DIYBOOKFORMATS
Ever dreamed of writing a book but got stuck on the formatting? Does the thought of organizing your manuscript make you break out in a cold sweat? Say goodbye to your formatting fears, and say hello to DIYFormats! We’re here to turn your manuscript into a masterpiece with our top-notch, easy-to-use, free book formatting templates.
We’re passionate about helping authors like you shine. Our templates have been meticulously designed by publishing industry professionals with decades of experience, ensuring your book looks polished and professional – just like a bestseller should. No more guesswork, no more frustration. Just seamless, simple formatting at your fingertips.
Formatting ebooks can be tricky. If you're determined to do it yourself, our free templates will convert to epub and look great. We'll show you exactly how it's done, with more free tools.
To publish a paperback, your book needs to be formatted professionally. Doing it in Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign can be a headache, but our free templates will save hours of frustration.
You will need to learn a little bit about how to add your content, divide your chapters, and format your manuscript. Don't worry, we have a free video series that will walk you through it.
You shouldn't use some random template you found off the internet. Give it a touch of style and make sure it matches your book cover. We have a detailed list of the best free fonts to use.
Planning to self-publish? Don't fall for an expensive vanity press. Grab my free publishing guide and learn how to save thousands of dollars.
You've finished your book design... now what? Most books never sell more than 100 copies. I can't make you a #1 bestseller for free, but I can give you a free guide with my exact book launch strategy.
Get immediate access to the free package of book formatting templates in MS Word & InDesign to help you quickly and easily format your book like a pro.
Our free bundle is a set of sample book design templates, with detailed instructions on how to customize them to your project. But we added a set of 5 extra free templates that are genre-specific. Each one has at least 5 potential chapter heading pages, so you can get started fast with 25 possible styles and just choose your favorite design. You'll even get a list of the best free fonts.
An (updated) free guided email series on how to self-publish on a budget, without overpaying for services. Packed with critical tips you must know if you want your book to navigate the tricky waters of online book stores without getting drowned out by the competition.
Get up to speed fast with my free guide to book marketing. I'll cover the basics so you know exactly how to launch a #1 bestseller, and when you're ready for it, I'll even give you a more advanced guide to book promotion for indie authors.
Or you can just download it right now...
"These book formatting templates are like a lighthouse in a sea storm of confusion that is associated with creating a novel. I watched the detailed easy to follow videos to format my novel. I couldn't be happier with the result."
Elen Ghulam
Spoonful Chronicles
"After watching the extremely helpful (and easy to understand) book formatting tutorials, I was able to put out a finished paperback that looked amazing using nothing but Word and a PDF editor. Highly recommended for all authors wanting a clean, professional looking paperback without wanting to break the bank hiring someone to do it for you."
Erik Straker
Incantations
When I hired someone to format my first book, it was an epic fail. Then I get these DIY Templates and was able to teach myself. Now I do all my formatting and I can't imagine not being able to make quick changes to my book whenever I need to.
Melissa Craven
Emerge
Will these templates work for me?
Whether you're writing a novel, a cookbook, a how-to guide, or a children’s picture book, we've got a template for you. Our collection covers a broad spectrum of genres and styles, designed with versatility and user-friendliness in mind. And the best part? They're all absolutely free! That's right – world-class quality, zero cost.
Concerned about compatibility? Don’t be! Our templates work with a variety of popular word processing platforms. Not tech-savvy? No worries! We provide clear, step-by-step instructions with each template, making the formatting process a breeze.
Don't just take our word for it, though. Over 50,000+ authors have successfully formatted their books using our DIY Formatting Templates. Check out our testimonials page to read stories of satisfied authors who've transformed their manuscripts using our templates.
Ready to let your creativity flow without getting bogged down by formatting woes? Sign up now to download our free book formatting templates and embark on a smooth journey from manuscript to masterpiece. Unleash your inner author with DIY Book Formats – because your story deserves to be told beautifully.
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What are the most common book sizes and formats?
The most common book size is 6x9 so that's the side I've made all of these templates. The margins should be set to .6" and the line-height at about 1.3"; the font size depends a little on the font (some are smaller) but typically 12pt is a good start. You can easily adjust the book size in the settings (layout >> size >> more paper sizes) and everything else should stay the same, so you can change sizes easily without losing all the formatting.
Your interior print files will also be a PDF, with fonts embedded and the right margins, fonts, line-height and spacing. Doing it yourself in Microsoft Word or InDesign is a lengthy, tedious process, and you risk your book being “broken” on some devices or looking unprofessional.
Your ebook will be an epub file (KDP now accepts epub, like everyone else). Our free templates and tutorials will definitely make things easier, but keep in mind there are special tools and software for this stuff, too. Ebook formatting can be tricky, even if you use my free templates, so I recommend a formatting tool like Vellum; which is also great for print book formatting.
How do I use these templates?
These templates aren't a 1-click software solution. I've set up some styles and added some samples chapters, but you'll have to add your own text. If you copy/paste your manuscript into my templates, you might bring in some weird formatting - so it might be worth clearing the styles or putting it in notepad first and then adding a chapter at a time.
After each new chapter, you'll need to add a page break, and then add a new chapter heading and first page; these are done with styles so if you want to make a big change to the font, size or spacing, update the style with your changes and then every matched heading will stay the same.
You can either copy+paste my sample chapters again and again until you have as many chapters as you need, change the numbers, and then start adding in your text scene by scene; or you can copy+paste your whole manuscript and then go through adding the page breaks and setting the heading styles to your headings.
Big tip: fix or adjust the page numbers, footers and headers first, otherwise after you make all the page breaks, you might have to make all those changes for each single chapter. Or just pick the template you like and leave these elements alone, they should already be styled correctly.
Don't worry, I've got a pretty detailed video walkthrough... it's not as hard as it sounds and should take less than an hour (it gets faster once you know what you're doing.)
Nope, these templates are free, and I hope the tutorials are useful. If they don't work for you, I recommend upgrading to a real book formatting software, like Vellum. I've tried to use free fonts, but you might find a professional one that's better for your genre.
These formats are made in Microsoft Word and InDesign. I believe I've saved alternative formats, so they should work even if you have an older version. If you use these templates right, then my free ebook converter tool will take care of the epub file.
Who is this guy?
Hey there, I’m Derek Murphy. I put myself through grad school (PhD in Literature) as an editor, and then as a book cover designer. Before that I was a fine artist, studying classical realism in Italy and exhibiting in Taiwan. For the past decade, I’ve been building free tools and resources to help indie authors, so I’m pretty easy to find. I’ve spoken about book cover design at writing conferences around the world, judged my fair share of cover design aware competitions, and have helped several projects hit the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. I’ve also been featured in CNN for renting castles.
+ My favorite fonts for book cover design
What's the catch?
Other people are charging $39 for a single book formatting template. I'm giving away a starter package and free tutorial videos because I really struggled when I was trying to publish my first book and had to figure it all out by myself. But if you need a more creative, bespoke solution so your book stands out and looks amazing, I do have a huge "premium" package of templates you can get. But you don't have to choose just one. I'll give you 100.
I'll also send a popular email series, with some insider secrets to self-publishing and launching a bestseller, but you can unsubscribe anytime when you're no longer interested in book writing. Some people find me boring. Some people say my resources changed their lives.
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