Formatting a manuscript for print and ebook: what actually matters

Most of what people worry about when formatting a book does not matter, and a few things that matter are rarely mentioned. The distinction that organises all of it: an ebook reflows, a print book has fixed pages. They are different objects and need different things.

Two different objects

An ebook is a set of instructions a reader’s device lays out at whatever size, font and margin the reader has chosen. Page numbers, trim sizes and typefaces mean nothing to it. A print book is a stack of pages that will be cut to a size and bound, so every one of those things is fixed and must be decided. Settle them once, and generate both from the same manuscript rather than maintaining two.

The ebook

What an ebook needs is structure and metadata. Structure means real chapter headings, not bold paragraphs; paragraph indents set by style, not by spaces; and scene breaks marked consistently, so a device that drops ornaments still shows the gap. Stores and readers build the contents list from the headings, so a book with no real headings has no contents.

Metadata is the information the file carries about itself: title, author, series and number in the series, the genre or subject, the language, the publisher, the rights line and a description. Stores read it to file the book and readers’ apps read it to shelve it. A file with the title set to “Manuscript final v3” is more common than you would hope. Accessibility metadata, which says the book is text and can be read aloud, is now expected by the larger stores.

The print book

Decide the trim size first, because everything else follows from it. Six inches by nine is the usual size for a trade paperback novel in North America; five and a half by eight and a half and five by eight are common for shorter books; the UK B format is close to five and a bit by eight. Margins come next, and the inside margin, the gutter, must be larger than the outside one because the binding eats it: three-quarters of an inch inside and a little over half an inch outside is a sound starting point for a book of ordinary length, and thicker books need more gutter.

Set the body in a serif face at ten and a half to twelve points with generous leading; the fashionable sans faces of websites tire the eye over three hundred pages. Start each chapter on a new page, with the heading well down from the top. Running heads, the author on the left page and the title on the right, are a convention readers notice only when missing. Bleed, the printing of colour or images to the very edge, is for covers and picture books; a novel needs none.

The number that matters most in print is the page count. It sets the printing cost, the spine width of the cover, and whether the book is accepted at all: most print services take paperbacks from about twenty-four pages to a little over eight hundred. Know the count before you commission a cover.

Front and back matter, in order

The conventional order at the front: half title (the title alone), title page (title, subtitle, author, publisher), copyright page, dedication, then the contents list if the book has one, then the body. At the back: acknowledgements, a note about the author, and a list of other books by the same author, which in an ebook is the single most valuable page you will write, because a reader who has just finished is a reader who wants the next one.

ISBNs and the copyright page

A print book sold through shops and distributors needs an ISBN; most print services will supply one free, which ties the listing to that service, or you can buy your own, which keeps the record in your name. Ebooks sold through the large stores do not require one. Each format (paperback, hardback, ebook) is a separate edition and takes a separate number.

The copyright page carries the copyright line (the symbol, the year, your name), “all rights reserved”, the ISBN, the edition and printing, the publisher’s name, and for fiction the line saying the characters are invented. Keep the year honest: a book dated next year will be flagged by a careful distributor and looks careless to a careful reader.

Checks before you upload

• The title and author in the metadata match the cover, exactly.
• The ebook contents list reaches every chapter, and nothing else.
• The genre or subject is set, and the series name and number if there is one.
• The print page count is within the service’s range, and the cover was made for it.
• The copyright year is this year or earlier, and the ISBN belongs to this edition.
• Open the files on a phone and on a desktop, and read the first and last pages of each.

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