It's time to talk about the best software
when it comes to formatting your book, whether that be for print or ebook.
Hello everyone. My name is Mandi Lynn. I'm an author book, cover designer and
the creator of the book launch planner. And I also format books. I've been
formatting for a couple years now. So I've encountered just about
everything, whether that be poetry, books, workbooks, I've done memoirs.
I've done your regular old novel. I've encountered just about every type
of book that is out there and I've formatted them all. Now I started
off as an author, just like you guys, someone who just wanted to learn how
to format a book so they could save the cost of hiring a formatter. I actually started by formatting my
books in Microsoft word. In fact, I even have tutorials on this YouTube
channel where I tell you how to format your book using Microsoft word. But what you'll notice very quickly
with Microsoft word is that it's not designed to format books. And while I've greatly enjoyed
formatting books for my clients, I can understand why you would wanna be
able to do all the formatting yourself so you can update typos so you can
have complete control over everything. So you don't have to pay a fee every time
you need to make any sort of update to your manuscript. This is why I created a book formatting
course and why I wanted to tell you about it today. This book formatting course is designed
for anyone who wants complete creative control over the book formatting process. We're not gonna be formatting
using Microsoft word or
any other software that's used specifically for book formatting. We're using Adobe InDesign because
Adobe InDesign is a professional software used for all different
sorts of layouts. And of course, specifically in this course, I'm showing you how to use Adobe InDesign
to design the inside of your book, as well as your ebook. Now,
I know what you're thinking. Why would I use Adobe InDesign when
I can use other book formatting, softwares like Atticus or vellum, which are specifically designed to
format books. And the answer is, is because those softwares are
just limited in your capabilities. Those softwares work off of templates
where you choose a template and you modify the template in order to basically
copy and paste your book in. However, if you wanna get really fancy with
fonts and images and the artwork, that's gonna be on the chapter headers, you're gonna find yourself pretty limited. And people like me who are used to having
the endless possibilities that Adobe InDesign get gives you. It's
actually extremely frustrating. I've actually tried out
the softwares myself, just to see if maybe using the software
would make my life a little bit easier. And honestly, it can just be frustrating
with how limited you are
with the templates that they give you. Now, that's not to say that you shouldn't be
using softwares like vellum and Atticus. In fact, I highly recommend it.
If you are looking for a quick, easy way to format your book, because that's exactly what
those softwares allow you to do. But if you wanna get really customizable
with the layout of your book, you're gonna wanna try out
something like Adobe indesign. When I was looking into creating
this book formatting course, I actually sent out a survey to all of
you to see what you wanted to see in the course and what you wanted to learn. And I know a lot of you were really
pushing to learn how to format a book in Microsoft word because Microsoft word
is a tool that people already have, which means it's not something that you
need to go out and purchase. However, I cannot express enough how
frustrating Microsoft word can be. If you wanna create proper
headers and footers in your book, there's a lot you need to learn in order
to work around the way Microsoft word works with their headers in footers.
It's just not a simple process. And if you wanna create drop caps for
your chapter headers in Microsoft word, it's again possible, but it's a somewhat complex process
compared to when you do it in Adobe, indesign, not to mention the fact that if you put
images in your Microsoft word document, for some reason, the way you
view it in Microsoft word, versus when you export it as a PDF
can sometimes look a little different images, move around a
little bit, text shifts. And it's just one of those weird glitches
that Microsoft word has that Adobe InDesign doesn't. When
you're in Adobe InDesign, whatever you're designing on the page, that's exactly how it looks
when you export it as a PDF. Not to mention when
you're in Microsoft word, creating an extremely consistent look
throughout the entire book can be a little more difficult. Whereas when
you're in Adobe InDesign, if you're halfway through formatting your
book and decide that you want to use a different font, or you wanna
change the size of the font, it's actually extremely easy to
do that and make those changes without having to go back and
start at the beginning. Again, Adobe InDesign is literally
made for layout and page design. That's for newspapers, for
magazines. And of course, for books. Now I know a lot
of people hear the word Adobe, and they think that it's gonna
be a super complex software. That's gonna be hard to
learn, but I promise you, there's just a couple things that you
need to know as an author in order to use it as a tool for yourself to
seamlessly and easily format your book. And trust me, when I say after you take my course
and you learn how easy it can be to use Adobe indesign, you will no longer
dread formatting books. In fact, I actually love formatting
books. Now, once you get started, it can be super fast and easy and
kind of a brainless way to format your book because in Adobe InDesign, you create paragraph styles and character
styles and parent pages and all these little templates that you use to kind
of just set the guidelines for what you want your book to be. And then you import your book into
the design template and you just apply all these styles and it
makes your book look beautiful and professional. When you take my course, I also provide you with an InDesign
template that you can use to kind of be a starting point to make sure
that you're set up for success. You'll easily be able to choose
which pages have headers and footers, which pages have the beautiful
chapter header art you'll have complete control over the margins
and bleed section of your book. And you'll be able to
easily resize the pages. That way if you think you want a five
by eight book and then later decide you want a six by nine book, it's actually
pretty easy to make that change. In the course I'll also teach you how
to add images. Subheaders bullet points, charts, and of course maps to your book. So you can really customize
it to your full ability. Adobe InDesign is also a pretty affordable
software. It is subscription based, but what you can do is that you can
choose to be subscribed only when you need it. So I'm actually an
affiliate for Adobe. So if you are interested in using
InDesign or any of the Adobe softwares, be sure to use my affiliate link, which will be down below it's
$20.99 cents a month to use Adobe InDesign. And then
my formatting course, which is available on
teachable is only $55. So if you take that into account, plus one month of the Adobe InDesign
subscription, you're at about $75, which is still incredibly
affordable to format your book. Cuz normally if you hire someone like me, it can cost $275 or sometimes even more. If your book is a non-fiction book
and requires more complex formatting, I created this formatting course
because I know as an author, I like to do everything
myself as much as possible. And I wanted to make sure that you
guys could do the same as well. I'm aware of the fact that hiring someone
to format your book can be expensive. I'm a book, formatter myself
I know what my prices are. And I also know at the end of the day, when you format the book yourself and
you have access to the InDesign files and the knowledge to edit
those InDesign files, it's gonna be that much
easier for yourself to make
updates and to correct any typos that you may spot down the
line, learning to format your books. Yourself is also a huge tool that
you can have in your arsenal. If you're someone who plans
on publishing a ton of books, just think of how much money you'll
save. The more books you publish, not to mention the fact that Adobe
InDesign is available to PC and Mac users. So no matter which one you use, Adobe InDesign and the templates and all
of that will work for you in your book. If you have any questions
about my formatting course, be sure to ask them in
the comments down below, and I'll be happy to answer them. If you
wanna sign up for my formatting course, it will also be linked in the
description box of this video. I promise you I've made it
as cost effective as possible
while still throwing in as much valuable information as I can. Adobe InDesign is one of my
favorite Adobe softwares. And I hope after you take
the course, you'll learn why, because even though you're choosing
the DIY method, I promise you, it will still look just as professional
as if you hired someone that is it for this video. Be sure to check out all
the links I mentioned down below. I will see you guys all next week.
