Editing here changes the book, not the Word file on your device.
Front & back matter
Title page, copyright page, dedication, and the pages after the story.
Settings
Body font
The face your book is set in. All six were drawn for long reading on paper, not for screens.
Size
Larger type is easier on the eye but makes a longer book, and printing cost follows page count.
Line spacing
The air between lines. More is restful and adds pages; less is compact and can feel dense.
Paragraph style
Indented first lines are standard in fiction. Block style, with a gap between paragraphs, suits non-fiction and memoir.
Alignment
Justified gives both edges straight, as most printed books do. Ragged right leaves the right edge uneven and every word space identical.
Hyphenation
Splits long words across lines so word spacing stays even. Off keeps every word whole, but the gaps get wider. Learn more →
Hyphenate names and capitalized words
Off keeps names and proper nouns whole.
Curly quotes and proper dashes
Turns typewriter marks into the ones books use: “curly” quotes, and — dashes. Off leaves your file exactly as you typed it.
House style
One choice sets the three rows below. US is what American hardcovers print: dashes set tight, spaced ellipsis periods, double quotes outside. UK is spaced dashes and single quotes outside. As typed keeps whatever your manuscript does.
Dashes
The dash that breaks a sentence. Closed sets a long dash tight against the words on both sides (word—word). Spaced uses a shorter dash with a space each side (word – word).
Ellipsis
Three dots as one character (…) or as three spaced periods (. . .). The spaced form is what Chicago style asks for. Either way it never splits across two lines.
Quotation marks
Which marks go on the outside of speech. US books put “double” outside and ‘single’ inside; UK books do the reverse. As typed keeps your manuscript’s own way.
For the printed book. An ebook is laid out by the reader’s own device. Learn more →
Keepsake hardcover
A big hardcover to print a few copies as a gift, at Lulu. This makes the page 7 × 10 in, the words a little bigger, and the pictures color if they are in color. You do not need an ISBN for a book you are not selling.
Page numbers
Whether numbers appear at all, and where they sit on the page.
Alignment
Outside places them nearest the trimmed edge, which is easiest to thumb through. Centered is quieter.
Restart at Chapter 1
Begins counting where the story starts, so the front matter does not eat into page 1.
Number on chapter openers
Most printed books leave the number off the page a chapter begins on.
Pages before Chapter 1
Your file may open with a title page or copyright notice typed in Word. We can drop those and build proper ones instead.
Roman numerals for front matter
Numbers the opening pages i, ii, iii so that the story itself begins on page 1.
Running heads
The small line along the top of each page. Off is perfectly normal for a short book.
What the head says
Traditionally the book title on one side and the author or chapter on the facing page.
Margins
Wider margins look calmer and add pages. The inside margin is always larger to clear the binding.
Start chapters on a right-hand page
The traditional choice for printed books. Adds a blank page whenever a chapter would otherwise begin on the left.
Table of contents
Fiction usually goes without one. Non-fiction usually needs it.
Index
Your book has index entries. We build the index at the back, in two columns, with the pages each entry landed on. Short page ranges are Chicago style. Leave it out if you would rather not print one.
Figure and table numbers
Numbers every picture and table that has a caption, in order: Figure 1, 2, 3, or by chapter, Figure 3.1, 3.2. A number you typed is replaced, so adding a picture never leaves the rest out of order.
List of figures
A page after the contents that lists each numbered figure and the page it is on. Common in reports, theses and textbooks.
List of tables
A page after the contents that lists each numbered table and the page it is on.
Notes
Where your numbered notes print. At the back, they are together under each chapter's name. At the bottom of the page, each note sits under the page where its number is, the way most history and research books do it.
Note numbers
Count the notes through the whole book, or start again at 1 in each chapter. Starting again is common when the notes are at the end of each chapter.
Note marks
Numbers, or the old printer's marks: *, †, ‡, §, ¶, #. Marks read best when a book has only a few notes. With notes at the bottom of the page, the marks start over at * on each page.
Note pages
Help readers find a note at the back. Show which pages each chapter's notes belong to, or drop the numbers from the text and start each note with its page and the words it is about. Not for footnotes.
Notes in tables
Where a note prints when its number is inside a table. Under the table is the usual way in books; as a, b, c gives the table its own letters, so the other notes keep their own count. With the other notes puts it with the rest.
Notes on chapter titles
A note on a chapter's title, like “Published in …”. Most books print it at the bottom of the chapter's first page. You can list it with the other notes at the back instead.
Chapter numbering
Whether to print a number above your chapter title, and in what form.
Chapter headings you typed yourself
Some headings arrive already numbered — “Chapter Fifteen — University Legend”, “3.”, “SIX”. Kept as typed, no second number is added. Renumbered, yours comes off and the book’s own style goes on, so mixed headings come out consistent.
Chapter titles
Some books number their chapters and name them nothing else. Off prints the number alone.
Chapter subtitles
The second line some chapters carry beneath the title. Off prints the title alone.
Chapter title font
The body face is the quiet, traditional choice. A different one makes each chapter opening announce itself.
Chapter title size
Around twice the body size is usual.
Chapter starts down the page
The white space above a chapter title. Deeper feels more formal and adds a few pages.
Every chapter uses the same depth, so the titles line up when you flip through.
Drop caps
The large opening letter at the start of a chapter. A classic touch that suits fiction more than non-fiction.
Drop cap depth
How many lines of text the big letter reaches down through.
Chapter lead-in
The first few words of every chapter in small caps, the way most American hardcovers open. It follows the drop cap when there is one. The first-line choices style the whole opening line instead of a few words.
Scene-break mark
What separates scenes inside a chapter. A blank line is the quietest; an ornament is the most definite. Learn more →
Air around a drawn mark
How much space a drawn ornament keeps above and below it. A half line
reads as a break and usually costs no pages at all; a full line is roomier and can push
a long book onto more of them.
Mark breaks that fall at a page edge
A blank line is invisible at the top or foot of a page. This prints a small mark when that happens.
For the printed book. An ebook is laid out by the reader’s own device. Learn more →
Joined letters (ligatures)
Where letters collide, like an f’s hook against an i’s dot, type designers drew one joined shape — a ligature. Books have set them this way for five centuries. Learn more →
Letter-pair spacing
Closes the awkward gap in pairs like To, Wa and Ye that looks like a hole when the letters are set plainly.
Glyph-width fitting
Widens or narrows letters by a fraction of a percent so word spacing stays even. You see the spacing settle, not the letters.
Glyph-width limit
How far that fitting may go. Below 3% it does more harm than good.
Hanging punctuation
Lets quotes and hyphens sit a little outside the margin, so the edge of the text looks straight.
Hyphen-ladder repair
Clears runs of three or more hyphens stacked down the right edge.
Never split a word across a page turn
A word broken at the foot of a right-hand page makes the reader carry half of it over the turn. This re-sets that one paragraph to the same number of lines, so nothing else moves.
Page fill
How hard we work to make every page end at the same depth. Filling more costs slightly wider word spaces on a few lines. Learn more →
What happens to pictures by default. Any single picture can be set differently when you click it. Learn more →
Printed in
Color prints your pictures in color. The printer then charges the color price for every page, even pages with no pictures. Your ebook shows color either way.
Heading color
Prints chapter titles and section headings in a dark color. Only for a book printed in color. The words stay black.
Print captions
The line of text under a picture. Off keeps the caption in your file but leaves it off the page.
Full-page pictures start on
Forcing a side inserts a blank page when the picture would otherwise land on the wrong one. Either side is the economical choice.
How far a full-page picture reaches
To the text margins, out to the trim edge, or past it. “Past the edge” makes every page in the book a bleed page and changes how you upload it.
Fit or fill
Fit shows the whole picture and may leave space around it. Fill covers the area and crops whatever does not fit.
The few things a reader’s device cannot decide for itself. Learn more →
Where the book opens
The page a reader lands on the first time they open your ebook. Most books should open at the story.
Contents list
The chapter list in the reader's own menu, not a page in the book.
How full should the pages run?
Filling pages and keeping word spacing even are the same
trade-off pulled in two directions. These are your book's real numbers, not
an example — .
Your writing changed since these pages were set. Update to set the new words; the page count may change.
Export
A printed book can’t be recalled, and an ebook keeps selling the version
you uploaded. This is what a printer or a store would find.
Page
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Working…
Choose a .docx — from Word, Pages, or Google Docs — and we'll read
your chapters and show you exactly what came across.
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by itself — and choosing a file keeps the settings this book already has.