Which Microsoft Word Template should I use for a book? I want to use a Microsoft Word Template for a book that has the proper font and proper font size as well as page size for a hard cover non-fiction book.



Now, you might be thinking, why don't I let a publisher do this job and why don't I just write the book as a word document? Well, I started doing this but I made the mistake of giving a ghost writer a try and they showed me writing samples that were formattted in book format. But their samples looked like trash. The font looked too big and the pages looked too small. And yet, now I am curious and I want to see what my book might really look like.

Please let me know what you think.

There is no such template that I know about.
Getting Started in Word by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP

Look at the "Just for Writers" part or her tutorials page. It does include a link to a template for writing a manuscript. Even though written for earlier versions of Word, it will work fine.


Unless you are self-publishing, the format should be kept as clean as you can make it. Consult your publisher for more.

Don't worry about the format too much. As long as you use your sections and Style sets correctly, changing to an appropriate LAYOUT will be easy.
I've used B&N-Press and they have some okay guides and decent service. You can have everything set up and print samples as you make changes.
I do not use Section Breaks as the B&N Press guides recommend. Section Breaks for Front Matter and Back Matter, but use regular Headings (Styles) for any chapter breaks.

While I use WORD for creation, the book cover, with B&N Press, needs to be done as a separate files. You can use InkScape for advanced image work.

Word isn't well suited for the task because Word doesn't do a good job of handling styles.


A couple of years ago, an author hired me to format a manuscript. They didn't know about styles, so I created a template and reformatted the manuscript with proper character and paragraph styles.

The author sent my file to the publisher, who converted it to plain text and inputted it into an application the pros use to design books. They redid all of the formatting. Everything!

Alan, I disagree about Word's abilities with styles. Word is very good, meticulous even, with styles, as it understands styles.
Importance of Styles in Word

Word's meaning for styles, of course, may be different from your own.

I'm all for styles. When I'm engaged in serious writing projects, I think in terms of paragraph and character styles.

My experience has been that styles work brilliantly in shorter Word documents, but fall apart in longer, more complex documents -- no matter how careful I am. Even my most complex documents are not that complex: I rarely use more than five paragraph styles in a document: Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and very occasionally, Heading 4. For academic writing, I use my own style to indent quotations.

Furthermore, there has been a longstanding bug associated with Word styles. Starting in Word 2007 or 2010, using styles "breaks" undo. I still don't know how to replicate the problem, but it's happened to me many times: I apply a style, change my mind, and press Ctrl + Z. The undo stack is still there, but Word has "forgotten" the style changes. I know of two fixes: 1. Go through the entire document and reapply EVERY style. 2. If the document was saved not too long ago, exit without saving. It's sometimes faster to recreate updates in a document than to reapply styles.

The answer to your question depends on how you plan to publish your book.

Self-publishing: You have two choices: do the layout yourself, or hire a graphic designer. Either way, you and the designer will need to understand book layout conventions. That actually has less to do with computers and software, and more to do with knowledge of dozens of conventions like what subheads should look like, the hierarchy of subheads, widows and orphans, hyphenation, and so on. Book layout also takes a good artistic eye for size, position, and balance. If you do this work yourself without prior experience, you're in for a pretty big learning curve. If you hire a layout artist/compositor who has experience, you still need to know layout conventions so you can check the artist's work. I've done quite a few self-published books for clients. Average number of layout errors per book when done by someone other than a publisher: 200 to 600. Average number of proofs needed to get everything right: 6. That means someone has to check the entire book 6 times to find the errors and get the compositor to fix them. You have to keep a chart of the errors and track whether they've been corrected.

Traditional publishing: For traditional publishing you make NO design decisions. You submit a very plain manuscript that uses NO special styles. The entire manuscript will be done in "normal" style. If you use special styles, the publisher's compositor will begin by stripping all of those out of the manuscript. However, you do need to know what the definition of "plain" formatting is. Here it is:

--12-point Times New Roman throughout. Even for titles.
--Double space absolutely everything, even footnotes and references
--Indent paragraphs .5"
--Don't leave an extra line space between paragraphs
--Left justified
--No end-of-line hyphenation
--Use a clear hierarchy of subheads. Example:

Level One Subhead
Level Two Subhead
.....Level three subhead. Indented. Continue typing on same line.

The subheads are the only formatting you do, but don't use the style menu for the subheads. Do them manually, as in control B for bold. Again, the publisher will strip out the styles if you use the style menu. Microsoft Word's styles have nothing to do with the publisher's choice of style; they interfere with the publisher's work.

What exactly is a book designer and/or compositor? Well, a ghost writer does not have this skill, so skip that. A book designer makes decisions about the appearance of the book. The designer should make you a sample of the first two pages of a chapter for you to approve. The compositor (formerly known as a typesetter) applies the designer's decisions throughout the book. Some people have the skill to do both jobs. You will also need a cover designer.

A word of warning: don't spend any money on book composition until you've had your book professionally edited, unless this is a book for your family and friends and you don't care about the quality. Once the composition has been done, you will be charged for changes. A good publisher will do the editing for you.

In sum, here's the whole process for a book you care about:

Write your book
Get a developmental editor to give you feedback on the content and organization
Revise
Get the book copyedited to correct all mechanical errors (grammar, spelling, etc.)
Get the book proofread (a separate step from copyediting). A good editor can do all three kinds of editing.
Get the manuscript formatted for a traditional publisher, or do this yourself
Self-publishing: interior design, composition, cover design
Check the proofs, possibly multiple times

The only reason for you to do your own design is pretty much for the fun of it, or to give your designer an idea of what you're looking for. I've never looked for a book template online, but I believe there are some.

Despite everything I've said above, publishers may ask you to format your manuscript in a certain way when you submit it. Check for "author guidelines" at the publisher's website.

This is expected. Publishers have their own style for everything. They begin by stripping all "foreign" styles out of the manuscript and then they impose their own. They get irritated when you do your own formatting with the styles menu.