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.