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Writer's pictureRandi Harvey

Book Formatting Help

Formatting your book can be a monster of a task!


Monster Book

I know why you’re here. Your brain hurts. You’ve spent several nights staring at the ceiling, seeing page numbers, headings, errors, and search prompts in your head. Just when you think you’ve cracked the formatting code, you receive another email from KDP telling you that your book is out of margin.

Then, finally, you get your paperback looking somewhat cohesive, and you upload the same file for your eBook, and the previewer looks like a dictionary vomited on the screen.

This is the top requested service for RH Publishing. Why? After hours of trying to figure out book formatting, many throw in the towel and ask for professional help. We charge around $225 to format your text-only book into a pdf and re-flowable ePub file for publication. But if you want to learn the basics or troubleshoot an issue you’re having, let me give you some pointers.

 

Don’t Format Your Book in Word (If You Can Avoid It)

I know countless YouTube videos show you how to do this, but it’s not the most professional-looking option unless you’re a Word pro. It may work all right for your paperback, but it won’t look great for your eBooks.

There are several free software options like Draft2Digital to format your book. You can also try Atticus. This software costs a bit, but if you plan on writing several books, it’ll be worth it in the long run. These are great options for text-only books with very few (less than ten) images.

 

Your Book Is Riddled with Images and Text Formatting

Now what should you do?

In this case, you are going to need professional design software like InDesign. This software is expensive and takes years to master. I spent months in online courses to learn this program—hence, why this service costs more.

But please review point one—do not format your design-heavy book in Word.

When a designer uploads your book to InDesign or Atticus, many of the format coding markers aren’t recognized or do not look the same. Your Word file can be used as a reference for the designer, but it’s horrible for formatting.

 

My Final Thoughts on the Subject?

If you have a text-heavy book like a novel, use free software. If you have a book with a lot (more than ten) of quotes, hyperlinks, images, etc. then hire someone to help you.

 

Have more questions? Shoot us a message. We can help!

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