Natasha Fondren

Microsoft Word is not a typewriter. My first installation in this series covers the things you can do as you’re typing your document in Word (or a Word substitute) that will make formatting a novel for the Kindle easier later. While none of this can’t be fixed in the eventual formatting, it will save time if you prevent problems.

(Most of this is probably obvious to lots of you. I promise to be more useful in the next installment. I only write this installment because I’ve seen these issues in real life, so they bear mentioning.)

This isn’t just for those who want to go indie. If you’re in the querying race, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to follow these guidelines as well. Several agents forward and read manuscripts on their Kindles. Following these guidelines will ensure that, after Kindle’s conversion, your document will look its best.

No, an agent, as far as I can tell, is not going to reject you because your paragraph indents are a little wonky. But it never hurts to pay a little attention to appearance.

Paragraph Indentations

When you start writing your novel, CTRL+A the entire thing, click “Paragraph Properties” (or the little downward arrow next to “Paragraph” under the “Home” tab of 2007), and set your format. If you do it this way, you can always make universal changes without manually going through your entire document.

Never use the tab key to start a paragraph.

Or multiple spaces.

New Chapters

When ending a chapter, hit CTRL+ENTER to start a new page. Then hit the ENTER key until you get where you want, type “Chapter X,” hit ENTER again, and then start your chapter.

If you like your Chapter Heading formatted in the middle, without the indentation, then highlight the chapter heading only and adjust the paragraph settings for that alone. (Highlighting and then pressing CTRL+E will center it, but it will be a little off if you’ve got your paragraphs set to indent the first line. So go into Paragraph settings, with the Chapter Heading highlighted, and set to no indent.)

I suggest doing this after you start the first paragraph, because it’s simplest if you’re not already handy at this sort of thing.

Never hit “Enter” a bunch of times to get to a new page, in order to start your next chapter.

Title Pages and Chapter Headings

The formatting for your title page and chapter headings should again be done via paragraph settings. I covered how to do the chapter headings in the paragraph above. The same method applies to your title page. Type the text only, then highlight and format it via the paragraph settings.

Again, never use the tab key or space key to indent.

Spacing

One space, not two, and that goes for NY Publishing, too. Just do a “Find and Replace” operation: Put two spaces in the “Find” line, and one space in the “Replace” line. Then hit “Replace all.”

If your novel is already written with these issues in it, don’t worry. I’ll show you how to fix it later. The only reason to fix it now is if you’re about to send it to an agent who you know or think will forward it to their Kindle.

If you’re sending it to an agent who you think might forward your novel to their Kindle, it wouldn’t hurt to CTRL+A your document, set the paragraph settings, and then see if some paragraphs are set oddly and some aren’t. If some have larger indentations, then you probably used the tab key or multiple spaces to start the paragraph. Highlight the tabbed space (or multiple spaces), CTRL+C the problematic space, and then open the “Find and Replace” dialogue. CTRL+V the problematic space in the “Find” line, and make sure the “Replace” line is completely empty. Then hit “Replace All.”

You might have to adjust your title page and chapter headings if you make a universal change to the paragraph settings. To avoid that, you can go through and just highlight the body of your text, one chapter at a time, and set the paragraph settings that way.

If you see a disaster after performing a Find and Replace operation, don’t panic. Just hit CTRL+Z, and it will undo. Then make sure you didn’t highlight and copy an extra space or ENTER keystroke.

Next Installment

The next installment will discuss why you should format your novel for the Kindle, and a brief overview of what goes into book design.

How do you use Word? How do you format your novel as you go along? Any tips I missed? Or is this way too basic for you? (Sorry!)