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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. 

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.

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

+ The best stock photo sites and images

+ I also have some free book cover templates

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.