Crafting the right format and structure for your book is key to ensuring it engages your readers and keeps them turning the pages. From the introduction to the conclusion of your story, the format and structure of your book should be so effective that readers can’t stop reading what’s inside.
On that note, let’s get started and take a look at some of the best ways to organize your book’s content and create an enjoyable reading experience for your readers. It will help you make sure your book is compelling and reader-friendly.
- Plan Book’s Structure Before You Start Writing
Having a plan for how you want to structure your book is essential for creating an engaging and well-structured book. Start by breaking down your ideas into chapters, and then decide what topics each chapter should cover.
Once you have an outline of each chapter, decide on the order in which they should be presented. Additionally, if you have a lot of material to cover, you may want to consider including a table of contents or other navigational tools to help readers find the information they are looking for quickly.
Also, be sure to think about how your chapters will transition from one another. This could involve using a brief summary at the end of each chapter to set up the content of the next chapter, or providing hints that allude to future topics.
- Don’t Forget to Format Your Book Cover
No matter how good your book is from the inside, the first thing your reader will notice is how the book cover is presented. That’s why it’s important to format the text and images on it properly.
First of all, you will have to make sure that image on your book cover is high quality and clearly visible. Second, pay attention to the file type of your book cover. It should be saved as a JPEG or JPG file to ensure that it’s compatible with all eBook formats.
Last but not least, make sure your book cover has a 0.125-inch bleed on all sides to ensure that the background and images extend to the edge of the book cover without any white space showing. The bleeds and margins play an important role in determining how your book cover looks.
The best way to achieve all this is to hire a professional book cover designer around you. For example, if you are in England, you can find top book cover designers in the UK to set up a meeting and get them to design your book cover. With their experience, professional book cover designers will cover all bases required.
- Keep the Chapters Short and Sweet
Breaking up your text into shorter chapters allows you to cover a wide range of topics in a concise manner. It also prevents readers from becoming overwhelmed by long, tedious chapters. Keeping your chapters short also keeps your reader’s attention and encourages them to keep reading.
If you are looking for an exact length, it is advised to keep your chapters between three and five pages each. If you are having difficulty cutting down on the length, consider splitting longer chapters into two or more parts. You can also break up long sections into smaller chunks with headings and subheadings.
- Use Active Voice Wherever Possible
Active voice helps keep your readers engaged without filling them with unnecessary details. It also makes your writing easier to understand as it puts the action of the sentence in the subject instead of burying it in the object.
However, in some cases, like mystery or crime novels, it becomes necessary to use passive voice to create a sense of suspense and fear. In such places, you can use passive voice. But still, whenever possible, try to use an active voice to keep it simple and concise and avoid over-wording your book.
- Be Consistent with Formatting
No matter how great your book is, it will suffer if its formatting isn’t consistent. When formatting your book, ensure each chapter follows the same style, from the font and margins to the page numbers and headings. This will make your book look more professional and make it easier for readers to follow your text.
You should also make sure that any images you include are the same size and position throughout the book and that any captions are also consistent. If you’re publishing an eBook, you should also check that the text displays correctly on various devices and in different e-reader apps.
To achieve this, you can use book writing software to write and edit your book. The software will point out any inconsistencies or typos, making your book as much error-free as possible.
- Use Plenty of White Space
Bestselling authors say that white space is as important in your book as the actual words describing the story and plot. The reason is that white space keeps readers engaged and stops your words from overwhelming your readers. It creates visual interest in your book that your readers find soothing to their eyes.
Whenever you need to draw readers’ eyes to the important elements of your text, use whitespace. A good rule of thumb is to never fill more than two-thirds of a page with text. You can add whitespace between the headings and subheadings as well as between the paragraphs of your book.
However, make sure you never leave orphans and widows when trying to add whitespace to your book.
- Keep Your Text Left-Aligned
How your text is justified throughout the book has a considerable effect on the reading time of your readers. There’s no hard and fast rule to justify or align your text, but most authors agree on the aspect that the text should be left-aligned.
The alignment of text also depends on the language you’re writing in. For example, English is written from left to right, and so is the alignment. On the other hand, languages like Arabic are written from right to left, so the alignment will go right-aligned in this case.
