What About that Format Thing?
Now you have a cover design, but what’s inside the book also matters. No, we aren’t talking about editing now- that was before, but it’s about how the book is formatted. I’ve read a book that barely had margins and the paragraphs weren’t indented…it was hard for me to get immersed into the book because of these little things. At least at first it did and maybe that’s not everyone, but readers want to open a book and feel like time and energy was put into the pages. Some want to add art to chapter headers, maybe even include specific things to certain parts of the book. In fantasy, that map can be really important. Even the font used, the typography, headers…all of those things must come into play.
So what does that mean—I had to do more research on different formatting programs. You can hire someone to do these things and maybe you prefer a professional. For me, I am comfortable with computers and programs that I knew I could play with and learn enough to do my own formatting for my book. Yes, I’ll have to check on a few things for proper layout and such, but the first thing I would need is to find is a program I was comfortable using to actually do the formatting.
First off, I have found there are ways to format by just using Microsoft Word. There are videos on YouTube, courses that teach you how—all of it is available and so it can be an option. It’s a process from everything that I’ve seen though and the trouble just doesn’t appeal to me. You can even use Scrivener, but there is a learning curve that comes into play and while I love it for drafting and the like, it doesn’t look like the best choice, at least for me, when it comes to formatting. If this was a one book and done thing, then maybe I would have considered going in either of those routes. Knowing that I have another book in this duology and plans for other books, it made more sense to find something that would be more realistic for long term use.
The three programs that seemed to be on the top list of choices for those who chose to indie publish are Vellum, Atticus and Adobe InDesign. For more information on both, I will include links below. Vellum is only available to Mac users though, but it is still an option for me so I included it.
I haven’t gotten to play around with InDesign yet because I didn’t want to try their 7 day free trial until I was closer to actually formatting my book which won’t come until final edits are done. Atticus also doesn’t have an option to try it out and from what I found, there isn’t a trial for it. Vellum does let you download their program and format and play around with it though. You only have to pay for it when you actually want to finalize and print/transfer the formatting of the book.
Vellum has decent options, easy to use settings and choices, and the program is pretty straight forward. Atticus, like Vellum, are specific templates for book formatting, and has a few more options that Vellum does but similar programming. The little I’ve gotten to see of InDesign through YouTube videos and such, there is definitely more options to make your books exactly as you might want it, but with those options does come more difficulties with the program and its use. It’s not specific for books, so the options do become almost endless. Not that it’s impossible to use, but there will be more of a learning curve and finesse needed. With all the availability for resources avilable to find out how to problem solve certain things, it does make things easier. All three do have the option to format for e-books and/or paperbacks or to make specific changes for different publishers (which we will talk about later).
Currently (March 2023), looking at the price of these options, InDesign plans start at $20.99 or yearly, up front, for $239. Vellum, on the other hand, is a one time payment of $199.99 for e-books, and $249.99 for e-book and paperback formatting. Lastly, Atticus is a one time payment of $147 for both ebook and print options. Currently, my plan is to go with Atticus. In the future, as things continue and depending on how often and how many books I publish, I may consider switching over to InDesign. Obviously, there are other options out there, just takes a quick google search to find them. I am no way affiliated with any of these products, just sharing what information I did find that seemed most useful.
A few of the resources I found helpful:
