The formatting mistakes you're making are killing your book sales before readers even get to page one. If you're about to publish your first book on Amazon KDP, you need to know the exact formatting steps that separate successful publishers from those who struggle to get sales. But most people skip the one formatting element that Amazon's algorithm actually rewards.
I'm going to show you the complete process that gets people to notice and buy your book. I'm Carla from Fiction Profits Academy and over the past decade, I've helped thousands of students build profitable publishing businesses. And today, I'm walking you through the exact formatting process that we teach our [music] students.
The same system that's helped them publish books that actually generate income on Amazon. While I'm showing you Microsoft Word today, you have options. If you're on a Mac, you might prefer Vellum.
It's what many of our students love. PC users often choose Attekus, which works on both PC and Mac. And if you don't want to use any software, you can always hire someone on Fiverr to handle formatting for you.
But if you have access to Microsoft Word and you want to learn the process yourself, this tutorial will show you exactly how to create professionallooks that can compete with anything in the marketplace. The key thing to remember is that regardless of which method you choose, the principles stay the same. Your book needs to look professional, function properly across devices, and give readers the smooth experience that they expect.
I'm not joking when I say formatting can make or break your book. Amazon judges your book fast, like within the first day or two after you publish. And during those first critical hours, the platform is watching how readers interact with your book.
Do they click on it immediately and bounce, or do they actually stick around, read a few pages, and buy it? When books look amateur, people return them more often, which hurts your rankings. Readers decide whether to buy within seconds of previewing your book's pages.
[music] And if the formatting screams beginner, they assume everything else is amateur, too. Clean, professional formatting keeps people on the page longer, and it reduces bounce rates. And this tells Amazon that your book is actually engaging, which means [music] better visibility in search results and recommendations.
I'm not kidding when I say the difference between amateur and professional formatting can cost you thousands of dollars over your book's lifetime. I've watched books with great stories struggle to earn even $100 because of formatting issues, while properly formatted books in the same niche hit bestseller list. The first step is to get everything ready before you start.
Missing elements will force you to stop mid-process, breaking your workflow and increasing the chances of formatting errors. So, gather all of your materials up front. This prevents mistakes and saves you hours of backtracking later.
Here's what you need. Your completed manuscript in Word format. and make sure all chapters are included and in the correct order.
Verify your word count matches your target. 10,000 words minimum for lead magnets, 30,000 or more for full books. Your book cover needs to be a highresolution JPEG file from your designer.
Your completed blurb needs to be ready so that you can copy and paste it. This should be 150 words or less for most fiction niches and it must include your key tropes and compelling hook elements. Your list of seven keyword strings for Amazon optimization.
If you haven't done your keyword research yet, check out our video on that process. Your three Amazon categories selected before starting the upload process. Once you've got all that, let's open Microsoft Word and [music] get into the actual formatting.
Step two is setting up your document for success. This step determines whether your book looks professional or screams amateur to the reader. Proper page setup ensures that your book displays correctly across [music] all devices and prevents formatting disasters when you create the paperback version of your book later.
Starting with the right settings saves you from having to reformat everything twice. First, let's change your page size. Go to the layout tab, then page setup.
You'll see it's currently set to the default letter size, 8. 5x 11 in. For most fiction books, you want either a 5.
5x 8. 5 in or 6x9 in, depending on your niche. Contemporary romance often works well with a 5.
5x 8. 5, while longer novels look great at 6x9. Click on size, and if you don't see your preferred dimensions, select more paper sizes and create a custom size.
Next, let's adjust your margins for proper text [music] placement. Go back to layout, then margins, then custom margins. Set your outside margins to 0.
6 [music] in. This gives you readable text spacing without looking cramped. Step three is formatting your text for maximum readability.
Your text formatting directly impacts how readers experience your book. For body text, stick with standard fonts like Times New Roman, Gamond, or Georgia. These are designed for long form reading and won't strain your reader's eyes.
Set your font size to 11 or 12 points. This ensures readability across all devices. [music] Set your line spacing to 1.
15 or 1. 5. This gives your text room to breathe without looking too spread out.
Tight line spacing makes text too hard to read, while too much spacing looks unprofessional. For chapter headings, here's what you need to do for both professional appearance and technical functionality. Select your first chapter title and then go to the style section.
Click heading one. This does two important things. It formats your chapter consistently and allows Word to automatically generate your table of contents later.
You can customize how heading one looks [music] by right-clicking it and selecting modify. I recommend keeping it simple, same font as your body text, but maybe 16 point size and bold. Repeat this process for every single chapter title throughout your book.
This consistency is what readers expect and what Amazon system recognizes as professional formatting. Now, with your text properly formatted, we need to address how your [music] chapters flow from one to the next. Step four is to create proper page breaks.
Improper page breaks show up in 90% of firsttime publishers books, which can make you look like you don't know what you're doing. Many new publishers try to start new chapters by hitting the enter key multiple times to push text to the next page. [music] But this creates unpredictable formatting problems when Amazon converts your file, potentially ruining your book's layout across different devices.
The professional way to handle this is first remove all manual spacing between chapters. Delete any extra line breaks that you might have added to push [music] text to new pages. At the end of each chapter, go to insert, then page break.
This tells Amazon exactly where new chapters should start, regardless of how the text flows on different devices. Use page breaks to separate your title page from your copyright page, your copyright page from your table of contents, and your table of contents from your first chapter. Each major section should start on its own page for professional presentation.
Test your formatting by viewing your document at different zoom levels, 75%, 100%, and 125%. This preview helps catch formatting problems before you upload to Amazon. And when you use proper page breaks, your book maintains its professional structure whether someone's reading on a Kindle, a phone, or a tablet.
Now, let's create the table of contents that will make your book feel premium and polished, not like the thousands of amateur publications flooding Amazon. Step five involves building an automated table of contents. A professional table of contents with working hyperlinks dramatically improves reader experience and it signals to Amazon that your book is high quality.
This is critical because a manual table of contents breaks when formatting changes, but automated ones update themselves and work across all [music] devices. Since you've already formatted all of your chapter titles as heading one, this process is straightforward. Position your cursor where you want the table of contents to appear.
Typically, after your copyright page and [music] before your first chapter, go to references, then table of contents, then custom table of contents. Here's the key setting for ebooks. Uncheck show page numbers [music] and check use hyperlinks instead of page numbers.
This creates clickable chapter links that work perfectly on Kindle and other devices. Set it to show only level one headings to avoid a cluttered appearance. Adjust the text size and spacing to match your book's overall aesthetic.
The beauty of the system is that whenever you make changes to your content, you simply rightclick on the table of contents and select update field. It automatically stays accurate throughout your editing process. This automated table of contents is one of those professional touches that separates successful publishers from beginners.
Your ebook formatting is now complete. But if you want to create a paperback version, there's one important step. Step six is converting to paperback ready format.
Most publishers don't realize that paperback formatting requires specific changes to look professional in print. Paperback books need different formatting than ebooks because they're physical objects that readers hold. Headers, footers, and page numbers become essential for navigation, and the formatting must account for actual printed pages rather than flowing digital text.
First, save a separate copy of your document for paperback formatting. Never use the same file for both versions. This prevents you from accidentally breaking your ebook formatting.
Now, we need to add headers and footers. [music] Go to insert, then header, then choose a simple style. For a professional book appearance, put your author name on even pages and your book title on odd pages.
Use a smaller font, typically 11 point, and center the text. Since this is the print version, we need to update your table of contents to show page numbers instead of hyperlinks. Highlight your existing table of contents.
Go back to references, table of contents, and custom table of content. This time, check show page numbers and uncheck use hyperlinks instead of page numbers. Perform a final formatting check throughout the entire document.
Verify page breaks are working correctly. Chapters start on new pages and margins look consistent throughout. When everything looks perfect, save as a PDF.
Go to file, save as, and select PDF format. This creates the final file you'll upload to Amazon for printing. Now you have both versions ready.
But before you upload anything to Amazon, there's one more final step that you cannot afford to skip, which is doing the final quality check. So this is a 5-minute quality check that has saved our students thousands of dollars in reprinting costs and prevented countless bad reviews. Formatting errors are much harder and more expensive to fix after publication.
[music] Amazon charges for file updates. Bad formatting hurts your book sales and reviews, and readers will judge your entire brand based on formatting quality. This is why I highly recommend you review your document at different zoom levels.
Try it at 100%, 75%, and 125%. This will let you catch spacing issues that might not be visible at normal view. Look for awkward page breaks, spacing problems, or alignment issues.
Then test your table of content links by clicking every chapter link to ensure that they work correctly. For your print version, verify page numbers match actual chapter location. You'll also want to check that all chapter titles use consistent heading styles and spacing.
Look for any chapters that might have been missing or formatted differently. Then verify your margins and ensure no text gets cut off. Preview how your book will look when it's printed or [music] displayed on different devices.
Make sure no important content gets lost in the gutter or margin. Finally, spellch checkck and proofread your front matter and your chapter titles. Even though your content is edited, the formatting process can sometimes introduce typos in copyright pages, dedications, or any other added content.
This thorough final check is what separates professional publishers from those who learn expensive lessons after publication. Follow these exact steps, and your book will stand out from the thousands of Amazon publications and actually generate sales. But like I mentioned at the beginning, remember that you have alternatives.
If you're on a Mac and you [music] found this word process tedious, Vellum might be worth checking out. It's what I use in our course materials and it automates a lot of these steps. [music] You can import your Word document directly, choose from professional styles, and it handles the technical formatting automatically.
It does cost around $200 to $300, but many of our students find it worth the investment if you're planning to publish multiple books. For PC users, Attekus is a similar option that works on both PC and Mac. I haven't used it personally, but our students who have tried it and report good results.
And there [music] are plenty of YouTube tutorials to help you learn it. And if you don't want to handle formatting at all, you can find freelancers on Fiverr who specialize in ebook formatting. [music] Prices typically range from $5 to $35 depending on complexity.
Just make sure whoever you hire follows the same principles that I've outlined here. Proper page breaks, automated table of contents, and consistent styling. If you want to build a real publishing business beyond [music] just formatting, our complete step-by-step system shows you exactly how to go from complete beginner to profitable publisher.
It covers everything from choosing winning book ideas to launching bestsellers, including advanced strategies that our students use to become profitable within their first few months. So, click the link in the description and learn more about how Fiction Profits Academy can transform your publishing journey. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
