by MadMike on October 31st, 2009

MadMike

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When writing a book, how is it best to lay it out in a word document?

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  • by bendybot on October 31st, 2009

    bendybot

    It depends on what kind of book. Are you making a novel, or something that will have graphics? Is it informational or a children's book? Is it going to be 500 pgs, or 20?

    I would say do the writing with as little formatting as possible. What I mean by that is don't press enter 11 times to create a page that looks like a chapter start. I don't know who you would give the text doc to, but eventually it will be handed to the book designer, who will *not* be using Word, they'll be using a program that handles multi-page documents, such as Adobe InDesign. They'll create a couple master pages with styles that can apply to all or just some of the pages. When that's done and edited, then they'll (most likely) create a PDF to send to the printer... or possibly the publishing company. I'm not sure, I just work on the design end.

    Hope this helps- and good luck writing!

    Comments
    • I meant how do I lay it out so that what i look at is formatted like a novel, so I can tell how many pages I'll have when it gets published?

      MadMike

      by MadMike on October 31st, 2009

    • My suggestion is still don't. Make the layout as simple as possible. Focus on the writing, not the design.
      I know you want to see how it will end up, but the biggest factor in how many pages come out is the chosen font. The typeface may be a just a little longer or shorter than another one, making the pages as a whole many more or many less, especially in the case of a novel. I can almost guarantee you the font you choose will not be the font it is printed in, unless you are printing it yourself, which I don't suggest if you are doing it in Word. The people who chose the font are thinking about legibility, readibility, kerning, leading, spacing, alignment, the size of the book and the ratio of the line to the width of the page. I say all that to show you that your concerns are not the same concerns as the person who does the layout for your book and therefore you will not know how many pages you have until it is ready to be printed.

      bendybot

      by bendybot on October 31st, 2009

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