Authors spend A LOT of time fretting over how their books look.

What font should I use? How many spaces should my paragraph indents be? Should I use this fancy graphic or that fancy graphic at the end of my chapters? The list goes on and on.

I’m here to tell you that none of those things matter.

Don’t get me wrong. A book’s format should look clean and professional. But, I can say with absolute certainty that font selection or tab spacing will not help you one bit when it comes to selling more books.

Here’s what really matters…

1. Good information (if the book is non-fiction) or a good story (if the book is fiction).
2. Proper editing (well-written, concise writing that is free of grammar and spelling errors.).
3. A professional cover.

Often, authors do all this crazy formatting before they submit the manuscript for publication. And, by doing so, cause themselves delays and extra expenses. Here’s why.

Just about every self-published book (and many traditionally published ones) on the market is manufactured through a process called print-on-demand. The book exists simply as a digital file. When a customer places an order for the book, that digital file gets transmitted to a printing press and out pops a physical book.

When you pay a setup fee to a company like BookLocker, you are paying in part for someone to take the manuscript and turn it into the digital file. The printer’s requirements are often at odds with any file settings or fancy formatting contained within the original manuscript. Bottom line: All of that fancy formatting has to be stripped out or re-engineered, costing time and money.

Moreover, ebooks (Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.) have entirely different formatting requirements. When the manuscript gets to this stage, any complex formatting also has to be completely undone. Otherwise, the text of the book will not display correctly on the various ebook reading devices.

Take Away Points:

1. Keep the format of your book simple.
2. Focus energy on the writing, the editing, and the cover.

Why Should I Listen to Richard?

That’s a darn good question. Why should you listen to Richard?

 Richard is the rarely-heard-from co-founder of BookLocker.com. He’s been in the self-publishing industry since 1999. Four years before that, he started his career in online marketing (just as it was becoming a formal profession). You can read the whole story of Richard’s career at JoeGrape.com. When he isn’t shelling out online marketing help, he is planning off-road motorcycle trips.

Richard has more blunt self-publishing advice for WritersWeekly.com readers in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!