Production Formatting for Writers

Production Formatting for Writers

How you can wear more than one hat at a time and not even be aware of it...

Last night I watched a film with my wife that involved writers passing reams of manuscript paper between themselves for the purpose of getting "notes". I laughed as it seemed pretty anachronistic. I may be wrong, but at least my own little niche of the Publishing Industry exists almost completely paper-free. I'm also at a point where I don't do a lot of cold pitching of my work; which means that some of the old pitfalls I remember in having to convert page sizes, line spacing, margins, etc. to meet the requirements of various industry readers/editors needs is gone. Almost completely.

My mental notion of a "manuscript" has gone from 500 pages of double-spaced typewritten text, to 60K words in a compatible doc. file. Except in the movies, where the old concept of lugging around all that paper seems to endure. Well, piles of stacked sheets are more interesting than a thumbdrive, I guess. But thinking about all the time I've had to pare down the processes to their most basic, from first draft through to print pages, has brought me to a few points about the actual time on keyboard. Here are some tips, if you can call them that, that have removed error and reduced time overall in making a written idea into a viable product...

Page Size...

I set up my copy of Word to default to the nearest page size I most often use in my print books, 5 x 8. I came to this size after seeing that a print book of 60K words looks kinda like a pamphlet in the 6x9 trim, but reducing the trim size down to the old pup-fiction paperback size usually gives me a more substantial looking page count. That wouldn't matter for younger readers or for eBook publication, but for my own work, which is also read by older readers who like paper books, it is a real consideration.

Another benefit to getting away from letter sized manuscript pages is that the word flow is much easier to control when formatting for print and eProduction. There are very few surprises with widowed words, or ugly page breaks, or poor word-spacing when you are writing a draft in actual production size.  If you have a sudden need to send out a pitch sample on paper or in an agency-requested format, you can always create a new filename with those specs, whatever they may be.

Margins...
Margins matter a lot. they are responsible for the ease in reading of a page of text. The white spaces rest the eyes. They also, depending upon how wide they are set on a given page size, determine the letterspacing and word spacing on the individual line. One of the drawbacks of justified text is the variable spacing used to bring all lines up to the margin settings. Depending upon the words, sequences of letters and size of the type font used, a poorly justified page can bring lots of extra space between words, resulting in visual rivers of white running vertically on the page. This makes reading much more fatiguing. To combat this, adjust your point sizes and margin widths to make a page of text as uniform as possible. Using too wide a column of text is also fatiguing, so experiment with different widths and point sizes to find the most pleasing, legible and uniform page you can

Filenames...

Which leads me into another trick I use to fool myself into keeping on top of which version of my work I'm revising, submitting, uploading, etc. My first book, I uploaded my interior file; then realized after an early review came in listing multiple, grievous errors, that I'd sent up the old version of the file! I quickly renamed the file after re-checking all the known (at that time...) edits and proofreader's notes. Now, each time I even make a single revision to a file, it gets a new, numerically sequenced filename. I usually only keep the original draft file and the three most recent versions to make sure I don't confuse myself any more than is needed. That first book, The Red Gate (2006), went through eleven rewrites as well as three proofreader passes and still was messed up when launched. I never want to repeat that, and renaming the files helps keep me honest. 

Type Slugs, Quoins and a Printer's Devil

Text Type Font...
Modern digital typography has added some nuances to type design that can make a big difference in ease of reading. Some of these may be very small and not apparent to non-designers, but they can makle a font work better on screen than in print. It's always a good idea to use a font that is optimized for the screen in an eBook and a font optimized for print in a print book. Overall, some text type families have added legibility pluses such as a higher x-height. This is design-ese for a lower case letter that rises higher on the ascending letterforms than old-style fonts. I always recommend setting up a page of text to actual size and trying out various standard fonts until you find the one most pleasing to your words and easiest to read. Eye strain, trying to read a poorly chosen font, can make a reader abandon a book. It matters. I always use a serif font for print and a modern, sans-serif (serifs are the little feet on letters) font for eBooks.  Arial is a good screen font, and I like Century or Garamond for print. Times New Roman is another excellent font for print, but may be a bit dated in appearance. You get to choose fonts that will please your readers' eyes.

Text Type Size...

Another default setup in Word that I use is the size of my text. I never draft anything in smaller than twelve point type. My eyes are too old now to read comfortably smaller than twelve point. I have that point brought home regularly when I receive an Advanced Reader Copy of a new book -- usually a bound galley proof -- to review. Often the publisher wants to set these in 10 point type to save on paper costs. In that size, a print book is almost impossible for me to read more than a few pages of, even with my reading glasses. For my own readers, it would be a very poor idea to save paper. Several of my reviews have been slowed down while the publisher's publicist figured out how to get an eBook ARC to me, since they don't provide them in big numbers, partly for security reasons. I've ended up purchasing early release copies for either ePub or Kindle formats because the ARC I received was just too hard to read to review without prejudice.

The Sequence...

The way a self-published writer can envision the launch of a new title is significantly different than the way an industry-published writer thinks about it. I've learned to setup my draft defaults to eliminate potential conversion issues later on, but the sequence of release is a player, too. Since I'm not a series writer, I'm not strictly locked into Amazon Kindle as my preferred vehicle. I actually like the flexibility that ePub formatting allows between devices.

Since I didn't usually enroll my books into KDP Select, I began the process by writing my draft in a format that will work in an ePub conversion. That means I don't use heading defaults in Word or tabs, either. I set up a simple first line indent with no intra-paragraph spacing added, and flush-left chapter heads. For chapter head spacing, I use only three or four consecutive returns, and always end a chapter with an inserted page break.  This minimizes the oddball, hidden formatting that Word employs to only a few instances. Later, I'll make my chapter heads bold faced and/or italic. I'll do it not with a "heading default" but by selecting the text then choosing bold/ital and a larger size from the Home tab in Word. I turn on the "reveal hidden characters" switch, too, just in case there are the occasional tab or other gremlin. Tabs cause all kinds of issues in an ePub conversion that you won't get in a KDP Kindle conversion. That's because the ePub is a very different animal from a Kindle file. Kindle converts from a pdf file, which is, in effect, a snapshot of the formatted page, complete. A Kindle file can re-sample (re-size) the individual pages through the Adobe Reader software, to the widths of different devices, but an ePub (which is the root file format also for Sony and iBook, Kobo, etc. ) actually reflows the text according to the reading device used. It is a much more flexible format, but one which requires less hidden Word-junk to run properly.

Update: Since the absorption of CreateSpace into Amazon KDP, the KDP proprietary software has become more adept at converting documents with Word specified heading formats and Word-generated Tables of Content. I'm now using those Word shortcuts to produce Kindle eBook formats. Keep in mind that you should learn to edit/revise the "Heading" specs as you need them for your specific document. If the default specs/fonts/sizes don't work, tweak them, saving your revisions as you wish. I stay away from Drop Cap Chapter lead-ins with eBooks, though as I've seen them create issues in the final reading. Print is a different matter entirely. While I still personally prefer text columns set up for flush left, ragged right over the specified width and type size, for legibility, I am adjusting to the industry expected standard of justified text. It may be a holdover of the old days of letterpress page boxes where the text lines and headline slugs were manually put into a steel frame which was then tightened down, but a lot of readers feel it adds polish to a book design, so I don;'t argue.

Another place that trouble often crops up in conversions is that for ePub conversion, your Word file should show no headers or footers or page numbers, since these are created "on the fly" in the reader. It also means that a working Table of Contents linked to bookmarks within the document is absolutely critical. Word, however, generates a TofC from its own proprietary heading default tags. This can work adequately in a pdf to Kindle conversion, but not if you want to covert after the fact, to ePub. So, to make the sequence as trouble free as possible, I format my drafts according to ePub needs, first. It's always a small matter, later, to format for print, adding the headers and page numbers. Since the page size is the print trim size I get few surprises in page breaks, word flow, and can massage my margins to achieve the best word spacing on a justified (flush left and right) page. Justified type, I've pointed out before, can create visible white gutters or vertical rivers through the page as a result of irregular word spacing that can occur if the type size and/or margin widths are not set up to work together. That causes eye strain and slows down a read, so I try to minimize any of these problems. Once I have a print file, it's easy enough to convert to pdf for KDP Kindle and to send off the interior to print production, to my Print on Demand producer, CreateSpace. There are other providers a self-published author can choose as well. Find one you fit well with and stick with them, as long as they have distribution.

Cover Design and Production...

I always begin my sequence of cover design by setting up the front cover to the trim size, plus 0.125" all around for "bleed" at 300 dpi resolution. Bleed is the part trimmed off  for print so the image extends to the very edge of the page with no white border. I also set up any images I import as bitmaps, to 32-bit, CMYK image formatting. This is the color "space" for print. It means larger file sizes, but it is easy enough to "re-sample" the image down to RGB for eBook covers later. That way I'm always working from larger to smaller, finer to coarser. This makes the best resolution images work into the design as well as possible. I also work in a vector-based program, for the page layout and typography so that the clarity of overlaid text and titling is independent of the resolution of underlying illustration or photo imaging. Since my books all go into print, I will choose images that wrap around a print cover so that I can carry the reader's eye around the spine to the back to read the blurb and the "buy this" motivator. I can easily crop the results to the page size and resolution for an eBook cover, and it creates a nice continuity of design between the two kinds of books among my titles. I realize that not all writers are equipped to do their own cover design and production, but every writer should take some time to learn a bit about the process and try to be conversant in "design-ese" for more effective communication with the design and illustration pros you will engage.

Update: By now, we're well into the heyday of the Indie Author revolution, and in terms of digital marketing, genre is king. It is always a good idea to find which books are sales leaders in your book's genre and get to know how their covers appear, generally speaking. These, remember, are the covers which grabbed the eyes of browsing readers in icon sizes. If they weren't looking for a specific author's work, they will be attracted by the appearance that works best in that genre. I'm not suggesting you copy a best selling cover. I'm saying that if you see some things similar across the board within that genre's best sellers, then those are areas that should probably also broadly define the cover design you intend to use or create.  I also suggest you can get reader groups in-genre, to comment on your potential cover designs. One thing I stress though, is not to ever ask "what's wrong with this design?" or "whaddyou think of this cover"? Online folks are quick to jump on a criticism bandwagon. They may not actually offer anything valid, so allow respondents to provide their impressions without the restrictions a set up can bring into play. Combine similar impressions and figure out how they might pertain directly to your design, but wait until all the main voices are in before you jump into revisions. Otherwise, you'll be jumping through hoops and providing entertainment.

The Results...

At the end of the day, you can wear more than one hat at once, it turns out. If you can keep the end results in mind by implementing some of the downstream basics in your default draft writing setup, you'll save yourself a lot of aggravation later. In this way, you can write your drafts as free as a writer, but invisibly constrained for eventual production needs by your clever choices of defaults in your software. Give it a try and see.