Book Formatting Basics: Easy Settings and Best Practices for eBook & Print Formatting

Exporting for ePub has never been easier. Atticus takes care of all the HTML and coding necessary to deliver your book to any eReading device beautifully.

In print, not all books have a Table of Contents. For eBooks, you don’t need to have a TOC in the content of the book itself, but you do need to ensure its properly coded to allow for the NCX or Navigational contents list that is required for all published eBooks.

Atticus does this automatically for you. All you need to do is ensure:

Atticus will take care of the rest!

Links are live in the ePub version of Atticus. We strongly recommend you do not set your links in the Word version as they don’t always import properly. Instead, we suggest applying all hyperlinks from directly within Atticus.

Highlight the text you want to be anchored to the link and click the Link icon from the toolbar. You need to include the https:// or http:// with each link, but when properly formatted, your readers will easily be able to tap and be redirected where you want them to go.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Atticus does not currently support importing anchored internal links. Do not use them in your Word document. You can import Footnotes but no other internal links.

The PDF version of your book does not export live links since print is not designed for connecting to the internet. If you need to include a link, we recommend using a “pretty link” or short url to make it easy on your readers, or include a QR code they can scan with their phone.

Now let’s look at the ways Atticus sets your book up for success by default:

If you’re creating a printed version of your book, selecting the size for your book is important and can be tricky for authors who are not familiar with formatting jargon like “trim,” or “bleed,” and aren’t sure how to set the appropriate margins. Atticus does this automatically for you. All you have to do is decide what size you want your book to print, and click the corresponding page size in the formatting tab.

Different genres have different expectations, so you may want to do a bit of outside research for this, but getting all the nitty-gritty details correct is automated by Atticus.

Margins are critical to provide enough space for readers to comfortably read the text so it doesn’t fall off the page or get lost in the book’s crease. Most publishers share their requirements, but if you leave the margins set to their default settings in Atticus, they meet industry standards.

In the Print Settings, you will find a limited number of font choices for the body content of your book. These fonts have specifically been chosen for readability and publishing expectations, but they are also free for commercial use. This means you can sell your books for a profit without worrying about needing a special license to use the fonts.

In the Advanced Settings, you can increase or decrease the font size and line spacing if you choose, but the defaults are the most common settings for published books.

Headers and footers can include information such as the book title, chapter title, or author name and the page numbering. Atticus makes sure they’re consistent throughout the book.

Page numbering is required by all publishers, so Atticus takes care of that for you automatically, though you can choose whether to display the page number in the Header or the Footer.

Following industry standards, if the page number is in the Footer section, it will display on all pages after the Table of Contents. Any pages that are in the Front Matter portion of your book will display the page number in Roman Numerals. The first page of the Body section will always begin on the right side of your book as page 1.

If you choose to have the page number in the Header, the first page of any chapter will not show the header, as the Chapter Heading takes priority. The pagination will be continuous, but you will see it beginning on the left side of your book as page 2.

One of the ways Atticus allows you to customize your book easily but with dramatic effect is through the chapter titles and headings. This gets more into the design of your book, and there are a variety of tutorials to help you find your perfect design.

If you navigate back to the main tutorials page, you’ll find a variety of additional tutorials to walk you through all the various options available to you in Atticus.