Self-publishing - it's all in the detail

To indent or not to indent? That is the question you never thought you’d have to ask yourself. But there are many such decisions to be made when self-publishing a book.

There are the obvious ‘big’ decisions - do you publish just as an ebook or produce a paperback version too or instead? How are you going to go about getting the cover designed? Who are you going to get to edit and proofread the contents?

Then there are all the ‘little’ decisions you never thought you’d be dithering over:

• What size is the book going to be? (Who knew there were so many options? I’m currently deliberating between 5 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9 inches).
• What font are you going to set it in? Arial, Times New Roman, Palatino Linotype, Garamond?
• What font size looks best? 10, 11 or 12pt?
• What about line spacing? Single, 1.5 or multiple 1.15?

And then there’s the indenting. The convention is to indent the first line of every paragraph apart from the first one in each chapter. But my book is non-fiction and that just doesn’t look right.

Because of course, that’s the thing about self-publishing. It’s all down to you to decide what looks right and what doesn’t. If you’re indecisive like me, that makes the process interminably slow and painful. You might view it as intensely boring and pernickety. After all it’s the content of the book that is important, right? But I think these details matter.

Maybe, as a reader, you’ve never noticed what font a book's been set in. Rest assured you’d have noticed it if it had been the wrong font. If these things are done right they become invisible. They recede into the background so that the words themselves take centre-stage. Done wrong and they shout wrong so loudly you can’t see the words for the text.

Imagine if you were watching a play. It’s Macbeth and the cast are dressed in suitably Tudor style. Then Lady Macbeth appears and instead of wimple and gown she’s wearing a purple Mohican, tutu and wellies. It would jar wouldn’t it? (Although I wouldn’t mind seeing that production!) Your attention would be drawn to what on earth she looks like rather than the play itself. I think it’s the same with font choice, line spacing and yes, indenting.

These pernickety choices are important so that your carefully crafted words are presented to best effect. So that your reader is not distracted from the contents of your book by how it has been laid out.

So as I struggle from one decision to the next in the final stages of producing my book, I remind myself that it’s all worth it for a professional-looking finished product. One where the words are front and centre.