FORMATTING
BOOKING
To book a formatting session please feel free to email me at ljdesigns4authors@gmail.com. Please give me advanced notice as my schedule tends to book quickly. Should you need to cancel or reschedule, please give a couple of days notice if you can, or email on the day of if it's a last-minute change.
MANUSCRIPT
Most of this is probably already done, so ignore this if it's not relevant.
If possible, please send your manuscript in a .docx file. If that's not possible, feel free to reach out to me to discuss other options.
Please ensure you send the final manuscript, with all corrections done. I can do small fixes (which is why there are revisions included in the price). If you need to send me a new document, that is considered a whole new format and you will be charged for that.
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When preparing your manuscript for formatting, please open word and use the ¶ in the top menu to show all punctuation marks in the manuscripts.
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Please use page breaks at the end of chapters if you can. You can go to the top menu Insert > Break > Page Break, or a shortcut should be offered to you.
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Please have a quick scan for forced paragraph breaks. These generally show up and stop the first line indent from working. With the ¶ engaged, it will show up as a dropped arrow. (see image below)
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Please do NOT use the tab for first-line indents, it is a huge time consumption to delete them from the manuscript before formatting and could incur an extra charge. If you can't get your program to create them, don't worry as we can do it on our end, just make sure there's a paragraph break and the rest will be done in the format.
These tend to be the biggest and most time-consuming issues. But you may find some more unusual markings throughout. Please feel free to contact me, if I don't know, I may be able to find the answer for you.
5. Please remove the empty lines between paragraphs. They are not needed and are time-consuming to correct, possibly incurring extra fees to fix depending on the length of the manuscript.
SENDING THE MANUSCRIPT
There are a few things I need to format a manuscript. These are:
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Book Dimensions
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eBook cover for eBook Fomatting
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Data, such as Copyright, Dedication, Acknowledgments, etc.
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Author Font, and book fonts to keep the branding throughout
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Links (if we're doing an eBook)
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List of other works for the back of the book
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The order in which you'd like these to be
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Social media link
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Optional data you would like included, like excerpts, playlists, etc.
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Please send all these along with the manuscript to ljdesigns4authors@gmail.com
If we're using images, please give me an idea of what you're looking for, or include the blurb to give me an idea of what would fit.
DAY OF APPOINTMENT
I use two different programs for the eBook and Paperback formatting. With the paperback, I will generally set up the front matter and a couple of chapters with sample images and send you a link to view in book spread format to see how it will look and to get your approval. With the eBook, I will set up the file and send you the eBook to look over on your device. If formatting for Kindle, it may appear basic if viewed on a phone. So I can send you screenshots should you need them.
If you have vellum but are not confident in formatting it from scratch, or simply use it to update the backmatter I can send you the Vellum zipped file, it's a small addition to the price so you will need to let me know in advance.
If you could stay reachable to answer questions should they arise it will make the process swifter. I will keep you updated throughout the process.