May 9, 2008

 Publishing
 Services

Getting Started

You should submit your entire book in a single word processing file, with all content ordered as you want to see it in print. Do not submit your book in multiple files.

Make sure that your manuscript is edited and will not require corrections or changes. These will slow down the creation of your book.

Important: Always send a COPY of your book. NEVER send your book's only copy or your book's master copy.

Formatting your Submission: Your File as a Whole

Both your book's main file and its summary file should be submitted as a Microsoft Word Document (.Doc) or as a Rich Text Format (.RTF) file. If you are using WordPerfect or any word processing program other than Microsoft Word, you should be able to save your files INTO Rich Text Format without difficulty.

Important: Do not save your file as ASCII or as "text only."

In order to transfer your file into Rich Text Format, you will make use of the feature known as "Save As." Below you see a screen shot of Microsoft Word, showing that "Save As" is a function found within the "File" menu.

"Save As" is your tool for two important steps in the submission process: converting your file into Rich Text Format and also saving your file onto your disk.

To convert your book files into Rich Text Format, simply click "File" and "Save As." This will take you to the screen below:

There are several important features to point out regarding the "Save As" window. First, you will notice that at the bottom of this screen you see a pull-down menu labeled "Save as type." From this box, click the arrow to pull down a list of the various formats in which you may save your file. From this menu, selecting "Rich Text Format" will save your file into that format.

Important: Rich Text Format is the proper file type for submitting your book to Xlibris, both because it is a format accessible to a majority of word processing programs, and because making use of this file type will best serve to preserve the formatting you desire in your book.

Second, you will notice directly above the "Save as type" dialog box is a dialog box for "File name." To create a name for your file, or to save it under a different name, simply click the white area of the dialog box and type the new name for your file. When you save an existing file as a new name, it will not overwrite your original file; rather, it will simply create a new file with this new name. An appropriate use of this feature would be to create a copy of your book's file, so that you may send your copy with your submission, rather than your original file.

Third, you will notice at the top of the "Save As" window is a dialog box labeled "Save in," shown as a cut-out below:

This pull-down box is the tool you will use to save your file into places other than the place in which you currently have the file. For example, you create your book file in your "My Documents" folder, and now wish to move it onto a disk. Using this dialog box is the easiest way in which to accomplish this. Pulling down the dialog box will give you a list similar to the one shown below (your computer may show fewer options in the pull down menu):

Notice that your pull-down menu lists all possible locations for files to exist on your machine. You will also notice that you see both the floppy disk drive, called "3½ floppy (A:)," and, if you have one, your zip drive, called "Removable Disk (D:)." Simply scrolling to one of these drives and selecting it will allow you to save into that drive. Saving to your floppy or zip drive will not synchronize with your save onto your machine. In other words, if you make changes to your book and wish to save it, save it onto your machine AND onto your floppy, so that any changes you make will exist on both the file you will submit on disk and also on your computer. Remember that you may easily check to make sure your files are on your disk by double-clicking "My Computer" from your desktop, and then double-clicking the drive in which your disk is located.

Formatting your Submission: The Text of your Book

Text formatting in general, should you make use of such, should be minimal, and when present, done by your word processor's built-in tools. In other words, do not type your text as if you were sitting behind a typewriter. If you wish to double-space your text, for example, use your word processor's tool to do so, rather than hitting return after each line. Please make note of the following guidelines before submitting your book:

Do not place text vertically or horizontally on the page by hand. If you want a chapter heading centered, for example, do not use the tab key or space bar to do so; rather, use the word-processor's built-in centering tool. Do not attempt to align text for outlines by hand. Any indentation you want in your text should be done with the margin control seen below:

As you can see above, along the ruler bar, there are two triangular-shaped pointers to allow you to adjust your margins. Rather than using the tab key or the space bar, which creates formatting problems when your layout is being created, use these pointers to adjust your margins when desired.

Important! Things to avoid.

• Do not use columns in your text. Xlibris offers a professional and standard book layout. If you insert columns in your work, you risk corrupting the layout of your book's text.
• Do not underline text. Where possible, replace underlined text with italicized text.
• Do not use footnotes. If you need to cite your work, use in-text citations or endnotes (at the end of chapters or at the end of the entire text).
• Do not insert pictures into your manuscript file. Please see Images and your Submission for information on how to submit pictures or illustrations with your submission.
• Do not use wingdings, symbolic bullets or characters unavailable within the normal character set (this includes symbols of any kind). If you want to bullet any part of your text, do so with standard bullets.
• Do not use any traditional manuscript format (i.e., your name and the page number on every page). When Xlibris creates your book's layout, that formatting will be done for you.

In general, it is suggested that you do as little manual formatting of your text as possible. Xlibris will create manuscripting for you, lay your text out to your specifications and handle formatting for you.

Below is an example of what should NOT be done when you submit your book:

The example above exhibits several problems in its format:

1. Spacing between letters of the chapter heading ("Introduction") is not necessary.
2. Notice that in order to indent the first line of a new paragraph, the spacing was done by hitting the space bar (as you can see each space bar hit represented by a dot).
3. The presence of "hard returns." Hard returns result in a forced line break being inserted. In other words, the author, in this case, attempted to use the return key to signify the end of a line, in order to try and make each line fit neatly across the width of a page. Do not use hard returns, as when Xlibris creates your book layout, your text will automatically be set to neatly fit within the side margins. The attempt to do so manually is not only unnecessary, but it is also counter-productive in that it corrupts the layout design that your book will be created within.
4. Multiple spaces inserted at the end of a sentence, continuing until the space creates the appearance of a new paragraph, first line indented, is also unnecessary. When you wish to begin a new paragraph, simply hit the return key and begin your new paragraph. It is that easy.

If you are working in Microsoft Word, you may be wondering how to force the program to view text with formatting marks, such as paragraph symbols, dots for spaces, etc. In order to view these marks, simply click the button in your Microsoft Word toolbar that resembles a paragraph symbol, shown below:

The option to view or hide formatting marks is very useful, for it will often show you where you may have inserted unnecessary formatting into your text. It is advised that you make use of the option to view formatting marks, simply because it will make the creation of your book text far more clear in terms of its formatting.

Below is another example of what should NOT be done when submitting your book:

The above exhibits similar problems in its format:

1. In the phone number and table of contents headings, the centering of the text was done manually, with the space bar. If this text were exported into a book layout, the centering would not be accurate. The text would most likely end up well off-center. Again, make use of the tools your word processor has, and allow your word processor to center a line.
2. Using the space bar or the tab key to try and align your text into columns or even indentations of any kind are not advised. Your table of contents will be generated automatically, according to your specifications, within Xlibris' professional book layout. Including a table of contents in your text is acceptable, however if you choose to do so, keep in mind that the page numbers will not correspond to your created table of contents, as the layout will end up spacing and placing your text differently than it appears in your Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or Rich Text Format document. If you choose to include a table of contents with your text, the best format for doing so would be to simply list the chapter names, as this will give us a clear idea of where your chapter breaks are; moreover, if you include page numbers, you are simply creating more work for yourself, as the numbers you list will not necessarily correspond to the pages as they exist within your book layout.

Below we see an example of good formatting for a submission:

Notice the difference between the above example and the previous two examples. In the above example, the author made use of the centering tool to center the heading "introduction." The author also made use of the triangular pointers for the indenting of the first line of the paragraph (you can see one of the pointers moved to the desired indent). You will also notice that the author paid no attention to line breaks. The paragraphs and sentences are continuous, and the word processor controlled when the text breaks to the next line (in terms of how it appears on the screen). The only returns present were done so at the end of a paragraph. The above example is an example of how you can simplify the formatting of your book's text, without sacrificing an attractive appearance. Keep in mind, the appearance of the text on your screen is moot with respect to the layout Xlibris will create for you; your layout will be professional and attractive, even if your text was submitted with no formatting, save for breaks between paragraphs and chapters.