Indie Publishing 101: Solutions for Formatting Your Book's Interior File

One of the hardest parts of trying to DIY an indie book for publishing (or so I’ve found throughout my own journey) is formatting the interior file. Ebooks are a little easier, but print…

Print formatting is a bitch, especially if you're trying to do it yourself in Microsoft Word.

Been there, done that. Not going back to a .docx file ever again.

I wrote my very first “novel” in 2013 for NaNoWriMo that year. I was just returning to writing after a long hiatus after high school. (Let’s just say the bipolar disorder was activated when I went off to college. Life was a hot mess.) My “novel” wasn’t even a novel. It was a novella with only 30,000 words. The plot was garbage; the characterization was self-servicing at the very least; and that “book” never should have seen the light of its Amazon page. (No, you will not find it anywhere anymore.)

One of the most god-awful things about that book was the interior formatting. I had absolutely NO CLUE what I was doing. A gutter? What’s that? I need to calculate the margins based on print size?

For the love of all that is holy. (And I’m not a particularly religious person.)

I can semi-confidently say that for my second book, which I worked on and republished about ten times over the course of ten years, was a little bit better. I put it out into the world under my new, married name. Once again, I thought I was a creative genius when I looked at my book in my hands. I designed and redesigned the cover at least five different times, but that’s a story for another post.

But formatting and reformatting my book taught me a little bit about what a professionally formatted book looks like, how much gutter is needed for print pages, and a little bit about typography and alignment. (For reference, the publishing standard is justified alignment.)

So, enough about me. Let’s get to the good stuff. (Note: This is not a sponsored post. I am not affiliated with any of these companies, nor do I make any commission.)

Vellum

Yes, there are professionals who can format your book for a fee. I’ve personally never hired anyone for interior design, instead preferring to use Vellum. It’s pricey if you want to format both ebooks and print books, but if you want to produce ebooks only, there’s a one-time fee for ebooks only. The one-time fee for both print and digital is a bit heftier, but well worth the investment if you want to continue designing your own interiors.

Now, a note regarding Vellum: The downloadable program is only currently available for Mac users.

I know, I know. It sucks. But if you’re able to download it, I’ve found it’s the easiest, most user-friendly program for formatting that I’ve used instead of trying to dive into battle with Microsoft Word™.

BUT…

There’s a workaround for Windows users. Yes, you read that right. You can still use Vellum on an as-needed basis if you don’t work on a Mac.

Essentially, you can use a service that’s called MacinCloud. For as low as $1 (USD) per hour, you can use this “Mac solution provider” to utilize a Mac operating system on your non-Mac computer. According to Vellum, Vellum comes already installed on most MacinCloud computers.

Once you’ve completed your files, all you have to do is transfer them to your own system or store them in a cloud-based service. (I’m a fan of cloud storage, simply for the fact that there’s always a possibility my computer will suddenly be fried, and I don’t want to lose all my files.)

Buy Vellum for $249

Instructions for Vellum on Windows

Atticus

Atticus is another formatting program, and unlike Vellum, it’s available for all operating systems, including Linux and Chromebook. (Which is definitely a plus if you don’t want to go through the hassle of trying to turn your laptop into a temporary MacBook.) This isn’t one I’ve personally tried, but I’ve heard good things. Not only can you use it to format print and digital, you can use it to write your manuscript directly within the program itself. With Atticus, you can export files that will be accepted by any book market and platform. Also unlike Vellum, Atticus boasts features such as:

• large print

• footnotes

• header hierarchies (H2 – H6)

• Callout boxes

• Cloud storage and backups

• Only $147 for print and ebook capabilities

Overall, it’s garnered a lot of amazing reviews and definitely worth checking out!

Check out the perks of Atticus

Buy Atticus for $147

Kindle Create

This one is great for beginners, especially if you’re just learning about interior formatting. Fortunately, it’s free to download and offers both print and digital capabilities. There are three versions:

• Reflowable (for novels, essays, poetry, memoirs)

• Comics and Kids’ (for graphic novels and children’s books)

• Print Replica (fixed layout for textbooks, cookbooks, magazines, etc.)

  
  

It gets a lot of praise for its ease of use, but authors with more experience in formatting find its capabilities limited. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a good choice for beginners. It allows you to set themes for your interior with “worry-free typesetting” and “simple Table of Contents (TOC) creation.” Again, this is a great starting point if you’re just getting started in the indie publishing world!

Check out Kindle Create