As my blog title states, I'm a layman formatter. Not a professional ebook formatter with all the HTML codes and other bells and whistles. But this way suits me fine and my previews pass muster, allowing me to upload nicely presented books to Amazon's KDP program, to the B&N online site, to Kobo and even to Smashwords for addition in their premium catalog. I must admit, getting by the meat grinder in Smashwords can be tricky, and I don't have all the answers there. If your text is not fancy (no tables, no bullet points, no numbered listings, etc.), it's much easier to assimilate your ebook into Smashwords.
So this post is written mainly for ebooks to be uploaded to Amazon KDP.
NOTE: You can find all this self-publishing info online too. Take special note that each online marketing forum has different requirements (like as to page breaks, dimensions for covers, etc.). I just hope my recap here is more relevant and concise, with all the basics you need, and easier to follow.
OVERVIEW
As a copy editor, I do a few clean-up formatting steps for my authors (removing all stray spaces, returns and any manual tabs). Of course I remind them to have their professional formatter fix things as needed in proper fashion and carry on with all his/her additional steps.
As an Indie author, I don't always use Styles for some of the more basic formatting issues. From MSWord's Home tab, I use Bold (mostly for nonfiction), Italics (for both fiction and nonfiction), plus bullet points and Arabic numerals for listings (mostly in nonfiction), but the Multilevel List (outlining, in other words) works great for when I create my bibles for my stories/series. Excel is nice for that too.
FYI: I'll keep individual keystrokes on separate lines (for easier visuals) and put my instructions as needed within brackets. I’m going to avoid typing “click” or “select” or “choose” herein wherever possible, so take that for granted within my instructions, which follow.
So here's how to do basic formatting:
TO GLOBALLY REMOVE STRAY SPACES AT THE ENDS OF PARAGRAPHS
Ctrl + F
Down arrow for drop-down menu
Replace
More
Special
Paragraph Mark
[Put the Paragraph Mark symbol in both the Find box and the
Replace box.]
[Now add a space before the Paragraph Mark symbol in the
Find box only. Leave the Replace box as is (with just the Paragraph Mark itself). This will delete those single
spaces at the end of your paragraphs.]
Replace All
[You may need to hit Replace All again, maybe even a third time, to get all
the stray spaces at the ends of paragraphs. Keep hitting Replace All until the
program finds 0 left.]
TO GLOBALLY REMOVE STRAY SPACES AT THE BEGINNINGS OF PARAGRAPHS
[Now repeat the same procedure as set forth above except take
out the space before the Paragraph Mark in the Find box and put the space after
the Paragraph Mark there. Leave the Replace box alone.]
Replace All.
[Repeat hitting Replace All as needed until you find 0 left. This gets rid of the stray
spaces at the beginning of paragraphs.]
TO GLOBALLY REMOVE MANUAL TABS
Ctrl + F
Down arrow for drop-down menu
Replace
More
Special
Tab Character
[Put the Tab Character symbol in only the Find box. Leave the
Replace box empty.]
Replace All
[This will delete those manual tabs throughout your doc. But now you'll probably have everything flush left in your doc. So you need to add in audoindents.]
TO GLOBALLY AUTOINDENT ALL PARAGRAPHS
Ctrl + A
Paragraph
Down arrow for drop-down menu
Indents and Spacing
Special
Drop-down menu arrow
First-Line Indent
0.5” [OR your special indent choice of 0.3" or whatever]
OK
[This makes each paragraph autoindent 0.5” on the first line.
The only problem with this is that it’ll do the same on your title page and
front/back matter. For those special lines (including centered chapter headings), you’ll have to manually remove the
autoindent by positioning your cursor on the first character of those lines and
hitting Backspace. You can also position your cursor anywhere on those lines and
hit Ctrl + L (for left-hand align). Then center your lines as needed (Ctrl + E).]
TO GET RID OF STRAY RETURNS
Stray returns are found usually on the title, copyright,
dedication, etc., pages in the front matter of ebooks. These are pages of little text
and normally spread out artfully on the page or centered alone. Instead of
having twenty returns (or however many) to get your dedication language
positioned where you want on its page, just add in an estimated 6 pt for each return (or
120 pt for our twenty-return example here) within the Paragraph menu.
Paragraph
Down arrow for drop-down menu
Indents and Spacing
Spacing
Before/After
[You may be doing a mix of Before and After on your title
page. For your stand-alone copyright/dedication pages, just make Before the 120 pt and follow your text with a single return and a page break. If you want your copyright info lower on the page, try 240 pt. If you want it higher, try 60 pt.]
TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS
[At the last line of text within each chapter, make sure one
Paragraph Mark follows. Then hit:]
Insert
Page Break
[I find the return separating the last line of text from the
page break avoids those fully justified words I’m sure everyone’s seen at least
once in some ebook.]
WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE FRONT MATTER?
See 16CMS 1.4 for an expanded list of what makes up front matter, but, for our purposes, I’m just mentioning the more
well-known items for fiction ebooks (novels) as follows:
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Epigraph (opening quotation, true usage, although you'll find other quotes at the start
of each chapter sometimes)
TOC
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE BACK MATTER?
Within 16CMS 1.4 is also the back matter list, which I have
abbreviated here for what is normally found in novels:
Abbreviations (as needed for sci-fi novels)
Glossary (as needed for sci-fi novels)
Bibliography (or the author’s oeuvre)
[Some authors like to add a Cast or List of Characters too.]
So let's learn how to make an autogenerating TOC.
TO MARK ELEMENTS FOR A TABLE OF CONTENTS
Amazon KDP requires a TOC, even for novels, and I believe they want the TOC in the front matter (check the KDP site for current requirements). So here’s how to
do one within MSWord:
On the Home tab, you’ll see Styles on the rightmost side—a
section of AaBbCcDd versions, labeled Normal, No Spacing, Heading 1, Heading 2,
Title, Subtitle, etc. I have used all but the No Spacing and the Subtle Em… of those styles which
show up without opening up Styles further.
[Now just select text within your doc as you want to see in the TOC. For the title on the
title page, highlight your whole title and then hit Title among Styles. You may
see a little black box to the left of your chosen text. That’s a reference mark.]
Select chosen text [place cursor where needed, Ctrl + Shift + right arrow key to end of selected text]
Styles
Title
[Now search for “Chapter” throughout your MS. Don't forget the Prologue and Epilogue, if you used them. Everywhere you
find these chapter headings, highlight the whole of it and the number designation that
follows (whether Arabic or spelled-out).]
Select chosen text
Styles
Heading 1
[If you have your chapters also titled (like some authors
do), but on a separate line, either you’ll have to mark both lines as Heading 1 in one single selection (and do some manual editing later) or you can simply highlight your subheads
separately and designate them as Heading 2.]
TO SELECT YOUR SPOT FOR YOUR TABLE OF CONTENTS
The TOC is found in the front matter of ebooks. I believe
that Amazon requires it there as well, but search the latest KDP info at Amazon. Check the source.
After your title, copyright and dedication pages, make a separate page for the TOC (meaning it should have a page break before and after). You must mark it as the spot for your ordered TOC to appear. Here's how:
References
Table of Contents
Down arrow for drop-down menu
Automatic Table 2 [my preference, choose one of your liking]
Enter
[This marks the spot where your marked levels will be added, chronologically.]
TO AUTOGENERATE YOUR TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Click inside your TOC box. The Update Table tab should appear above the box now. Click it.]
Update Entire Table
OK
[BEWARE: Every time you make edits to your text, you may be altering marked data for the TOC. So remember to Update Table as needed but especially right before formatting/uploading.]
THAT'S IT!
Yeah, that's "all." I know, at first, it can be too much info at once. And it feels clumsy going through it the first time. And, if you only upload one book every year, it'll feel like you are going through the learning curve each time. Keep at it. It'll get rote soon enough.
REPORT ANY GLITCHES/ERRORS
I tried to include all steps herein, but I may have failed to note a drop-down menu or whatever somewhere along the line. This is a multistep process. So, if you find something that doesn't work, let me know. I'll update that info as needed.
Many happy uploads to you.
"If your vocation
isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."
Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)
What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in
comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and
glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher
Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a
full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra
