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ICYMI -- The Little Details that Matter for Book Layout

Sunday, February 12, 2017
This essay was originally published in The Grub Daily and also appears in The Sane Person's Guide to Self-publishing.

Both in my work at The Worcester Review and as a freelance book designer, I regularly receive manuscripts for publication that require serious attention before they can even be imported into InDesign for layout, not because they’re poorly written, but because they are full of sloppy formatting.
If the individual responsible for layout is an experienced professional, it all should work out okay in the end, although cleaning the copy will require a lot of hours and a good eye for detail. If the individual responsible for layout is inexperienced or rushed for time, the result might be sloppy or you may have to go through several layout revisions, causing delays in getting your book to readers.
By learning a few little things, you can fix up your manuscript to save yourself and your layout editor time, and—for self-publishers—save yourself money, while taking an active role in making your book look as good as possible.

1. Finish all editing before you give your manuscript to the layout editor. Layout editors are not copyeditors. They will not be looking for typos. It’s fair to expect the layout editor to modify design choices after they send you galleys, and any errors he or she inadvertently introduces while completing layout must absolutely be corrected, but if the errors are yours, you might have to pay.

2. Be sure that if you used “Track Changes,” you have completely accepted or rejected any modifications. Track changes can cause huge headaches when importing a document for layout. My advice: For each draft, make a whole new doc instead of getting tangled in the web of Track Changes.

3. Be consistent when typing your manuscript. Here are some things writers often do inconsistently:

Paragraph format. Microsoft Word and other similar word processors “learn” from you as you type, which means they see what you’re doing and make predications as you proceed. For instance, if you hit tab to indent a couple of paragraphs in a row, Word will begin automatically indenting future paragraphs. This is great in theory, but it often leads to inconsistency. The best solution: In the “Paragraph Style” menu, choose the option to indent the first line of each new paragraph. Use that style 100% of the time for the body of your work. Never, ever use the tab key. The tab key can cause layout woes.

Paragraph spacing. Look at any traditionally published book on your shelf. Notice that there are no extra spaces between paragraphs. Many writers hit the enter key twice at the end of each paragraph, leaving a little extra gap. Don’t do that. Only hit the enter key more than once if you are indicating a section break within a chapter. In fact never hit the enter key to add extra space of any kind to your manuscript. Only hit enter to end a paragraph.

Special characters. While you’re looking at that traditionally published book, look for a dash. See how pretty it is, all emphatic and visual? Those are called “em dashes.” Is that how your dashes look, or are yours shorter, stumpier, less visible?

Here’s how you want your dashes to look:

Word—word

You format them by typing a word, then typing two hyphens with no spaces between the word and the hyphens, then typing the next word and hitting the space bar. Magically an “em dash” appears.

Here are some WRONG examples. Avoid any of these!

word – word
word - word
word— word
word –word
Word-word

Usage. If you’re self-publishing, also be consistent with word usage. For instance, do you sometimes capitalize “Black” when referring to African Americans but not other times? Make a style sheet for yourself for these little details (even if you’re paying a copyeditor).

4. Lastly, if you’re self-publishing, you will need to create all the front matter for your book. Layout editors just arrange what you’ve given them. To create front matter, once again consult that traditionally published book. Your book will need a title page and copyright page. You’ll need to write the text for that, including your copyright information, ISBN number, etc. You may want a dedication as well. All these details are up to you.

The bottom line for writers is this: Even when we’re working with a team, we writers still have to do as much as we can to make sure our work is the best it can be. To be a publishing writer, we have to learn a little bit about each part of the process of creating a book, including the nitty-gritty. But if that means the final version of my book is professional and beautiful, it’s fine by me!


Planning a Book Launch

Thursday, February 9, 2017
In this post, some lessons learned from the release of my third novel, What She Inherits.

After a lengthy break from updating this blog, I'm back with some tips and suggestions based on my recent experience in the self-pub world.

Between November of 2013, when I published The Latecomers Fan Club, and January 2017, when I published What She Inherits, my attitude about self-publishing and thoughts on how best to approach it have definitely evolved.

A few months ago, I was inspired by some wise words Glennon Doyle Melton offered in Liz Gilbert's Magic Lessons podcast. In the interview, Melton commented that her writing isn't her baby, and thank goodness for that, because it was, she'd have to babysit it. When I heard that, I had one of those lightbulb moments. I don't have to babysit my writing! Because it's not a baby! Hooray! That might sound like common sense, but anyone who has checked sales pages and reader reviews daily (and suffered the depression no sales brings) might want to follow Melton's lead, too. This tiny lightbulb moment partly explains why I left this blog alone for a while. When I wasn't babysitting my writing, I wasn't worrying about self-publishing strategies or trying new marketing strategies. I was writing instead.

That said, when What She Inherits was finished and ready to go, I had to put my publisher hat back on. This time I brought a lot of past experience, but I quickly learned that I needed some new tricks, too.

In this post, I'd like to outline for you a book launch plan that makes the most of the current self-publishing landscape. Some of this is what I did for What She Inherits, and some is what I wish I did. There's always next time!

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