Crash Course for Nonfiction Authors

Now that we’ve talked about publishing options, author platforms, editing, and covers, it’s time for Part 5: Interior Layout for Print & e-Books. (If you missed earlier parts of this “Crash Course,” jump directly to them using the links above.)

If you’re publishing independently (“self-publishing), interior layout is important to understand. The essential task is this: You — or a designer you hire — will need to create a .pdf file for the pages of your print book, plus an .epub file for your e-book.

There are a lot of nuances involved in creating these files according to book industry standards. Even if you’re not going to do the layout yourself, it’s good to familiarize yourself with the topic so you can ask good questions.

Let’s break this down into two parts: conventions and tools.

Conventions

One of my goals in working with independent publishing clients is always this:

To help them make their book as indistinguishable as possible from a traditionally published book.

One critical aspect of this is how the book’s interior pages are laid out.

There are many details to pay attention to, including:

• The order of the front matter and back matter

• Whether your introduction goes in the front matter or the body

• Which pages get Roman numerals and which get normal numbers

• The surprisingly-more-nuanced-than-you’d-expect question, Where does page 1 start?

• And so much more…

I’ve created a guide called Top 8 Print Book Layout Mistakes which you can download ​for free. That should help you get started – and pick up a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style, too, which is about three inches thick and will definitively answer (almost!) any question you could possibly have on this topic.

Even if you hire someone to help you with this, it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with book layout conventions. For my clients’ projects where I am not doing the layout myself, I always review the draft layouts provided by their designers and work with them to make sure book industry conventions are followed.

Again, you want your book to look as indistinguishable as possible from a traditionally published book. Rookie mistakes in layout will torpedo that impression quicker than almost anything. (Well, except maybe the cover. A bad cover is probably worse.)

Tools

I’ll keep this short. If you have a Mac, use ​Vellum​. If you don’t, look at ​Atticus​. If you’re familiar with Adobe’s InDesign and have expert-level knowledge of book layout conventions, use that. All of these tools will help you generate both pages for the print book (in .pdf format) and an .epub file for your ebook.

Don’t even consider using Amazon KDP’s manuscript formatting tools, and don’t use Scrivener either. (I love Scrivener for writing – just not formatting.) Amazon’s tools might let you create a book layout that more or less works, but not one that’s high quality and indistinguishable from a traditionally published book. Plus, people tell me those tools are frustrating to use.

If you don’t want to format the pages of your book or e-book yourself, you can find a pro on ​Reedsy​. Or let me know what you need, because I offer formatting services for certain types of books.

Next Steps

• DOWNLOAD: Top 8 Print Book Layout Mistakes

Up next we have Part 6: Strategic Independent Publishing. Here’s where we’ll talk about how and where you’ll actually publish your book so it’s available on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Bookshop.org, as well as being available to bookstores and libraries worldwide.