Formatting a manuscript for PDF conversion
This is a steep learning curve. Although technically, as a self published author, I am free to produce my work in whatever format I want, there are certain conventions that are worth following to help make the whole thing look more professional!
So far I have;
* Indent on every paragraph apart from the first in each section/chapter - which should be fully left aligned with no indent - Exception to this is where an Illuminated/Overlarge initial letter is used. I don’t like that and find it hard to read, so I don’t use it.
* Font should be a standard and easily read one - most prefer Times new roman and I use that even though I don’t like it, I prefer Arial, but most books are in Times New…
* Page numbers should start at 1 on the first page of the actual text/story, not on the title page, copyright or any other page and they should stop at the final page of text/story.
Aside - I worked out how to do this in Word today. I’ll write up a how to set of instructions in a day or so, more to remind myself than anything! It involves splitting the document into sections and messing about with the footers…
* Chapters should start on a fresh page and it’s preferable to leave a large gap so they start half way down the page. Opinion seems divided on this and does seem to depend on if there is any additional information at the start of the chapter, a chapter title or just a number.
There are other legally obligated things that need to be included too, another post and another day for that I think.
Eagerly (and impatiently) awaiting the first sales figures….
