The biggest mistake most new authors make is they attempt to layout their book as they write it. Don’t do this. This will end up costing you a lot more when it comes time to get a professional layout. Files that are already “laid out” are much harder to work with for a number of reasons.
Best practice is to write your manuscript using simple chapter headings. In your chapter text, use a plain Times or Times Roman font, adding bold and italic where appropriate. Try not to mix fonts unless you have a very good reason for doing so.
If your manuscript contains images, graphs, or tables, best practice is to include them by reference. Here it a complete example:
CHAPTER ONE
This is my first chapter. Notice how I’ve used a simple chapter heading and did not try to use any special fonts. Notice how I’m just typing a simple paragraph without trying to get all fancy. I’m a writer. I write. When I’m done writing, I’ll give my manuscript to a professional layout person and they will lay it out into something that looks more like a book. I don’t need to do that now. It will only make things more expensive later. Please refer to Figure 1.1 below:
[INSERT FIGURE 1.1 HERE]
In the above Figure 1.1 you’ll notice that in my original manuscript I did not actually include the figure in the text, but rather only a reference to it. I sent my manuscript to the layout person with references only and I sent the actual images separately. I named the referenced image files in a way that made it obvious to the layout person where they should be placed. For example, I named the image file for the above Figure 1.1 “figure1-1.jpg” and I saved hundreds of dollars by not trying to layout my book in advance!
If you follow basic concepts in the above example when you’re writing your book, you’ll eliminate 95% of the problems most new authors unknowingly introduce into their manuscript.
