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Author Topic: POD Formatting Recommendations
cynicalpen
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I am thinking of having my novel not necessarily available for print on demand, but printing out a copy anyway just to see what it would look like. The trouble is, I'm not sure (while using Word 2010) how to format the manuscript. Should the margins be uniform, for example, and what size is best? What about dimensions?

I've seen a lot of people online mention 5.5 by 8.5 or 6 by 9 but what I'd like to know is what do the pros do? And what fonts are best? For example what font is Ender's Game printed in? Etc.


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Wordcaster
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I thought I remembered Lulu having microsoft templates on their site, but that was a couple of years ago when I looked.
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shimiqua
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Check out createspace, they have ready-made templates to get your book in the correct format, and even have a FREE cover creator program, and you can get a proof of your work without having the book available for others to buy, all for about seven dollars including shipping.

As for the size, I suggest going to your bookshelf and picking out a paperback book that is the size you would like your book, and then measuring top to bottom side to side. Most likely it is 5.5 by 8.5 or 6 (inches) by 9 (inches).

One thing you will want to remember is that the size you choose will be reflected in how many pages is in the book, so if your novel is a whomping 150,000 word novel, you probably want to go bigger, and if it's a smaller, say 60,000 word novel, small may be the way to go, just for friendly proportion's sake. To me nothing screams amateur (or romance [or amateur romance]) novel more than a thin tall book.

Good luck!
~Sheena


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Owasm
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Dean Wesley Smith has a publisher tips blog series going on. In his fifth installment he talks about the mechanics of publishing. You might find your answer here, but also a lot of good perspective.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=3756


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MartinV
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Speaking of formatting, everywhere I go (Dean Wesley Smith's blog, Smashwords, etc.) I hear how you must be cautious to delete all tabs and spaces. Is it weird that I have absolutely no clue of using those? Also you must use Times New Roman, Size 12, spacing 1.5. I always use those. Sometimes I will use Courier instead but can anything be easier than changing the font?

I'm really uncomfortable reading all those rules that I seem to be already using. It keeps me thinking if I'm doing something wrong and I hate that feeling because I've lived with it for too long.


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Owasm
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I read elsewhere that Courier (or any monospace font) is easier to convert. The issue with tabs and spaces is that all e-book files are XHTML. XHTML can be a bit difficult (just like using UBB Code)and tabs are not part of the formatting and spaces aren't (at least as most of us use spaces.)

I'm not sure this all applies to POD, but it does to e-books. If you don't format correctly you get upside down question marks and other spurious characters appearing where you don't want and fonts changing from paragraph to paragraph.


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Pyre Dynasty
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For font I say go with Garamond, most books are printed in it, and it's beautiful. There are other suitable fonts for print, you can often find their names on the copyright page of a book.

Margins should definitely be uniform, I can't fathom why you would want it otherwise.


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cynicalpen
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Thanks everyone. I am also planning to do an e-book release so advice along those lines is helpful too. I take it this means I have to go into my ms and re-edit it line by line to conform to some kind of crazy formatting? That sounds painful.

Pyre, I'd heard people saying they liked the edge of the paper closest to the binding to have a little extra room.


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KayTi
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@Cynical - that's called the "gutter" and you can set it in word. I'm sure that the POD places have detailed recommendations on how much is needed, though.

Smashwords has a great styleguide that walks you through exactly what you need to do to make your MS play nice with their ebook publishing software (then you can take that version of the file and make some tweaks to make it work for Kindle and Nook's platforms.)

The formatting isn't necessarily line by line, unless you're one of those crazy people who hits return at the end of every line. But it is detailed, meticulous work, and takes an hour or two to learn (plus another hour or two on your document, though if you work on your document while you're learning -- having already saved a backup copy of your master doc file -- you can kill two birds with one stone at least partially.)

It's not particularly hard work, though. Just work. And you do it once (and get better/faster each subsequent time) and then never have to do it again. And get 35%/70% (depending on the platform you're selling on and the pricepoint you set) of the asking price *every time* one of your books sells. Not a bad tradeoff.


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Pyre Dynasty
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Oh, that's what you meant. Sorry if I've led you wrong, you definitely need a gutter for print, otherwise you run the risk of having words eaten up by the binding. I meant keeping it uniform on each side, as a mirror image, for every spread through the whole book. Some unscrupulous typesetters will adjust the margins on one page to kill a widow/orphan.

You might be able to do a find/replace.

If you start getting real serious about this I recommended getting a copy of InDesign or Quark Express and taking some classes. Typesetting isn't that hard, it used to be.

By the way widows and orphans are one line or word at the top or bottom of the page that is disembodied from the rest of the paragraph.

I don't know much about E-typesetting, but I'm looking into it.


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