Give your book a professional appearance by formatting it properly, whether it’s an ebook or print version. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just professional looking. If you don’t want to bother doing this, hire someone to do it for you. Proper formatting contributes significantly to your story’s readability as well as whether you’re perceived as a professional or another indie author who doesn’t think it matters. Trust me, it does.
There are certain conventions that make a book easier on the eyes and thus more readable. This includes everything from the font, font size, line spacing, paragraph size, margins, pagination, headers/footers, and so forth. In graphic design, serif fonts are recommended for text and sans serif fonts for headings, titles, etc. Of course the latter can be some fancy font if you like, since they’re not something that requires more than a quick glance. If it’s so weird it requires more than that, then think again, especially for your cover.
Other conventions include indented paragraphs for most fiction and blocked paragraphs for nonfiction. One way to get a feel for it is to browse through various books in a library or bookstore. I’d bet dollars to donuts until you started writing yourself you didn’t even notice, assuming it was done properly.
Then, one day, you’re an indie author and have to confront this reality and realize how little you knew. Did you ever notice that the first paragraph in a chapter or section is typically not indented? Yeah. Things like that.
If you have an artistic side, formatting your book can be kind of fun as you figure out how to present it exactly the way you want. However, if you think it’s a major pain, hire someone to do it for you. You want your hard work dressed properly for maximum impact.
Marcha's Two-Cents Worth 
I see no real case for using a sans serif font for any purpose. Many such typefaces have too, too much typographic ambiguity, as between a lower case ‘l’ and a ‘1’. Apart from on a cover, I thing there is a good case for using one good old face font throughout. Why old face. Till the late 17th century all Roman fonts were old face. Newly designed fonts then became gradually finer in their hairlines. By the 19th century, these became quite spidery, and a strain to read, Bodoni would be close to the ultimate in this would in this trend. It is very elegant to look at, but murder on the eyes and brain to read.
Baskerville is a transitional typeface, and more or less marks the beginning of the new face fonts. It can be hard to get an old face font such as Caslon.
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I do believe we agree! I usually stick pretty much to plain, ol’ Times New Roman for text. Except for here, where sans serif is thrust upon us.
Thanks for stopping by!
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I took my first venture into formatting with my short stories last year and it was hard! I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to tackle it this year or farm it out. 🙂 Thanks for the tips, Marcha!
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Yes, it can be a real pain, especially with temperamental MS Word. I’ve got the basics down fairly well, but the design part is more of a challenge. I’ve seen some books that are SO gorgeous inside! Then others that are pathetic. I’m reading one right now that’s a great story but in the latter category for formatting. I find it a real distraction every time I open it up. Thanks for stopping by, Jan!
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I do not know, Jan, why so many publishers ask for manuscripts to use Times New Roman, almost as an industry standard. It is very much a new face font, with over-fie hairlines. I did come across one journal, however, that asked for Cambria.
I think particularly for digital application, that choice of font is very important, as there is always a certain level of fuzziness in a pixilated screen image. .
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I use Times New Roman mainly because it’s easy on the eyes due to its familiarity. I’ll check out Cambria. Which one do you prefer @murrayalfredson? Clearly you are very knowledgeable about fonts.
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