How to Format a Book in 2025: 7 Tips for Book Formatting

• May 04, 2025
• 6 min read

• Tags: Formatting, Formatting Guidelines, Self-Publishing

Are you confused about how to format a book for publication? It’s easy to get scared by the many rules and specifics of book formatting, but don’t worry. We’ve included everything you need to know about formatting a book for print and digital formats. Formatting one’s own books can be challenging, but with our experience and solutions, such as free templates and proprietary software, we have overcome these obstacles.

Remember that formatting comes only after the three steps of book editing: developmental editing, copy editing, and line editing. If you start formatting a partially edited book, the process will be messy and involve a lot of rework. But if you’re happy with the edit, it’s time to work on the manuscript format.

But first, let’s answer a basic question: What exactly does book formatting involve?

What is book formatting?

Book formatting or typesetting is the process of preparing a manuscript for publication by selecting the right text and layout options. This process tailors your book to the technical specifications and design requirements of print and eBook formats. It involves structuring text, images, fonts, margins, and layout elements using paragraph styles and style-based formatting to boost readability and ensure consistency. Proper formatting can make life easier for authors by streamlining the process.

Book formatting deals with the following parts of your book:

• Text (font size and style, line spacing, and indents)
• Page layout (page size, margins)
• Front and end matter
• Chapter headings and subheadings
• Pagination
• Images, graphics, tables, and charts
• EBook formatting specifics (responsive design, hyperlinks, and image optimization)

Using style-based formatting, such as character and paragraph styles, is crucial for maintaining consistency and simplifying the layout process across your document.

Why is book formatting important?

Book formatting is important because it enhances your book’s readability and visual appeal, making it polished and professional. Your book format says a lot about its content. Readers will always choose a well-designed and accessible book over an amateurish one.

Even if you put a lot of creativity and effort into writing your book, readers won’t go through it if the layout is shabby. So, bad formatting undermines your work while polished formatting enhances it.

Setting up the book structure

Setting up the book structure is a crucial step in the formatting process, as it determines the overall organization and flow of your book. A well-structured book not only enhances readability but also ensures that all necessary elements are included and properly formatted.

The book structure typically includes three main parts: the front matter, body text, and back matter. Each of these sections has its own specific elements and formatting requirements.

Front Matter: This section includes the title page, copyright page, and table of contents. The title page should feature the book title, subtitle, and author name, all centered and formatted according to industry standards. The copyright page should contain the copyright notice, publication date, and ISBN. The table of contents should be clear and easy to navigate, helping readers find specific sections quickly.

Body Text: This is where the main content of your book resides. It should be formatted with clear headings, well-organized paragraphs, and appropriate line spacing to ensure readability. Consistency is key, so use the same font and font size throughout the body text to maintain a professional appearance.

Back Matter: This section includes any additional information, such as appendices, glossaries, or indexes. These elements should be formatted consistently with the rest of the book to provide a cohesive reading experience.

Using a word processor like Microsoft Word can make it easier to set up the book structure and format the different elements. By setting up the book structure correctly from the start, you can save time and effort in the long run, making it easier to make changes and updates to the book.

Now that we’ve seen what formatting is, it’s time to learn how to format a manuscript. Here are the steps to format a book for printing and/or digital publishing:

• Select the right formatting software
• Choose an appropriate page size
• Keep ample margins
• Use a readable font style and size
• Format your text
• Embellish chapter headings
• Create front and end matter

Let’s take a detailed look at each of these steps to book formatting:

How to format a book

#1 Select the right formatting software

While typesetting, you’ll have to choose a tool that’s compatible with your needs. If your book consists mostly of text and doesn’t need fancy formatting, you don’t need to use an advanced tool. Even Google Docs, Apple Pages, and MS Word work as great eBook creator tools! In MS Word, you can access text alignment options, such as left justification, through the Home tab.

That said, Draft2Digital’s free ebook creator is a great formatting tool and comes with various premade templates. If you’re comfortable paying for a tool, Atticus and Scrivener are some good choices. Ensure that the software you choose lets you create books in the file format you’ll need for publishing. Take a look:

If you’re undertaking formatting for print books, you’ll need a PDF file. Formatting an eBook is slightly trickier because different online retailers use different file formats. While EPUB is the most widely used eBook format, you’ll have to create a MOBI or KPF file to publish on Amazon.

#2 Choose an appropriate page size

Various genres use different trim sizes according to the intended reading experience. A novel will almost always be smaller in size compared to a magazine or a cookbook. Here are some examples of page sizes in various genres (in inches):

• Novels: 6 x 9, 5.5 x 8.5, and 8.5 x 11 (The smaller page size is easy to read and cost-effective.)
• Children’s books: 8 x 10, 10 x 10, and 11 x 8.5 (These larger page sizes accommodate illustrations and larger fonts.)
• Coffee table books: 9 x 12, 10 x 10, and 12 x 12 (The larger page size showcases high-quality images.)
• Textbooks: 8.5 x 11 and 7 x 10 (The larger page size accommodates charts, graphs, and other visual aids.)
• Poetry books: 5 x 8 and 6 x 9 (The smaller page size creates a more intimate reading experience.)

You can choose to defy the genre norms in your manuscript format, but remember that they’re in place for a reason. Readers are used to certain page sizes, and it’s best to prioritize the reading experience over purely aesthetic choices.

#3 Keep ample margins

A one-inch margin on all sides is standard in the publishing industry. The bottom margin is particularly important for placing footers and page numbers, ensuring a professional-looking layout. This helps readers hold the book without obstructing the text and add notes on the page. It also ensures a better reading experience since the text appears ordered and not constrained. 

Even more important, leaving ample margins allows for proper trimming and binding of the pages. Remember reading those books where the text disappeared inside the binding? That inside edge is called the gutter, and you don’t want your precious words to get lost in it. So in the case of longer books, the inside margin of the page may be bigger than the other sides.

A 1-inch margin suffices for most books, but art books and magazines tend to have larger margins. Smaller books like poetry books, on the other hand, have smaller margins (0.625 or 0.75 inches). EBook margins vary according to the platform and device on which they are accessed. You can check the formatting guidelines of the publishing platform and keep the recommended margins.

#4 Use a readable font style and size

You’re probably thinking, “Aren’t all fonts readable?” Well, some are easier to read than others. You can choose an aesthetic, loopy font while formatting a novel, but your book could be about 80,000 words long. 

Now consider font size: If your text is tiny, people will struggle to read it. If it’s too big, you’ll be unnecessarily adding to your page count and printing costs. So, you should choose a standard, easily readable font style with a moderate size. An 11- or 12-point standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman is always a safe bet. For chapter headings, you might consider using a fancy font to add a decorative touch, but ensure it doesn’t compromise readability.

The genre of your book also determines the ideal font. Times New Roman and Garamond are widely used in fiction books, while Arial and Helvetica are popular in nonfiction books. So do your research before you choose your font!

#5 Format your text

Your text should be well-spaced, indented, and organized to create even paragraphs that are pleasing to the eye. Here’s how you can do this:

A. Justify your text

Justifying text is the process of aligning it to both right and left margins, creating straight lines on both sides. This is opposed to ‘ragged’ text, which is only aligned to the left margin. Justifying adjusts the space between your words to create a neat box of text, which is what you’ll find in most published books. 

B. Indent the first lines of your paragraphs

Writers used to web content may wonder if this is strictly necessary, but it’s essential for novel formatting. Whether it’s a print book or an eBook, adding a 0.25-inch indent demarcates new paragraphs, improving the reading experience. It is important to note that the first paragraph, first line of a new chapter, or under a new subheading should typically not be indented, and using a first paragraph style helps maintain consistency throughout your document.

C. Adjust the line spacing

Line spacing is, quite literally, the space between two lines of text in a paragraph. It reduces eye strain and helps the reader keep track of the sentence. A line spacing of 1.3–1.5 is standard, but you should also consider your genre and target audience. You can have relative spacing for eBooks that adapt to reader preference and device settings. 

D. Insert scene and page breaks 

Scene breaks and page breaks are crucial for readers to reorient themselves while reading your book. Insert a scene break whenever there’s a significant change in the point of view, time, or location. This can be a simple flat line or an elegant little design, based on your preference.

Page breaks help you start each new chapter on a new page, acting as visual buffers. They’re integral to the structural organization of your book, so don’t forget them! Additionally, section breaks can be used within chapters to indicate different sections without starting a new chapter.

#6 Embellish chapter headings

Like page breaks, chapter headings are an important visual marker for your readers and play a crucial role in the layout of chapter pages. They should be set apart from the other text, and there are several ways to achieve this. You can use a different font that’s still coherent with your body font, genre, and theme. A good idea is to use your title font from the cover design, but that doesn’t work in every case.

Naturally, you’ll be using a larger font size for the chapter titles. You can additionally embellish them with graphic and design elements, but keep it simple. It is important to balance decorative elements with simplicity to ensure that chapter pages enhance the reading experience without becoming distracting. Start your text a few lines below the heading so it has some room to breathe. If your genre and theme permit it, you can start each chapter with drop caps, where the first letter is enlarged and ornate.

#7 Create front and end matter

The front and back matter of your book are the pages that appear before and after the main content. Roman numerals are often used to number these initial pages, such as the title page and table of contents, as well as to distinguish sections like the foreword or introduction in nonfiction works. This matter contains important supporting information that adds context to your book. Here’s what they contain:

Front matter

• Title page (book title, subtitle, and author name)
• Copyright page (copyright notice, publication date, and ISBN)
• Table of contents
• Dedication (allows the author to dedicate the book to someone)
• Foreword (an introduction written by someone other than the author)

Back matter

• Acknowledgments
• About the Author (a brief biography of the author)
• Appendix (additional information that supports the book’s content)
• Index (lists the book’s topics and page numbers for easy reference)
• Bibliography (lists the sources used in the book)

Various countries and genres have their own rules about book manuscript formatting for the front and back matter. Make sure to check these while you’re creating the pages!

Specific guidelines for print book formatting

Maintaining professionalism in printed books is crucial, especially when considering layout features like odd-numbered pages and footnotes.

Here’s how to format a book for printing:

• Consider whether your trim size, margins, and gutters are practical.
• Add headers and footers so you can place the page numbers, book titles, and chapter titles in them.
• Check the justification of your text and adjust the hyphenation accordingly.
• Add a bleed wherever images reach the edge of the page. 
• Avoid widows and hyphens in your pages.

Bleed: A small border that stretches past the actual page to prevent a thin white line along the edge.

Widow: A paragraph-ending line that gets cut off from the rest of the paragraph and appears at the top of a new page.

Orphan: A paragraph-starting line that appears at the bottom of the page, cut off from the rest of the paragraph that’s on the next page.

Specific guidelines for eBook formatting

Here’s how to format an eBook:

• Ensure that the text is responsive so it can adjust to different device settings.
• Add hyperlinks to the table of contents, notes, and references to create an interactive experience.
• Optimize images and graphics so they’re adjustable and clear. Any non-design-related text edits made after the initial upload might incur an additional cost.

How to format a novel

Follow these steps for a polished novel manuscript format:

• Use scene break embellishments that fit your story and theme. Ensure that chapters always start on the right page to maintain reader engagement.
• Employ consistent indentation and punctuation for the dialogues.
• Highlight flashbacks, dreams, letters, or inner thoughts through font variations (such as italics) and use page breaks to ensure proper layout.
• Optionally, use specific formatting variations to denote different perspectives.

Best practices for formatting a book

1. Consistent font and size: Use a uniform font and size of font throughout the book. This consistency helps maintain a professional look and ensures that the book is easy to read.

2. Clear heading structure: Use a clear and concise heading structure to organize the book. This makes it easier for readers to navigate and find specific sections.

3. Proper line spacing and paragraph formatting: Line spacing and paragraph formatting are essential for readability. Format these elements according to standards to reduce eye strain and improve the reading experience.

4. Use professional tools: Tools like Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign can make formatting the book easier and more efficient. These tools offer features that help ensure consistency and professional quality.

5. Proofread carefully: Proofread the book carefully to catch any errors or typos. A well-proofread book reflects your attention to detail and commitment to quality.

6. Consider a formatting service: Using a professional formatting service can help ensure that the book is formatted correctly and consistently. A professional service can provide an extra layer of quality control.

7. Reader-centric formatting: Format the book with the reader in mind. Use clear headings, well-organized paragraphs, and appropriate line spacing to enhance readability.

8. Appearance: Use a professional font and font size throughout the book. This helps ensure that the book is taken seriously by readers and industry professionals.

By following these best practices, you can create a book that is not only visually appealing but also easy to read and professionally formatted.

We hope you’ve learned how to format a book now. It’s a time-consuming, tedious process, so buckle up! But if you’d rather focus on writing and marketing than formatting your novel, our self-publishing services are at your disposal.

If you’d like to keep reading about the self-publishing process, here are some articles that could help:

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