SHERI SINGERLING

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Have you ever held a book that just felt “right,” like it was made to sit oh-so nicely in your hands? Or maybe you’ve experienced the opposite—a book that was awkward to hold and read or looked off for some reason. Enter the importance of formatting!

Wait, don’t run away just yet. I promise this post will be more interesting than you might think at first glance. Of course, formatting isn’t as sexy as a novel’s plot, themes, characters, and so forth, but it does have a huge impact on the reading experience. This mostly happens on a subconscious level, which makes it all the more fascinating. Curious about what tricks your mind is playing on you? Then read on.

What is Formatting?

First, let’s start with a definition of formatting as it pertains to novels. Formatting is how a book is presented and includes the following: Font type, font size, line spacing, character spacing, alignment, indentations, page size, margins, page numbering, paper type, and cover sheen.

When people talk about formatting, they are typically focusing on physical books, but ebooks also require their own formatting conventions. I will discuss ebook formatting in more detail in a future “how to format an ebook” post. For now, let’s talk about how formatting works for physical books and why it matters.

The Nitty Gritty

Some of the aforementioned aspects of formatting might appear to play a larger role in influencing readers, but they all have some kind of impact. With that in mind, let’s dive a bit deeper into each.

Font Type

You know these. If you’re a 90s kid like me, you grew up with Times New Roman as the default font in your word processing document software. Fonts have a huge effect on the reader, contributing to readability and tone. The general advice is to stick to serif fonts for a novel’s body text and maybe venture into using sans serif fonts for the chapter titles or other headings. Serif fonts are the ones with the extra curls and flourishes. Those tend to help guide a reader’s eye and define the lines of text better, which is why they’re recommended for blocks of text.

The exact type of font to use is up for debate. Some genres tend towards certain fonts, but I think most book formatting gurus would agree that simple but unique is best. Readability is king here, but opting for overused fonts (hi again, Times New Roman) signals amateur hour. I personally prefer Garamond for the body text in my novels. For my chapter titles, I go with Tahoma. For the page numbers and other header content (author and novel name), I use OCR A Extended in my sci-fi novel Nytho.

Here are examples of each (in the same font size) as well as Times New Roman for comparison:

Font Size, Line Spacing, and Character Spacing

I lump these three together because they all essentially influence readability and the reader’s pace. They do this by physically controlling how fast a reader reads. The smaller the font, line spacing, and character spacing, the slower the reader will read and the higher the chance of miscomprehension. For Nytho, I use a font size of 11.5, and a line spacing of 1.15 (or 15 pts). I manually adjust the character spacing when it’s flagged for H&J violations by my formatting software of choice (InDesign).

Alignment

Ah, an easy one. The correct alignment to use for the body text in a novel isn’t up for debate. There is a hard and fast convention here, and if a book doesn’t use it, a reader will immediately feel like something is off. The rule is to use justified with the last line left aligned. This means the text lines up on both sides of the page with the spacing between words varying to achieve this effect. There’s no convention for headings/chapter titles. Right, left, centered, it’s the author/book formatter’s pick.

Indentations

Indentations are another straightforward aspect that, if used correctly, can signal a polished product. The first line of a paragraph should be indented with the exact amount varying according to the author/book formatter’s preference. I use 0.25 inches for Nytho. One major exception to this rule is the first line of a chapter or section (think text after a line break or ***). This line will NOT be indented. Failing to do this screams novice.

Page Size and Margins

Now, we’re back into less well-defined territory. I lumped these two together because page size tends to influence the margin size. In any case, genre convention is significant. Book collectors might be annoyed if a novel uses an unusual page size. Imagine a clean row of novels on a shelf with one oddball sticking up above the others.

I use 8.5 x 5.5 inches for Nytho and margins of 0.75 inches all around except the inner margin (where the binding happens). That one is set to 1 inch. I actually had different sized margins for the first proof of Nytho I ordered, and I immediately felt that something was off. The margins were too small which meant my fingers overlapped some of the text when I held it. Comfort is key! Readers should be able to hold the novel without their fingers obstructing the view. Needless to say, I adjusted my margins and ordered another proof. Version number two was perfect.

Page Numbering

There’s some flexibility with page numbering. The physical placement can vary from the bottom or top, be center aligned, or alternate from the left to right page. The important point is that the numbers only occur on pages without chapter titles. That’s not to say the page number isn’t counted, it’s just not shown. Also, the front matter should use i, ii, ii, etc., whereas the body of the novel should use 1, 2, 3, etc.

Paper Type and Cover Sheen

Let’s close this discussion by talking about the appearance of the pages and the cover. In short, authors/book formatters should follow the genre convention. Nonfiction uses white paper and glossy covers, whereas fiction tends towards cream paper and matte covers. The paper type is important since cream pages are slightly thicker which affects the binding.

That’s a short and sweet take on book formatting as I’ve encountered it in my self-publishing journey. I hope you have an appreciation for the importance of this technical side of the publishing industry if you didn’t already.

My Quick and Dirty Guidelines

In case you plan to do book formatting yourself, here’s a summary of what I tend to use. This applies best to science fiction novels but also to fiction more generally. There’s so much information on formatting out there that at least this can act as a quick and dirty list.

• Fonts:
  • Body = Garamond 11.5
  • Headings/chapter titles = Tahoma 20
  • Header content (page numbers, author name, book title) = OCR A Extended
• Indentation: 0.25 inches (don’t do for the first line in a chapter or start of a new section)
• Spacing: 1.15 (15 pts)
• Alignment:
  • Body = justify with last line aligned left
  • Headings/chapter titles = centered
• Page size: 8.5×5.5 inches
• Margins: 0.75 inches for top, bottom, and outside; 1 inch for inside
• Page numbers:
  • Located in header
  • Alternating left and right aligned for left and right pages (don’t include page numbers for pages with chapter titles)
  • Front matter uses i, ii, iii, etc. Body matter uses 1, 2, 3, etc.
• Page type: cream
• Cover sheen: matte

Have you ever noticed good or bad formatting in a book? Let me know in a comment.