you haven’t organized ISBNs for your book, check out Do I Need an ISBN for My Book in Canada? We cover everything you need to know about ISBNs, including what they are, why you need them, and how to get an ISBN for your book in Canada.
Other factors, like choosing a standard trim size, are also something we recommend that all authors consider. While 5” x 8” is a standard trim size for fiction books, and 6” x 9” for non-fiction books, there are a variety of other factors, such as length and word count, which influence your trim size. Self-publishing platforms such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark offer a variety of standard trim sizes, while others may be more platform-specific.
Professional Formatting Services versus DIY Formatting
It’s by no means impossible to format your own book using tools like Atticus, Vellum, or even Microsoft Word, and many Canadian authors try. Often, the result is even good enough to pass self-publishing platform requirements.
The most significant driver or appeal for Canadian authors looking to format their books themselves is cost savings. You can get an interior format that passes the self-publishing platform’s requirements, but passable isn’t the same as professional. Even the smallest mistakes or inconsistencies can lead to a poor reading experience —and, worse, a negative review.
Professional formatting is more than just ticking boxes and making your book look nice. Professional formatters and typesetters understand the expectations of readers within specific genres, the continuation of style from the front cover through to the interior, and your overall brand.
When you work with Indie Publishing Group, we can put together an interior print and ebook formatting package with one of our premium custom cover design packages to ensure that your style flows smoothly from the front cover through to the interior and include extras like a custom title page, print templates for all self-publishing platforms, fonts, style, and color guides and much more.
Not only does it deliver a more uniform and consistent finished product for your book, but it also makes the whole self-publishing process much easier and hassle-free, knowing that when it comes time to upload or print your book, everything will be perfect and ready to go.
The Pros and Cons of DIY Formatting Versus Professional Formatting
There is no denying that in the short term, doing your print and ebook formatting yourself, or even other things like cover design and editing yourself, can save you some money. It may not necessarily save you time, but it can save you money.
In the beginning, anyway.
One of the most significant issues we see —and we see it time and time again —is new authors who go through the DIY path, then come to us looking to reformat their books, redesign their covers, and relaunch their books. So, while DIY can sometimes save you money at the start, it ends up costing you time and money later.
When you first publish your book, that initial launch window is the optimal time to get traction on book sales and reviews while your book sits in the new release section on online sales platforms like Amazon. If your cover design and interior aren’t perfect, or you receive a bad review during this stage of your book’s life, it can often be almost impossible to repair the damage. As a last resort, many authors unpublish their books, pick a new title, purchase new ISBNs, get a new cover design, reformat their book interior, and try launching all over again.
So, professional interior formatting and cover design can cost a little more at the start, but it could save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
For authors considering using Apple Books to self-publish their ebooks, The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing on Apple Books for Authors covers everything you’ll need to know about Apple Books, including account setup, royalties, distribution, uploading titles, and much more!
Print and Ebook Formatting for Canadian Authors Self-Publishing in Canada
Canadian self-publishing authors have some advantages over other authors. For instance, in Canada, Canadian authors receive all their ISBNs for free via Library and Archives Canada. However, a condition of receiving free ISBNs in Canada is that you supply Library and Archives Canada with a copy of the book, known as legal deposit, once it’s been published.
Other factors Canadian authors must consider when self-publishing are whether they choose to offer alternative language versions of their book, or bilingual content, including French and Indigenous languages. Extra care and attention to detail must be used when formatting bilingual content to ensure that it’s accurate and also respectful.
A Step-By-Step Guide to Getting Your Manuscript Ready for Print and Ebook Formatting
A smooth, easy formatting process starts with proper manuscript preparation. You want to supply your formatter with an edited, polished, and clean manuscript that’s free of any inconsistent formatting, typos, or spelling mistakes.
Heading and sub-heading consistency is crucial in non-fiction books with multiple headings. If you’re following a consistent layout, make sure you indicate headings and sub-headings consistently throughout the manuscript. Utilize your H1, H2, H3, and H4 in Microsoft Word to indicate different headings.
The next step, once your formatter has your manuscript, is preparing a draft for you to review.
At Indie Publishing Group, we format the print interior first: we import your manuscript into Adobe InDesign, perform the formatting and layout, then export a print-ready PDF. We always prepare drafts first, before moving on to final files.
We then send that draft to you for review. As the author, you’re uniquely positioned to notice when something is missing or out of place. Edits and typos are also easier to spot when your manuscript is laid out in a print-ready format. Print formatting is an entirely manual process, so it can take a few drafts until we get your print interior perfect.
Once the print draft is approved, we then finalize it and use that final approved print interior file to create the ebook interior file, which is typically a reflowable ePub file accepted by almost every self-publishing platform.
It’s important to note that ebooks aren’t print books. They’re not designed to be pretty with fancy text and images. They’re designed to be simple and as compatible as possible with as many different e-readers, phones, and tablets as possible. Customers reading ebooks prefer to adjust font types and sizes to suit their reading preferences, so we try to ensure ebooks are as universally compatible as possible.
One thing we can’t stress enough to new authors is to order a physical proof copy of your book. As we mentioned above, print and ebook formatting, especially print formatting, is a very manual process. While we take every care possible to ensure books are perfect and no mistakes are made, we rely on authors to order a physical proof copy of their book. A physical proof copy is the only way to guarantee that a book is perfect before going into wider publication.
Common Print and Ebook Formatting and Interior Design Mistakes to Avoid
Some of the biggest mistakes we see when new authors DIY print and ebook formatting include:
- Inconsistent spacing, line spacing, and paragraph spacing
- Poor font choices
- Inconsistent headings and styles
- Poor genre style choices
- Incorrect margins
- Inconsistent style flow from the cover to the interior
Even minor errors, mistakes, and inconsistencies can leave a reader feeling disconnected from your book and lead to negative reviews and a poor reading experience.
Print and Ebook Formatting and Typesetting Costs in Canada
At Indie Publishing Group, we offer several different packages, including print and ebook formatting for both fiction and non-fiction books. However, the cost of formatting and typesetting in Canada is primarily determined by the book itself.
The cost of formatting fiction books is generally lower than that of non-fiction, even for longer books, due to the layout complexity of non-fiction, which often involves multiple headings, part pages, graphics, images, tables, callouts, and more.
The easiest way to get an accurate quote for print and ebook formatting is to contact us at Indie Publishing Group. With almost a decade of experience assisting Canadian authors with print and ebook formatting and typesetting, our team can help polish your manuscript and bring it to life with attractive, professional formatting.
Print and Ebook Formatting Guide for Canadian Authors | Conclusion
Professional print and ebook formatting isn’t an additional step when you self-publish your book. It’s an essential part of your self-publishing journey and one step you can’t afford to skip. If you want your book to shine, look professional, and be easy to read for your readers, then professional print and ebook formatting services are the first step.
From the first page to the last, professional print and ebook formatting and typesetting ensure that your book shines!
If you are writing a book and need any assistance with paperback or ebook formatting, cover design, professional editing, uploading to self-publishing sites such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, or Amazon KDP keyword and category research, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We also offer children’s book illustrations and formatting services.
If you have any questions or comments about print or ebook formatting, please leave them below, or contact us directly, and we’ll do our best to answer them or point you in the right direction.
