If you’ve ever picked up a book and thought, Wow, this looks so professional!—it wasn’t just luck. Small details like running headers, front and back matter, and a polished Table of Contents can make all the difference.
In this week’s episode of Indie Author Blueprint, I broke it down:
How to design running headers and footers that guide your reader seamlessly.
Whether or not your book needs a Table of Contents—and how to make it shine.
The secret to crafting front and back matter that frames your book perfectly.
Extra design touches that can make your book unforgettable (think drop caps, sidebars, and more).
Wondering why there’s a video at the top? I’ll get to that in just a second.
Last time, we covered the basics: fonts, margins, and paragraph styles. If you missed the first parts, here you go:
In this week’s podcast episode, we’re diving into some of the finer points of formatting that can elevate your book from "good enough" to truly professional. We cover running headers and footers, how and when to include a table of contents, and the all-important front and back matter.
Even if you are hiring someone else to do the formatting of your book, you’ll need to be familiar with the terminology so that you can direct the process and know what to ask for.
Bonuses
If you’re a paid member of Indie Author Blueprint, I have several bonuses for you! First, you’ll see that this email has a video attached. That’s a screen share recording of me walking through some of the different elements that go inside a book. The opportunity to visualize it is often helpful.
Second, I’m adding a full outline of the podcast content. If you don’t have time to listen to the free audio just yet, you can skim through what I covered in that episode.
If you aren’t yet a paid subscriber, it isn’t too late to get access to all of the back content I created. It’s like a course you can do at your own pace and by topic, and it’s only $8 per month for full access. You’ll continue receiving new content every week.
Wherever you are in your publishing journey, it isn’t too early to start collecting all the info you need to know about interior formatting!
Happy writing and publishing!
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