As an author, writing a book is the first challenge. As an indie author however, formatting and designing it is your second one. You want to put your best foot forward in this process because you don't want your readers to be able to tell the difference between your self-published book and a traditionally published book. If you have money you can get someone to design your cover as well as design and format your interior. However, if you are like me and you can't afford to do that, you have to do it yourself. The challenge of course is - can you make your interior look as professional as the exterior? That's assuming you invested in a cover designer, because if you haven't it will be obvious. If you have to spend money anywhere in the creation of your book, spend it on editing and a cover. Self-published book covers that are done in Microsoft Word are obvious and yes, I know you think what you created looks great. But trust me, we can tell you did it yourself. Unless you specialize in design, don't even attempt to design your own cover.

But today I don't want to talk about book covers. I want to talk about the inside of your book and the pages you should be including before you get to your actual book.