I was going to do a lengthy article on formatting your books but there is an amazing YouTube video by Bethany Atazadeh that is titled ’10 Unbreakable Formatting Rules’ it is part of a great series on self publishing.
Whether you choose to create your template first and follow that before you start writing or whether you write the book and format later, the style and layout are critical. I would recommend creating or using a predefined template. I use Microsoft Word, as does Bethany in the above video link and templates for books are numerous and easy to find.
My preference is to write first, then send to my awesome publisher (www.bookmarketeers.com) and let them format it. They are more knowledgeable and have many standard templates at their disposal. I chose to use a publisher for these first few books for several reasons:
- There are so many things I didn’t know (like how to get an ISBN)
- I wanted to spend more time.
- The self-publishing route can be very time consuming.