First off, welcome to BookRix! We’re a free self-publishing platform that offers eBook distribution services to independent (indie) writers. BookRix has helped thousands of indie authors release their eBooks around the world. Over the years, we have seen many of our talented writers struggle with formatting issues. Unfortunately, when incorrect formatting occurs and mistakes are made, an author’s hard work can be rejected by online shops. For this reason, we created a simplified style guide our writers can follow to get their work published and distributed to major online shops.
Not everyone is tech savvy, which is why we designed our style guide with simple, easy-to-follow steps. You don’t need technical skills or a background in computers. All we ask is that you have (A) enough patience to read through these pages, (B) some confidence in yourself (trust us, you’ve got this) and (C) the desire to succeed. Don’t be scared - writing your book was the hard part, now let us help you with the rest. It’s that simple.
To Indent or Not To Indent: The best rule to follow here is not to indent by clicking the space bar or using the tab key. It’s best to code your paragraph layout to create a first line paragraph indent automatically. However, if you don’t have indents in your Word doc, don’t worry. Our editor will automatically indent the first line of each paragraph for you. This is required by most external shops like Amazon and iTunes so don’t be alarmed when you see it in the editor. We’re just trying to make things easier for you.
The Return of the Enter Key: Avoid over clicking the Return or Enter key. There shouldn’t be more than one or two spaces between paragraphs, or between text on a page inside your book. Over clicking the Return key will result in blank pages in many eReaders. It might look good in your Word doc, but in the end that doesn’t matter one bit.
Six Degrees of Paragraph Separation: If you are good at what you do (writing) then you understand the importance of paragraphs. You also know that each paragraph needs to be properly separated, and so do your lines of dialogue. This is a common error that causes a book to be rejected. And as a reminder, there should always be a space between each paragraph and lines of dialogue.
Fancy Schmancy Fonts: Fancy fonts and colors might be ok for a print book, but keep in mind that you are creating an eBook. Most eReaders can’t register irregular fonts and colors, so it’s a lot of work for no reward. Also, the reader can use their eReaders to manipulate fonts based on personal preferences, throwing the author’s choices to the wind. The BookRix editor limits your text to a standard font, therefore, you are limited to bold, italics and underline. Keeping it simple to save you time and effort.
Links that Lead the Way: Most authors check their epub version after they have uploaded their book to make sure everything looks perfect (a sign of a good author). But one thing always seems to get passed over and that’s double checking all the links in the book. Sometimes the http:// could be missing before the web address so make sure your links actually go somewhere.