Chapter 2: Book Design and Formatting (Part Two - Process, Tools & Resources)
Welcome to Broke Author!
Come along with me as I revise and post an updated edition of my book, Self-Publishing for the Broke Author, one chapter at a time. You’ll also find extra advice on editing, book design and production, self-publishing and book marketing, with a view towards getting it all done without going broke.
Quick announcement before we dive into the rest of the chapter: in addition to affordable editorial and feedback services, I’m now offering cover design!
I’m building up a catalogue of pre-made customizable covers, and to kick that off, I’m offering up my first nine for the incredibly reasonable price of pay whatever you want (even if it’s nothing). Follow me on Ko-fi and keep an eye on my shop as I post more covers there.
And for those who have the money to invest in a totally bespoke cover, I’m available for cover commissions, so hit me up and tell your writer friends!
Now onto the chapter.
Click here for the Introduction.
Click here for the first part of Chapter 2.
Paperback Formatting and Creation
Because paperback formatting can feel a bit fiddly and tedious (and cover design is also more involved — more on that in the next chapter), some indie authors forego them altogether and focus on ebooks, which tend to have higher rates of sales. But I think paperbacks (and hardbacks) are worth the effort, for a number of reasons:
While you may sell fewer hard copies of your book, you control the profit margins on print books. You can set a fair price on your paperback that nets you more profit per sale than the royalties on your ebook sales.
If you don’t offer a paperback, you’re leaving out potential readers and fans who prefer print books.
If you ever hope to sell your books at conventions or do book signings, you’ll need a stack of print books to sell.
While getting indie paperbacks into brick-and-mortar book stores and libraries can take a lot of effort, it’s entirely possible. But you’ll never see your ebook parked on the shelf of your local book store.
On your Amazon book page, your ebook’s price will display as a markdown from your paperback’s price, making book shoppers think they’re getting a bargain when they buy your ebook.
The Process of Print Book Production
Whether you’re creating paperbacks, hardbacks, or both, the process is the same: format your manuscript according to your chosen trim size and the specifications of your print-on-demand (POD) publishing platform, export it as a .PDF file, and then upload it, along with your high-resolution cover file, to your publishing platform of choice (more on POD publishers in a future chapter).
As I mentioned earlier, most word processing apps, including Google Docs, have basic book formatting and PDF exporting capabilities built in. But, while there are copious tutorials out there for how to use these programs to format books, a lot of people struggle to learn their way around all the necessary formatting settings — which often results in either throwing up their hands and deciding not to bother with physical books, or deciding they don’t care if the formatting is less than professional.
But neither of those responses are necessary, because there are free tools available online that take the guess work and frustration out of this whole process. In the previous edition, I provided a comprehensive list of options at various price points, but for this update, I’m going to focus in on the best, easiest-to-use free options, which are:
Free templates for your word processing app. Whichever program you’re using, whether Word, Pages, Google Docs, Open Office, etc., you can probably find free pre-formatted templates for print book interiors. All of the fiddly bits are already done, so all you have to do is paste your book in and be sure to select all the correct formatting pre-sets.
Reedsy Studio. Reedsy is primarily an education and resource site for self-published authors that includes a marketplace of vetted freelance professionals who can help with various aspects of book creation and publishing. But they also have a built-in app for book formatting and production. You can either upload your .doc file into the app, paste it in chapter by chapter, or write your book directly into the app, and then convert it to both an Epub file and a PDF that’s ready for uploading. This is probably the surest and most straightforward way to achieve a professional-looking book interior without fully knowing what you’re doing or hiring a professional.
Draft2Digital. We’ll talk more about this option down in the ebook section, but if you really want to keep things simple, you could simply publish your ebook through them, and then have them convert your ebook to a paperback. The upsides are that it’s both free and super easy, and D2D prints their books through Ingram, which distributes them to all booksellers, including Amazon. This means they’ll be available to order through any bookseller, and also entered into the library system.
The downside of publishing your print book through D2D is that you have no control over what it looks like. They convert your Epub to a PDF, which can result in formatting errors, and put your ebook cover on the front with a generic-looking cover design on the back and spine.As of this publication, D2D doesn’t offer the option to upload your own wrap-around book cover for paperbacks.But if you’re not picky, this will get the job done with the least amount of headache.Correction: Apparently D2D does now have a wrap-around book cover template that will let you design your own back and spine, and they also now allow you to upload your own interior file. But they also give you the option to have them convert your Epub to a PDF and use that instead.
Again, my focus here is on text-based or text-heavy print books. Graphic novels, children’s books and other books with lots of pictures, illustrations or complex layouts are outside of my expertise and beyond the scope of this book. That said, here are some free apps and programs that can help with those, for you to check out on your own:
Ebook Formatting and Creation
Back in the day when the first edition of this book was written, you had to create your ebook in two different file formats: Mobi for Amazon, and Epub for everywhere else. Thankfully, since then Amazon has simplified things for us by phasing out Mobi files and making their newer Kindle devices and apps compatible with Epub — so that’s all you need.
The question is, how do you turn your formatted manuscript into an Epub? While some word processors, like Apple’s Pages, can export your document as an Epub file, most word processor apps don’t yet offer that function. But that’s okay. As long as you can save or export it as a Word .doc file, you’re good to go. From there, you’ve got a few options:
Draft2Digital - D2D is a free ebook distributor based in Oklahoma City. They’re the easiest option for publishing your ebook “wide” — i.e., not just on Amazon, but to multiple other booksellers, with just the click of a button. They also provide Universal Book Links (UBLs) through their sister site, Books2Read, which creates a landing page for each book you publish through D2D that includes links to every place that book is sold online. Best yet, you can set up an author profile through B2R that functions as a personalized storefront for all your books. And as mentioned previously, once your ebook is published through them, you can also turn it into a widely-distributed print book in just a few extra steps.
For our purposes here, D2D offers one particularly useful free service, whether you distribute your books through them or not: they will convert your Word doc into a fully-formatted and professional-looking Epub file, which you can then download and upload to KDP. They even offer a number of templates for adding decorative touches to your ebooks, as well as templates you can set up for adding both front and back matter to your books.Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). KDP also lets you upload a Word .doc that they’ll convert to an epub. This is more straightforward if you’re just going to sell your book on Amazon, but the results aren’t always as smooth as D2D’s.
Reedsy Studio. In addition to creating a print-ready PDF for your paperback, Reedsy Studio can also export your book as an Epub. While they don’t give you as many personalization options as D2D, they do offer a few, and they can serve as a convenient, one-stop-shop for producing the files you’ll need to publish your book.
Calibre. This is a free open-source app that will let you import your .doc file and convert it to both Epub and PDF (and also Mobi, if you find you still have a need for that format). While it has more of a learning curve, and it has to live on your computer’s hard drive, it’s a great option for anyone who knows HTML and prefers to be more hands-on or to have more fine-tuned control over their book’s appearance.
My Process
In case your wondering, this is my own process for creating both paperback and ebook files:
I format my paperback file first in Apple Pages (previously, I used an old copy of MS Word for this which is probably now obsolete), export it as a PDF and upload it to KDP.
I make a copy and save it as my ebook file, and then add any links or additional front or back matter I want to include in the ebook version before exporting it as a Word .doc.
I set the book up on D2D, upload the Word .doc, and let them convert it into a professional-looking Epub.
I download the Epub from D2D and then upload it to KDP for publishing on Amazon.
If I’m publishing wide, I will then approve the Epub for publishing, set my price and select the stores I want D2D to distribute to, other than Amazon.
We’ll get deeper into the various publishing platforms and the steps involved in publishing with each of them in a future chapter. But as you can see, there are plenty of free and relatively simple to use options for formatting and creating professional-looking ebooks and print books. So much so that we don’t even need to strategize how you might be able to afford a pro. And the fact that they’re free means you can try each of them out and experiment to see which option is best for you.
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Have your own tips for low- or no-cost ways to get your book formatted? Share them in the comments.
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Oh, cool! Thanks for the update. What do their interiors look like? Do they do a decent job with formatting for print?
"As of this publication, D2D doesn’t offer the option to upload your own wrap-around book cover for paperbacks."
You might want to update this. D2D now offers a wrap template, which I have used, and uploaded my own wrap-around cover image.