V.A. Editing

To begin the process of turning your ordinary looking document into a book the paper sizing most likely needs adjusting.

If you are anything like me, your MS Word default is set to an A4 page with ‘normal’ margins. However, if you are planning on self-publishing in physical format, your document will probably need resizing.

So, the first step is to choose your trim size, which is the size you want your book to be. The Amazon KDP site advises that the most common trim size in the US is 6 by 9 inches (152.4 x 228.6 mm). You can read more about trim sizes in the KDP help pages. If you are not sure which size to go for, why not get out a ruler and measure some of the books on your shelf to help you decide?

Once you have decided what size to go for, you just need to follow the steps below to turn your manuscript into a document of the correct size. Please, test this out first on a copy of your manuscript, not your main version. Just in case anything goes awry.

To resize your document:

• Select the layout tab, then select the size button, which should then present a dropdown box.
• If the size you want isn’t shown, click the bottom option more paper sizes, which should open a pop-up box.
• Next, click the dropdown option under paper size. Scroll to the bottom and select custom size.
• In the two boxes under that, input the width and height that you require (making sure that your unit of measurement is correct).
• Next check that the apply to box has whole document selected.
• Finally, click OK and after a moment or two your document should resize.

Now that there are less words on each page, you might feel that the font type or size needs adjusting, and if you have used double line spacing you will probably want to reduce that to 1.5 or 1.15. It is probably worth playing around with the settings and seeing what feels right for your particular project.

Although it is nice to see your manuscript looking more like a book, it is probably best to stick to the A4 paper sizing during the main editing process. However, once your manuscript is ready for proofreading you will want to get the formatting and typesetting done first, so that your proofreader can be on the lookout for widows, orphans, and rogue spacing issues.

Finally, if you are considering releasing a print version of your book then the margins will also need to be adjusted to account for the central binding. This is something I will be covering in an upcoming post, so watch this space…

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!