For today's episode, Becky Wright is back! Last time we talked about formatting, we got a little carried away. This time, we focussed on 5 quick and easy formatting tips you can apply to your book right now.

These are Becky's tips:

1. STYLE - Different genres favour different styles, so have a look at some other books from your genre and see what they've done. For example, fantasy novels often have embellishments and illustrations, whereas horror novels have plainer, stricter styles.
2. FRONT AND BACK MATTER - This includes your dedication, your copyright page, acknowledgements, About the Author, a Contents page, links to your social media accounts and your website, and your catalogue/the list of other books you've published. Note that there are some differences between paperbacks and ebooks. Again, have a look at other books in your genre to see what they've done.
3. FONT AND CHAPTER HEADINGS - Keep your font to something simple like Times New Roman or Garamont. Becky's pro tip: don't use Arial - it's harder to read and looks unprofessional. You can vary your chapter headings, but make sure they complement your genre and don't use more than three throughout the book.
4. WIDOWS AND ORPHANS - This is a simple click of a button that ensures your paragraphs stay together and you don't have any gaps at end bottom of your pages. How exactly to do this depends on the program you use to write, but an easy Google search will show you how to do this.
5. PAGE NUMBERS - Getting your page numbers right is a must! Using section breaks and page breaks makes this much easier. Again, how exactly you do it depends on your writing program.

We didn't set an action step today because the whole episode is one big action step. If you're new to formatting or intimidated by it after failed previous attempts, give Becky's 5 Quick and Easy Tips a go!

Prefer to have the pros take formatting off your hands? You can find out more about or book Becky's business PlatformHouse Publishing for your project on their website.

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