Formatting is an important component of preparing my novels for publication. As I think I've mentioned before, this is one of my least favorite parts of the process, but it has to be done. I'm rapidly approaching that point in the third novel, so I'd better get started.
One aspect of formatting that's already done for this novel is the headers. When you look at my novels, you'll notice that there's a page number at the top of each page. There's also either my name or the title of the novel. I had to set all of that up.
First I create the headers and select the style that puts them on opposing pages. I had no idea how to do any of these steps a few years ago, but I learned a lot from createspace.com and from Googling various things like "how do I put headers on opposite pages." Whenever I get stuck, those two sources are invaluable.
I needed to select a font for my headers and that took some experimenting. The recommendation I got was to use a sans-serif font, meaning it doesn't have the little flourishes that you find in a font like Times New Roman (which I use for the text). After some testing, I went with Calibri. Then, after some trial and error, I got even pages to have my name and odd pages to have the title.
My next problem was figuring out how to remove page numbers from the front pages and the first page of each chapter. This was surprisingly difficult, possibly because again I didn't know what I was doing when I started. Rather than get into a complicated explanation (and get part of it wrong), I'll just tell you that it involves creating sections and marking the first page of each section as different. On this novel, I had to go through several attempts before I got it right. Thank goodness for the option to close without saving the latest changes! After a few failed attempts and perhaps a little swearing, I finally got it right (although I don't have the front pages included yet, so we'll see how it goes once I add those).
One step down, several more to go!
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