Formatting

Okay so listen up, this is the most important component. Without proper formatting it is most likely that the printing company will deny your manuscript. I'm about to teach you what the real true definition of independent publishing is. Like I told you before, sometimes experience is the best teacher. I must have paid over $1,000 the first time I ever published a book for someone to do for me the same thing I'm about to teach you now. Once you have Completed your manuscript in Microsoft Word there are going to be a few things that you will need to change. Keeping in mind the notes that I'm about to share with you are for formatting a book that is 6 X 9. This particular format can go anywhere for distribution, it costs less to produce, and can fit more things on a page. Okay, so the first thing you want to do is open up your manuscript in Microsoft Word and navigate the page layout tab. The page layout tab will give you all the options to make all of your changes in one place. Once you're found the page layout tab you will click the paper tab. The paper tab is the place actually pick the size of your book which is 6 X 9. Once you've chosen the six by nine settings you will look right below and select to apply to entire document then hit ok. At this point you want to navigate back use the page setup and this time you'll click on margins. You'll see in the middle of the pop-up box there's a section that says pages, what you want to do is click to the right of that and select mirror margins. As a quick side note I must emphasize how important it is to set this up correctly to avoid any printing errors, because like I said before, if things aren't done in this exact way that I'm showing you, it is guaranteed that your manuscript will be denied. Now pay attention, while still in the margins tab, at the top where you can change the measurements for your margins, you will need to enter these numbers. You should see six boxes: top, inside, gutter, bottom, and outside. For the top you are going to want to change to {.4}. For the inside which is right below the top you will want to change this one to {.25}. The gutter on the outside will also be {.5}. Last but not least, you will change the bottom to {.3}. Once you've applied these changes you will want to make sure the portrait option instead of landscape, then click apply to whole document. That's pretty much it as far as the formatting is concerned, there is a few more things that you will need to add, like Page numbers, or maybe even a header. I'm assuming at this point just merely reading these instructions is not enough, so I am also going to give you the address to some tutorials that have helped me out while going through the publishing process. If you're anything like me sometimes you just need to see it to learn it. If you go to YouTube and type in: "CreateSpace setting page size and margins" you'll find a list of videos, navigate to the one that was made by killer book Marketing. This guy is on the money he can give you a visual of the secrets I've just shared with you. Believe it or not without this formula you will not be able to send your manuscript to the Press successfully to get printed without any printing errors. So after you've made these changes, there are a few things that you will need to double check before your done. One thing is, your title page, you want to make sure that it's nice and centered. Another thing is, you want to go through your whole document and make sure that every new chapter starts at the top of a new page. This is very important. Practice makes perfect. Even though I'm now working on my 5th and sixth book, I still find myself having to go back over my manuscript dozens of times to ensure that it has the look that I'm looking for. Once again important part process, is that you remember these numbers, and make the appropriate changes, so you do not encounter any problems during the printing process. Watch the tutorials online how to set the proper trim sizes and margins so your manuscript does not get rejected. This is what puts the I in independent, because a lot of people get discouraged or confused during this process and need the help of someone else to do this for them, which is basically the same thing that the Publishing Company would be charging you for. But like I said before, it's something that you can totally learn how to do it yourself. Once your document is to your liking, you are going to have to resave it as PDF file and upload it to Createspace. Which by the way CreateSpace is the great publishing platform that a lot of independent authors as well as myself use to publish our literature. I'm sure a lot of people will also have plenty of questions after reading this so please feel free to send me an email: Williamware2008@gmail.com and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Daba daba daba That's all folks.