There’s nothing wrong with formatting your own book, so long as it looks professional.
Just last month, I formatted a book for a colleague at a discount. They had formatted their book themselves, but needed me to come in and “finish” the job. They’re lucky I gave a discount because it was almost like starting from scratch.
While I always recommend an author hire a formatter to design their book’s interior, it’s not always in their budget. So they’ll do it themselves.
Templates help, but unfortunately, if they don’t adhere to book industry standards, it makes it obvious you formatted your book yourself. And while readers might not know the difference, they might feel something is off with your book, which you don’t want.
I learned how to format books through this free Udemy course on formatting for CreateSpace (Udemy account required to view; CreateSpace is now Amazon KDP) after my uncle asked me to design his books after editing them. I had no idea this was called “formatting/interior design” and barely knew what I was doing, which is why I had to educate myself.
Yeah, no design school over here, but what I’ve learned and continue to apply for clients is miles beyond what I see in some indie published books.
Here are 3 tells authors format their own book:
1. No paragraph indentations
Professionally published books have the first line of each paragraph indented (unless it’s the first paragraph of a chapter or new section). Some authors don’t bother with this and just make all their paragraphs left-justified, with a line break in between paragraphs.
The white space is nice, but this is not to standard and the first giveaway that your book is self-published.
Example of a book without indentation:
This is a lot better designed than some books I’ve read, but you see how every paragraph is broken with a line space and the first lines aren’t justified.
This entire book is comprised of quotes and word salads, so I’m not surprised.
Example of my book with intended paragraphs:
Here’s a page in my book with indented paragraphs.
2. No book or chapter titles in the header
Everyone knows you need to have page numbers, but if you only have page numbers, that’s a tell that you probably formatted your own book.
For every page that isn’t starting a chapter, you’ll also see the chapter title on all even pages, and the book title on all odd pages in the header (top) of the page. Fiction books sometimes opt for the author’s name on even pages.
Sometimes page numbers will be at the top (and not bottom), but you never see titles at the bottom.
Example of a book page with no header:
Look how sad this page is without a header! There’s also a really said endnote number in the corner that should be with its paragraph.
3. Unimpressive fonts/typography
The final tell that authors formatted their own book is they used a common font. Something like Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Verdana, everywhere. I’m getting sleepy just thinking of these fonts.
Good interior design will have a combo of two fonts (3 max): one for chapter/section headers, and one for text. Some genres call for a more curly text font, while others should be more linear and straight.
Headings can get even more stylized, but it should also be consistent with the book’s cover so when the reader opens a book, they know the kind of party they’re walking into.
The colleague I mentioned at the start of this post sent me their manuscript in Word, and while I wondered why things were looking off in Calibri, I realized they had used two fonts I didn’t have! So I had to go and download them so things appeared properly.
Example of a page with no font discrepancy:
You can see that not only is there no difference in font or size with the chapter title, but it’s not even on a separate page.
Chapters are great places for readers to put their bookmarks in and take a break. No dice for this book!
There are probably a few other tells an author formatted their own book, but these are the big obvious ones.
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