How To Format a Word Doc into a Paperback Book
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- Опубликовано: 30 янв 2020
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I made this video because this was one of the most frustrating challenges I kept running into - how to get the formatting to work! There are lots of great tools to help now that simply didn't exist when I started publishing. But Word is a free tool that many people use, and you can use it to make beautiful books. I hope you find this video helpful.
I also have other self-publishing videos on my channel if you're interested! Good luck with your project.
Dude!!!! Thank God, I finally found someone who explains this easily! I have been tearing my hair out trying to get my book set up for paperback. Thanks so much for making this tutorial!!!
I am so glad haha! That was me a few years ago wondering why everyone made it so difficult haha
If you want any more tutorials, this was just a piece of my course (writeyourbook.org)
Hey there, David! Found this presentation super helpful. Just wanted to make one minor correction I think I noticed: *In order to get the alternating page margins that you'd find inside a book (where there's extra space near the binding), you need to select 'Mirror Margins' on the first page of the margins menu.* Hopefully someone finds this helpful!
That is exactly right! Thanks for pointing it out!
So, I paid hundreds of dollars for a course and it didnt teach me half of what you taught in this video! I have been trying to figure out how to format the paperback in word for DAYS! Im still having a hard time creating the table of contents im like Beth here tearing my hair out!!! But this tutorial got me closer to FINALLY formatting my book! Thank you!
I remember how frustrating my first few times were too haha. Don't worry, you will get it!. Btw, you might want to check out my course - I have a few more formatting tutorials on there and its currently available for free on my website.
This has been the most helpful tutorial on formatting an Amazon paperback that I have found. One thing I would add: how to start page numbering at chapter one rather than at the front matter. Thanks for your very valuable help.
So happy it helped! And that is a great idea!
THANK YOU it took me 18 hours to finally figure it out im soooooo friggin proud thank you muchly
Great job! Formatting can be the trickiest part of publishing, but once you get it you're golden. Good luck with your book launch!
FINALLY! Step by step. Thank you.
🤓 awesome, you're welcome!
Dude. This was excellent. Thank you for the thorough care you put into this video.
Thanks Sean! I know I was so frustrated when I was looking how to do this a few years ago, I figured this video might help a few people. Good luck with your book!
@@DavidRamosAuthor I'll let you know how it turns out. Maybe you have a video for this topic and I just didn't see it, but I think a lot of people would like to see you do one on choosing a font style or family. I went with Baskerville for mine. It's clean and looks professional without being instantly recognizable like comic sans or papyrus.
Perfect! Simple and detailed.
Glad it was helpful!
After hours of floundering, I found you! Thanks brother!
Glad I could help!
Very nice; things that appear difficult are explained in a simple way.
Thank you David. Good explanations!
My pleasure!
I was really breaking my head in searching for Paperback formatting before I came across your video. You really made this video very simple to understand and gave exactly what we are expecting to know. This helped me to understand the Page setup. In addition, if you let me know the "Paragraph setting, Font Styles and Font Sizes", "Header-Footer Text Font Size and Styles" it would be an incredible help.
Thank Venu, I'm so glad you found it helpful.
For more information, I highly recommend you watch the videos on this KDP Help page: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202145400
They do an excellent job of breaking down the formatting items that should help you complete your project. Good luck!
Thanks so much for teaching so we can understand. I am unable to find the link for your ebook and templates
Thank you. Your a life saver. God bless you!
My pleasure! Have fun with your project 📖
I can't find the link
AWESOME content!! Thank you so much! The only thing missing??? How to add headers! ;) Not everyone wants them, however, it is something that you may want to add as a tutorial
Oh, do you mean headers as a way to divide up your chapters into smaller segments? That is a great question. I'll keep an eye out if I find a good way to do this!
@@DavidRamosAuthor Yes, that is something that very useful and tips on how to do this smoothly will be great!
Yes please can you make a separate video for the advanced way of inserting page numbers with roman numbers on the front matter then chapters beginning with normal numbers
Great video Dave. Thanks so much for your patience in going step by step with each section. I really learned a lot. One thing you didn't mention is when I did my ebook, it did not require Chapters or pages. Should we Add the words Chapter 1 to the titles and so forth?
I'm so glad it helped! Adding "chapter" or other words to your titles (and/or pages) is completely optional. I usually do so just to keep me from getting disorganized haha.
David Great video. When justifying text I noticed sometimes there's extra space between the words. This wasn't covered in the video but wondering how to reduce the space gaps between the words?
Excellent question.
So actually, most of the space is determined by the text size and font choice. When people read it on their kindles, they get to choose those factors, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
As for print books, I would adjust the two factors I mentioned (font choice and text size). There are more advanced ways to adjust the gap, but I've found that they only ended up messing up other formatting items
Can you please show where your templates are. Thank you! Trying hard to get my book published. It is not easy when you have limited income.
Brilliant & easy to follow. Where's the download link to the checklist?
Thank you! head over to ramosauthor . com / wyb
Then, once you're in you can find the checklist in the "Bonus" module.
Thank you.
You're welcome!
Thanks ❤
Hello Ramos,
I anxiously wanted to do a poetry ebook with only 20 pages, what size word doc pages should I choose?
I'd choose the smallest size since the minimum page count for kdp is 24
kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201857950 (5x8 should work)
Thanks a lot
Happy to help!
Where do I find the previous module converting a word doc to ebook by david ramos????
I actually combined all of the videos into one so that everyone could find any part they needed with only one link. This should be the segment you are looking for: ruclips.net/video/s8meBiLwoXc/видео.html
Hi David. Thanks for making this video. I'm just confused about one thing. It is probably just a stupid thing that I am confusing myself about. When you mention the title page and chapter pages being on the right hand side of a book, they are in fact on the left hand side of the screen. Can you see my confusion?
Hi Simon, that is actually a really smart question! It's a little hard to explain without printing the book out, but if you pick up a physical book while I explain the organization it might make more sense.
Basically you have to account for blank pages and two-sided pages to make sure the start of every chapter begins where you want it to.
As soon as you upload your file to KDP and they give you a preview, that will help you see what I mean too
do you have ebook temple link?
Where is the template you are talking about?
Hi Lucille, KDP actually has better templates than I do at this time: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230 I recommend starting there!
Where can I download the template file?
Hi , very well worded and simple to follow but I must have made an error somewhere. I have all the sizes correct but unfortunately I have 2585 pages instead of around 370. Could you please advise. Thanks. Hugh
Hi Hugh, thanks for checking out this video. And oof, I've been there 😅.
3 options.
1st, if you have a version w/o any of the changes, I would start again with that one, start fresh beginning at step #1, and see if it turns out better.
2nd, if you are using a web-based version of word (i.e., Office 365) and not a desktop-based version, I've found that some of the formatting options simply don't compute. For the video, I am using a desktop version.
3rd, I would turn on the ¶ (paragraph/pilcrow) symbol to see all of the formatting options that are active. My guess is that an extra page break or tab was repeated by accident. The quickest way to remove LOTS of accidents is to use the "find and replace" function (there are many good tutorials online for this).
Hopefully these get you pointed in the right direction.
And just incase I didn't mention it in this video, ALWAYS have multiple backup files saved just in case anything weird happens, so that you can always go back and start fresh. I've gotten quite a few weird errors in my time haha. Good luck!
Thanks David for your speedy reply. Your answers go me thinking. Sometimes the obvious is the last one you think of. I am Irish and working in cm, you are of course working in inches. Penny dropped. Sorted. Keep the great work up. Love how you make it very simple(once I convert to inches)☘️
I notice kdp paperback template has 10 chapters. How do I add chapters if I want to go up to 12 chapters?
Easiest way to do it just copy and paste.
So, if you watch the video I explain how page & section breaks work.
To add 2 chapters to the template, you could simple copy that last 2 chapters (e.g., 9 & 10), scroll to the last page of chapter 10, and paste what you copied AFTER the page/section break that is there.
This will allow you to edit chapters 11 & 12 just like you would the prior ones. The key is to make sure you are aware of where the page and section breaks are (again, which the video goes into detail on).
✨ I also have a 2.5 hour video on my channel that includes even more info - which might be useful if you are making both an ebook and paperback version.
where is the link he talks about
The problem Im having with the justify text, is the wide weird spreading.
I know EXACTLY what you mean haha - its such a frustrating issue. BUT here is a simple fix: www.datanumen.com/blogs/5-ways-not-stretch-last-line-justified-paragraph/
Look at Case 2, Method 1 on this link and it'll show you how to stop getting that weird spacing.
Hey there. My Word.Docx file is reading the inside margin on one side and the KDP reads it at the other side, no matter what I do! Anyone else here having that issue? What did you do? Thanks!
Great question - I would save [Save As] your .docx file as a PDF. This will help lock in your set margins so that KDP. Try doing that and uploading it to KDP to see if that resolves the issue
@@DavidRamosAuthor Thanks! I noticed that you are not choosing to mirror. Doesn't that mean that it is always the right side of the page, rather than every other?
Hi! Where is the worksheet, module 7, and video you talk about when you open your video?
Hello Patti. You can find module 7 along with all of the other videos here: ruclips.net/video/s8meBiLwoXc/видео.html (I made a free supercut version for RUclips).
And the worksheets can be downloaded here: www.ramosauthor.com/offers/8C7UiSPz/checkout
Is there anyway I can hire you to format my book that is in a Word Document currently? It needs to be formatted to be 6x9 and configured for Amazon KDP. I'm willing to compensate you if you can help with this.
Hi there, I appreciate you reaching out. Although I don't offer this service, I can recommend 2 options
This service on Fiverr www.fiverr.com/saqib_arshad/design-layout-for-kindle-and-paperback-ebook?context_referrer=search_gigs&source=top-bar&ref_ctx_id=105a22d1160356bb17a6023c17f54f3f&pckg_id=1&pos=1&context_type=auto&funnel=105a22d1160356bb17a6023c17f54f3f
And this tool (I'm currently learning it myself but it's fantastic) www.atticus.io/
Where is the link to the downloadable checklist and template?
Thanks for watching the video Karita! I haven't updated my resources in about a year, so the best option is to use KDP's templates + instructions. They've actually done a really good job bumping up their resources for authors: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230
If you don't want to lose time, he starts to show how to change the format beginning with 2:26. Your're welcome!
Thanks for the mark - I'll likely make an updated video in the future with video chapters so its easier to use.
When I click margins for mirror to see all the pages nothing pops up
Hmm, it could be a few different things. My most recent video (2.5 hours long) has a more indepth tutorial that starts with turning it into an ebook file and then reformatting it into a paperback. I recommend you follow those steps to make sure you didn't miss anything along the way.
Why are some of my chapter titles farther down on the page than others?
I would turn on paragraph view (the Pilcrow icon/button) and check how many spaces/breaks you have on the page. Sometimes, especially when breaking things into new chapters, the spaces/breaks from previous pages will carry through and move things down more than you want.
By turning on the paragraph view, you'll be able to see what's going on better.
And if this doesn't work, I recommend COPYing the text (for 1 full chapter), pasting it into a BLANK document, and PASTEing as "Keep Text Only" - then from there, go ahead and format it to see if any of the same weird things happen.
@@DavidRamosAuthor Thank you! Yes, I did have the paragraph button on, so I will try your copy and paste method to see if that fixes it. Thanks so much!
What happens if you don't have an e-book file?
I uploaded a full (2+ hour) tutorial here: ruclips.net/video/s8meBiLwoXc/видео.html
Basically, you can start with just text in a Word doc, turn it into an ebook file, and then turn that into a paperback. It'll take a few hours depending on how big your book is. But once you get used to the process, you'll be able to crank it out with your eyes closed!
Do you have a service to do this?
Hello Sherry, my focus is on writing and managing the other moving parts in my business. I do know of one service called Fox Formatting I can recommend: www.foxformatting.com/ Hope this helps.
Would it be easier to add paragraph headings after you fully justify the paragraphs?
Gotta love Alvin and the Chipmunks. :)
Hmm, it depends on the size of heading you choose and how many you plan to include.
In my chapters, I usually only include maybe 1 or 2 (to break up relevant sections), and I usually include them BEFORE justifying and any formatting changes.
I always try to choose the easiest route 😅
@@DavidRamosAuthor Thank you, Mr. Ramos. You know much more than I do, I'm sure. I usually run Word 2019 to revise what others write. Maybe I need to be much more careful because I love changing a document globally. It's as though I tell that machine, "You know what I want you to do, so please do it because you don't need my help."
All of these videos are private. How do I get access?
All 40+ videos are available here: www.ramosauthor.com/wyb
what if you don't have Microsoft office?
Google Docs is an excellent, free alternative. Some of the options will be different, but you can still make a great looking book if you're patient.
@@DavidRamosAuthor I did it and saved it as epub, Amazon took it, after 6 tries, thank you very much. Happy person here 😁
@@chillicsd Major congrats! That is awesome! I hope your book project does great!
It would be really nice if you went slower on adding a page break. I can't add a page break and keep the chapter page down 4 lines.
Your text looks great, but you should show us where specifically to go with the cursor to get this kind of results. You move too fast for me to follow the instructions.
Totally agree. I actually upgraded my setup for future tutorials to include a little highlight circle on the cursor!
who got a shok for a second by seeing the speaker.