How To Format a Book in Google Docs (Step-by-Step)

• Jan 06, 2026
• 7 min read

• Tags: Book Editing, Book Writing

Google Docs needs no introduction when it comes to writing and editing texts or manuscripts. 

For writers, this simple application solves a major problem: writing and formatting. Google Docs serves as a great alternative to expensive formatting software. It’s free, cloud-based, collaborative, and has comment functions that make it ideal for book formatting.

Nonetheless, using it to format a whole book or lengthy research papers can be tricky, and this information piece will tell you exactly how to format a book manuscript in Google Docs in easy steps, from setting the right page margins to exporting your finished file.

Step No. 1: Create and customize the new doc

Begin by creating a fresh document and renaming it to the title of your manuscript. These are the elements we’ll cover:

• Paper Size
• Margins
• Orientation

Paper Size: You can set the paper size by clicking on File → Page Setup → Paper Size.

The most widely accepted paper size is 5.5’ x 8.5” or 6’ x 9”. The former is a popular “digest size” often used for novellas, smaller non-fiction books, and self-published titles, whereas the latter size is considered the industry standard for paperbacks.

Margins: A good rule of thumb is to start with 1 inch of margins on all sides. It keeps the text from running too close to the edges and improves readability. 

Orientation: This heavily depends on the nature of your manuscript. If it’s a text-heavy book, portrait orientation is the norm. Choose landscape only when your content is image-rich, like portfolios, cookbooks, and photography books.

Step No. 2: Copy, paste, and style your manuscript

After you’ve done with setting up the page size, orientations, and margins, it’s time to copy your manuscript by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+C to detach the awkward formatting. Then paste the text with Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+V. 

Get ready to style the crude text into a publishable book. These are the elements that you’ll need to edit to style your content:

1. Select the most convenient font over the stylish ones 

It is tempting to choose a font that mimics the content and looks aesthetic over the widely used ‘Times New Roman’ or ‘Calibri.’ 

While selecting the font, keep the reader’s experience and comfort in mind because these decorative fonts, at a glance, look attractive, but reading over 70,000 words in Pacifico might need a second pair of eyes.

The font size should be kept at 11 for descriptions and 14 for headings or subheadings. This is what is used widely, but you can adjust the size as per your convenience.

2. Mind the line spacing

The amount of space you give between each line can severely affect the readability and visual comfort. Make it too far, and the reader’s flow will get disrupted; make it too tight, and the reader will have to strain their eyes. 

The norm for line spacing ranges between 1.115 and 1.5 to strike a good balance between reading comfort and visual appeal.

3. Paragraph indent

In most books, the indent is small yet consistent, around 0.5 inches, to make it easy for the eyes to spot the beginning of a new paragraph. Avoid using the space bar or the tab key to manually update every paragraph; instead, go to Format → Align & Indent → Indentation Options → Special Indent → First Line → then put 0.5

To continue this formatting in the rest of the doc, go to Format → Paragraph Styles → Normal Text → Update normal text to match.

4. Paragraph spacing

It ensures the space between the paragraphs and controls the visible gap between one paragraph and the next. 

If you intend to follow a typical book layout, do not add extra space between paragraphs; instead, rely on indents to make the pages look continuous and structured.

To set it in Google Docs:

• Select the text
• Go to Format →Line & Paragraph Spacing→Custom Spcing

• Set before and after paragraph spacing to ‘0.’
• Click Apply.

This will prevent random gaps and will keep the content looking aligned and structured.

5. Align the text to the left

The general rule of thumb says to align the text on the left side, as it helps in avoiding those meandering rivers of white spaces that full justification often creates.

Step no. 3: Format your chapter heading styles

Emphasize these three things before formatting the headings: 

• Consistency
• Clarity
• Professionalism

Why? Switching the font style throws off the readers. From reading 500 words in ‘Calibri’, to suddenly seeing a flowery cursive font heading will impact the reading flow. It’s subtle, but it does happen. 

The better option is to format the chapter headings with the same font used in the headings to maintain consistency, clarity, and professionalism. 

The next thing to do is to turn the ‘normal text’ heading into a ‘heading 1’, ‘heading 2’, or ‘heading 3’.

To do that:

• First, select the heading of your chapter.
• Second, click on the normal text icon.

• Then, match the turn the normal text into a heading 1 if it’s the title, Heading 2 for subheadings, and Heading 3 and 4 for supporting headings or for pointers.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut “cmd+option+1” or “Ctrl+Alt+1” to turn normal text into heading 1, and subsequently “option+2/alt+2” or “option+3/alt+3” to format the subheadings. 

Follow this heading hierarchy:

1. Heading 1 for main chapter titles
2. Heading 2 for section breaks within the chapter
3. Heading 3 and 4 for smaller subsections or supporting points

And don’t forget to start each chapter on a new, fresh page. To break a page, click on Insert →Break→Page Break.

Step No. 4: Add The Front and Back Matter

We’re almost done, the text and heading formatting is done and dusted, now only the its and bits of the book cover, front and back matter remain. The front and back pages include a title page, copyright information, acknowledgements, table of contents, preface, and introduction. 

Let’s discuss in detail:

Title Page

The beginning of the book. It contains the title, subtitle, author’s name, and publisher’s info. 

The title of the page should be separated by a line break and should remain in the centre. 

It should be considerably larger than other texts, ideally around 18 pt or 20 pt, and in bold. You can capitalize each letter to make the title look more eye-catching.

Copyright Page

This simpleton page is like a guardian angel of your precious book. It includes the copyright year, all rights reserved, ISBN, and disclaimer.

The copyright page comes right after the title page, remains left-aligned in a smaller font, and is separated from other text with spacing, often italicized to make it look distinctive.

Table Of Contents

It is a table that lists the chapters and on which page they are located, really helpful for readers. Keep the fonts large for easy distinction, around 18 pt, and add a couple of line breaks below it. 

To form a table of contents: go to Insert→Page Elements→Table of Contents, where you’ll get 3 style options:

First is the simple one, the good old one:

Second, the dotted style table of contents, which is ideal for print books, and the dotted lines help the readers to easily match the chapter with the page number, in case there are a lot of chapters and subheadings.

The third style is Links, best for e-books. These clickable links directly take the reader to the intended chapter or subheading.

Preface

Usually, a preface is written by someone else, informing readers about how the book came to be, like an introductory essay.

It’s rather simple to implement it; just make sure it is written on a single, isolated page and use the Heading 1 style so it appears in your TOC.

Step No. 5: Automate Your eBook’s Page Numbers

Page numbers are, without a doubt, one of the most helpful elements in reading, and Google Docs’s automated page numbering turns it into a piece of cake. Moreover, it’s far better and more efficient than manual numbering, keeping the document organized and navigational. 

When page numbers are automated, every page updates its numbers automatically when you add, remove, or move content. It prevents mistakes and inconsistencies that usually occur in manual editing.

To do it:

First, select the page from which you want to start the page numbering; ideally, it should start from a chapter, but you can start it even before if necessary. 

Then, click on insert→Break→section break (next page). This ensures the numbered page starts on a new page.

Next, click on Insert again, and go down to page elements, then to page numbers, select the layout you want.

Page numbers will appear in the end corners or in the centre, as per the chosen layout. Your selected page won’t get number 1 right after doing it, for that, you’d have to untick the box ‘link to previous’.

Then click on options and write 1 in the numbering section.

Make sure ‘start at 1’ is selected, and click on ‘apply’, and there we go, all of your following pages will get numbered cleanly, no hassle.

Last Step, Step No. 6: Finally, Export Your Formatted Book

Nice, you’re almost done with formatting your book, just need to export it before you hopefully send it to the publishers. Take a breath, and tab icon on the left sidebar to view the outline of your whole book. Ensure every section aligns and is in order. 

DOWNLOAD THE BOOK. Click on File→Download. You can download it in any format you need. However:

PDF Document (.pdf): Ideal for print and to preserve margins, fonts, and page breaks.

EPUB Publication (.epub): Suitable for ebooks, and it’s the standard for most platforms.

Formatting a book using Google Docs isn’t a mountain climb; just by following the above simple steps, you’ve formatted a whole book, that too without expensive software or wasting hours on learning to operate it. 

From setting page dimensions in step 1 to exporting your magnum opus in step 6, this blog has covered every essential step that transforms a raw manuscript into a polished, publishable book. If you’re still looking for professional editing and proofreading services, then PaperTrue is here for you.

So take your finished manuscript, export it, and send it out into the world. You’ve done the grind; now it’s time to share the result of it.

Read More:

Found this article helpful?

0

0

Tanvi

With a foundation in Life Sciences, Tanvi enjoys curating technical writing tips tailored for ESL students. When she's not translating complex concepts into bite-sized nuggets, she can be found playing with dogs or painting landscapes.