The format of a manuscript improves during the editing and proofreading process. Based on my experience, I have some suggestions for formatting a book. I saw that to format a manuscript professional focus on the following:
Font and Font Size
Line Spacing
Paragraphs Size
Space between Paragraphs
Picture | Illustration size
Font and Font Size
Select font and font size carefully for literary works, especially for creative works such as stories, poetry, Shayari, nazms, ghazals, and novels. The font has its own imprint on each creation. Here are some fonts you can use according to your work. The fonts are:
Stories - Arial, Nirmala UI
Novel - Standard fonts - Times New Roman and Arial (11-12 Point)
Children’s Books - Century School Book (16-24 Point)
Thrilling Stories - Scary Fonts (Use anyone)
Love Letter - Humble Hearts Font
Romantic Poems - Romantic Fonts ( e.g., Oh Darling, Bunga)
Academic Works - Times New Roman, Nirmala UI (Bilingual work)
Journals/Magazine - Times New Roman (most used in newspapers)
Source - For Fonts Suggestion - Google (Shown for English Language)
To publish a book in a bilingual language (English-Hindi). I suggest choosing Nirmala UI Font with font size 11. I used this font for my book Necessary Words - A Vocabulary Book
(English - Hindi Version).
Line Spacing
Line spacing is the blank space between two lines of a paragraph. The improper line space will create a random and messy passage. While formatting a document, keep an eye on the spaces between words and sentences. But do not worry about it. This space will stabilize according to the line space.
A perfect line space comforts the reader and makes it easier to re-read. This paragraph on this blog has a line space of 1.5 and a font size of 14 PPT of Calibri Font.
Paragraphs Size
It is easy to concentrate on the short paragraph. It makes the reader easy to re-read after a break. So, distribute your lengthy paragraphs into 2-3 short passages.
Remember one thing about formatting for a story. The paragraphs play a vital role. So, here select the paragraph size according to your story flow. But try to keep that shorter too.
Space between Paragraphs
Paragraph spacing is the blank space between two paragraphs. It belongs to the area above and below the passage.
The congruent space between the paragraphs beautifies the written material. So keep it equal in your manuscripts or articles. The article you are reading has Paragraph space 14 PPT with the Calibri font.
Picture | Illustration size
Use good quality pictures and illustrations of good size. It should not be too large that it points out the selected place or not too small that it would be uncomfortable to see by readers. Select the perfect place for the illustrations and figures in the manuscript that either centre, left side or right side.