Without a doubt the writing process is the most satisfying part of the publishing process. However making your file ready for printing is an important step you shouldn’t underestimate. The formatting of your book is part of the message your book represents. Adding to this, nicely formated and easy readable books are more likely to get bought and read.
In the following you can find 3 tips for a nice book typesetting:
1. Style Sheets
You can create style sheets in your writing software during the writing process. Especially sheets for headings of chapters, normal text passages, quotes and otherwise emphasized text blocks are very suitable for books. With the help of these sheets the formatting for selected parts can get changed with just a view clicks, and you will not have to scroll through the entire text in order to change your layout.
2. Text Block Formatting
The most books are formatted as justified text. But a nicely formatted justified text isn’t always easy to achieve. To large or to small spacing between words can make the book difficult to read. In this case the automatic syllable division can be of great help.
Not as complex is a left-justified text. Left-justified texts seem less formal and can make hard to process text passages look more inviting and less intimidating. This type of formatting is mostly used in letters. However, most readers are used to justified text and may find it difficult to adapt to left-justified texts.
Centered text passages should only be an exception. The variating beginnings of the lines make your text seem uneasy and may have a negative impact on the reading flow, with this longer passages are difficult to read.
However, when it comes to highlighting a text passage in order to emphasize it, centering the text is the ideal solution.
3. Avoid “orphans” and “widows”
“Orphans” and “widows” are terms for formatting errors in a sentence which let your text seem unprofessional. If a separated line stands isolated at the beginning of a page you speak of a “widow”, is this the case at the end of a page it is spoken of an “orphan”.
These errors can get removed in every common writing software by using the paragraph check feature.
If a book contains one or both of these mistakes it can have a major impact on the read flow.
An isolated line on a separate page can make it difficult for the reader to see the connection of the line to the rest of the book.
