How To Format a Novel in Microsoft Word

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How To Format a Novel in Microsoft Word - Self-Publishing

Рет қаралды 60,929

Күн бұрын

Isn't this ironic? In my last video I talked about how much I hated formatting and in today's video I'm showing you how to format your novel.
With that said, if you decide to format your novel yourself, you'll discover that this may be one of the most painful parts of the self-publishing process. I'm hoping this video will make things a little easier. I'll be showing you how to create professional looking chapters by creating sections with headers, footers, and chapters with drop texts. The goal when you're self-publishing is to always make your book look as traditionally published as possible, so I'm giving you a step-by0-step guide on formatting your novel.
Please note: I filmed this video before Createspace made the merge with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). All the steps are the same. Using the steps in this video you should be able to format for just about any print-on-demand publisher. This includes Kindle Direct Publishing, Ingram Spark, Book Baby, Blurb and Lulu. Just go to their websites and find their blank templates to work off of.
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Пікірлер: 120

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

Want to learn how to format like a professional? Check out my book formatting course: bit.ly/formattingcourse I also offer professional novel formatting! Visit my website for details or to schedule your design: bit.ly/2I3tCvA Note: I will be designing using Adobe Illustrator, NOT Microsoft Word.

@zaneari4730 3 жыл бұрын

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@tristanari4343 3 жыл бұрын

@Zane Ari instablaster :)

@zaneari4730 3 жыл бұрын

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@tristanari4343 3 жыл бұрын

@Zane Ari happy to help xD

@torgervedeler6949 Жыл бұрын

Formatting for print is a skill that many of us learn through trial and error (I know I have), and this video is extremely helpful if you are willing to watch it multiple times and work through a manuscript as you do. A slightly different approach I use is to do each section (front matter, text, and so on.) as a separate Word file in the correct page size, etc., and then merge them into one final PDF at the end. But I’ll take what I have learned here and use your tips on my next book project. Thanks!

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Formatting a novel can be one of the trickier parts of self-publishing. I've made this video not only for all of you, but for myself as well because I know when I go to format my next novel I'll probably forget how to do it and will need to re-watch this video. Let me know in the comments if you found this video helpful!

@britt3044 5 жыл бұрын

This was a great video

@alisonf.haring3411 5 жыл бұрын

THIS!! Formatting is one of the things I hate the most! Thanks for this video Mandi, I'm sure it'l help a lot of indie authors :)

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

I hope the video prevents at least a few headaches :)

@middysart 4 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites Absolutely did, thank you!!

@chrishannon3357 4 жыл бұрын

Finally! i was losing my mind with various section breaks and page numbering calamities which was all cleared up by this super helpful - thanks so much Mandi

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

So happy to hear the video helped!

@andyshouldbewriting 4 жыл бұрын

I'm gearing up to format my book and so many videos just didn't SHOW me what to do for a story I plan to self publish! You've translated formatting into something I understand so thank you! :') This video is a blessing on youtube!

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

Yeah! Glad the video helped you!

@anandahuja4319 4 жыл бұрын

Really fantastic, a great help indeed; thank you Mandy

@heartlandauthor 4 жыл бұрын

I found this video to be extremely helpful, especially where you described using section breaks. Thank you, Mandi!

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@TalkToMe-NOW 9 ай бұрын

You are a blessing. Thank you this was so very helpful.

@carolelehrjohnson8246 4 жыл бұрын

Great video on solving formatting issues. Such a big help to me!

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

Glad it helped!

@davidlinzee163 5 жыл бұрын

This is a very helpful video. It warns against many of the mistakes I made my first time formatting.

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear! I made plenty of mistakes myself, so this video is half for myself to reference in the future haha

@1chuckcrenshaw 4 жыл бұрын

I love your voice and the way you pronounce button it was beautifully said lol great recording sound very clear

@imit1989 5 жыл бұрын

This was really helpful, I have learned to format in school but still, I learned a few new stuff from this video. Have a blessed day, Mandi!

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

You learned some of this in school? I wish I had! Would have made my life a lot easier, that's for sure!

@imit1989 5 жыл бұрын

Yes, I had informatics in high school and as optional at university :) where we learned about using word, excel and powerpoint correctly

@dawjamilbeautifullight2365 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you this has been very helpful.

@middysart 4 жыл бұрын

This was crazy helpful! Thank you so much! :)

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

Happy to help! :D

@stepheniv758 3 жыл бұрын

Thx a lot!!! This is really helpful and saved me quite the hassle👍😁😁

@MandiLynnWrites 3 жыл бұрын

Glad it helped!

@patrickskramstad1485 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much :) I think this video will come in handy soon. :)

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Good luck with the publishing process!

@user-gj7it2mt3e Жыл бұрын

Great tutorial, Mandi!

@annpippin6388 Жыл бұрын

This information is helpful for. the mystery novel I ve written which is being typed. .Some of these videos. can help avoid self publishing that may be too expensive so will.probably just .plan to have it printed. .As for talking about agents don t plan to get one . I ve read mystery novels all of my adult life before writing one. And some I don t stop reading just because the story. Is. more slowly developing. . I always finish every one I read. Some But this is. helpful information. .Thanks.

@ayazkazimahesar3385 Жыл бұрын

Very helpful - thank you

@josephcosgroveF4fl Жыл бұрын

Very interesting, thank you.

@keithpromsakha5239 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video. Very helpful.

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Great to hear!!

@lightworksgaming5073 5 жыл бұрын

Very helpful!!

@danielyahushua 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, extraordinarily helpful...

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@san-man 5 жыл бұрын

Yes, it helped! Thanks!

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Great to hear!

@aminaassannam9865 Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

@Luv2Boogie 4 жыл бұрын

great job!

@hereBDBD 4 жыл бұрын

very good - thanks

@toldbyisaac 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@pmcallcenterservicesllc5638 4 жыл бұрын

I am sitting here dying laughing. I forgot I slowed the speed down to listen to a different KZfaqr that talks way too fast to teach anything. When I came to your page I was thinking, "Man, she must be on drugs." Your words were dragging and your eyes were mostly closed. I was thinking again, "I do not want to read any of her books. She is slow!" LOLOL I then remembered I needed to put my setting back on normal speed. Great info by the way. Thanks for posting!

@tedd.berner3989 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mandi! When would we want to have "link to previous" turned on? I guess I'm confused on what it's really for. Thank you again!

@HorriblySound 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!!

@tedd.berner3989 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the info! I have a question if you don't mind. How do you get the text to line up at the bottom of the pages? Mine keeps breaking at a paragraph instead of where the page ends.

@ZickIt123 2 жыл бұрын

Is there an updated version of this for KDP? I have a book In Word but no formatting other than my section titles, guess they maybe should be chapters.

@allauk8790 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for these topics. How do I reference topics from one chapter to another chapter with Microsoft word 2016? For example, I have some sentences that are similar that’s written in another chapter, or I have answers answered in one chapter that correlate with another chapter. And I want the reader able to reference the topic or the scenes without having them read the book all over again. In addition, how can I add or create my own emoji to reference a topic? For example, I have a scripture and I want a specific symbol like Star of David or crescent moon…etc. to reference, it pacifically I need that size symbol.

@johnsaltzohuigin6660 4 жыл бұрын

Book Formatting. New Blank Page. When showing how to format a book, why can no one start with a single blank page? Show us how to set up a page by coping and pasting from an existing text to a new blank page, properly formatting the book as you go. Why Does no one do this?

@DustyCowdog 4 жыл бұрын

EXCELLENT

@HelenaCross 3 жыл бұрын

What did you find was the best size for chapter headings? I’m formatting for a 5x8 book, but wanted to make sure my chapter headings would fit nice on the page.

@MandiLynnWrites 3 жыл бұрын

It depends on the font.

@AuthorDawnlyn 4 жыл бұрын

Very helpful video. Are you able to use Word to create the title pages or is that a different program? I like how you had your outside cover inside of your book. Thank you :)

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

I personally use photoshop to create the title page and then paste it into Word

@AuthorDawnlyn 4 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites Oh I see. I played around with different editors and I thought I might have been doing it wrong. Thank you very much for your reply. :)

@d-engineascender1181 4 жыл бұрын

Hello, this is an informative vid. I was wondering, how did you type out the copyright page info (or where did you get that particular information) with regards to your book? Thanks.

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

I have another video on my channel where I talk just about the copyright page

@d-engineascender1181 4 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites Great. I will check it out.

@zatazhamaat8098 2 жыл бұрын

Do you format the novel before hiring a proofreader or after it has been proofread?

@sergiomeza9316 2 жыл бұрын

I want to know how to set up to start writing a novel on microsoft Word. Please Thank you

@GiftedCrew2 Жыл бұрын

What should the line spacing be?

@sarahfenlonfalk 5 жыл бұрын

Do you know if you use the same formatting for KDP and Ingram or are they different? Thanks for the video-very helpful!

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

They're all more or less the same. The only thing that changes usually is the margin sizes. But the formatting I did in this video was compatible for Ingram, KDP and Createspace.

@sarahfenlonfalk 5 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites Perfect! Thanks so much!

@royaltyreclaimed8027 10 ай бұрын

Mandi, which version of MS Word are you using? I only have access to their limited online version and it doesn't have anywhere near this many tools. The navigation button doesn't even list the option to view multiple pages. I can't follow any of these steps, even starting from the very first ones.

@DarkplaneMP 4 жыл бұрын

awesome

@sergiomeza9316 4 жыл бұрын

I have Microsoft 2007 and I don't have the navigation panel

@abelzoni2138 3 жыл бұрын

I can not figure out page numbers and headers. More specific, how to not page number or header the front matter and start my page 1 at the Introduction.

@vizeath Жыл бұрын

What if we publish the books in 2 formats? PDF and printed...

@theladyangelaIIIpodcastchannel Жыл бұрын

But with good doc's is not like that. Can't seem to remove the header for at the three pages prior the story begins and the blank page. Will you help me on that part? Like make a video about it?

@MandiLynnWrites Жыл бұрын

You’ll have to download and convert it to a Word Doc. Google sheets isn’t designed to be used for book formatting

@booklattes 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Mandi! I’ve been doing so much research but I’m stuck how do you deal with copyright issues with fonts? Like can you use any Microsoft word font and not have to worry about copyright? I saw that Microsoft said you can’t use some of their fonts for books (commercial use) and now I’m stressed 😅

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

You'd have to look up the copyright for each individual font. I buy rights to fonts all the time.

@booklattes 4 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites thank you so much!!

@sphchurch 5 ай бұрын

I write pamplets in 4 X 6 size, facing pages. I want to create booklets to self print on my HP ColorLaser Jet printer. I try and do this in Affinity Publisher When I try to get the booklet to create I get a print workflow error. Any ideas there. I also want to learn how to setup ebooks. Any help appreciated. This is for my congregation use not trying to make my first Million, Hi.

@ravensnow6152 5 жыл бұрын

How do you format your writing on google docs?

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Gabby Ramsey personally I wouldn’t recommend formatting it on Google Docs. If you wrote your novel on Google Docs I would download it as a word document and then begin to format from there. I’ve never tried to format it via Google Docs but I’m sure you can once you find where the commands are.

@ravensnow6152 5 жыл бұрын

Mandi Lynn thank you also google docs was all i have thank you for answering

@shariqsultan5811 4 жыл бұрын

Mam I m from india,I write my novel in my mother language hindi,I want to convert my whole novel into good english language, please suggest software or something like that pleeeees

@Yugi_Muto_the_King_of_Games 4 жыл бұрын

Might be a dumb question, but how do you insert your own fantasy map into a document properly?

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

It's a little harder to do in a Word document, but you would insert it like a regular photo.

@AuthorDarrellCScottJr 5 жыл бұрын

Anybody using Pages or iBook Author?

@britt3044 5 жыл бұрын

Can these same tactics be applied to hardcover

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

Yes! I actually do everything the same except I change the ISBN. My paperbacks and hardcovers are the same size.

@customerservice9676 4 жыл бұрын

How do you merge 9 parts of the story in to one full book which includes pictures?

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

You'd have to merge everything into one document. Copy and paste would be easiest. If you have photos, it might be easier to hire a professional.

@customerservice9676 4 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites Thanks. Good luck with the publishings

@thetruth45678 5 жыл бұрын

Weird, your video won't play past the 26 second mark. Even cleared my cache and changed resolution. Oh well....

@LeonAllanDavis 2 жыл бұрын

Verso? Recto?

@QueenLadyMac 5 жыл бұрын

How did you create your interactive outline? That is that part that I am having the most trouble with. SMH

@MandiLynnWrites 5 жыл бұрын

What do you mean by interactive outline?

@QueenLadyMac 5 жыл бұрын

After many hours I figured it out. Thanks!

@QueenLadyMac 5 жыл бұрын

Mandi Lynn sorry to answer your question. Interactive is being able to click on the section like you presented in your video and go directly to the location.

@MrbeeastShorts-हिंदी 3 жыл бұрын

which page size you selected ?

@MandiLynnWrites 3 жыл бұрын

In this case, 8.5x5.5

@royfr8136 4 ай бұрын

Why can't Word just have a setting called 'novel' and it does it automatically?

@raynizzle143 3 жыл бұрын

What about margins? Did I miss that?

@MandiLynnWrites 3 жыл бұрын

You start off in a template so the margins are already in there.

@subhashnisarta3496 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you🫂😊 so much Mandy Lynn for your rememberanc me and for using 🎤🎙️ microsoft windows software how to format the 🧱 the book 📚📖 and pages and everything about self publishing book 📚📖 for me, but before I say that you are coming after long time ago but little bit late then Bethany Atazadeh she is remembering me always and she knows about my work what I am doing now in currently. So all these publisher group comes to know 🕐🕜 one by one.So where you were gone from last sixth or eight 🕣🎱 months some of friends are always remembering me.anyway it's okay, I am happy with your 🎁 afford to meet me atleast later on that is good for me. So thanks for your good time to meet me, and I am also busy in my work schedule but I will meet all of you and visit your 🎁 channel after sometime soon 🔜 So thankful for the help 🆘 and inspiring me.

@chesshooligan1282 3 жыл бұрын

Hang on one second there... what does "I deleted the file" mean? Did you have to re-format the novel or did you have to re-write it?

@MandiLynnWrites 3 жыл бұрын

I had to re-format it. The unformatted version was saved somewhere else.

@chesshooligan1282 3 жыл бұрын

@@MandiLynnWrites Oh, that sounds a lot better, not the horror story I thought it was. Thanks for the video.

@MissHolliday3110 4 жыл бұрын

Do you format ahead of time and write your draft in a formatted document?

@MandiLynnWrites 4 жыл бұрын

I format after the book is completely done, but I know some people write in a pre-formatted document.

@ericveneto1593 3 жыл бұрын

Another, laborious solution to widows and orphans: edit the sentence.

@djazz0 5 жыл бұрын

Word is good for writing, not typesetting books. Try Scribus (free typesetting program) or Adobe InDesign. I own some novels that were made with Word, and there are some small things that annoy me. So, have a look at Scribus. Also, what program do you use while writing? Do you format while writing or use a distraction-free mode?

@djazz0 5 жыл бұрын

And what's with the huge indentations?

@djazz0 5 жыл бұрын

I still think it's cool that you write and make yoyr own books though, no matter the tools! It shows dedication :)

@peytonhunt364 4 жыл бұрын

What are the small things that annoyed you?

@bossliquidful Жыл бұрын

This is needlessly complicated

@annpippin6388 Жыл бұрын

Your speaking slower than some on videos,band I can hear you better , and it s more helpful..

@00ChaosDragon00 5 жыл бұрын

You should not be formatting a book for publication in Microsoft Word. That's not what it's made for and you are going to get a subpar result, especially when converting to ebook. Use Adobe InDesign. Or better yet, pay a professional and stop worrying about it.