Manuscript Errors to Avoid
What is a bad break?
ERROR
Bad breaks occur when a word is broken in a place that makes it hard to read or hard for the eye to follow. Some examples include a paragraph beginning with a blank space or a lowercase letter.
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How do I fix a bad break?
DELETE IT
Bad breaks occur when a sentence is broken in a place that makes it hard to read or hard for the eye to follow. Some examples include incorrectly hyphenated words, a paragraph beginning with a blank space or a lowercase letter.
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What is a drop cap?
"O nce upon a time..."
Drop caps are a style of text formatting typically found at the beginning of a chapter. It's when the first letter of the paragraph is significantly larger than the rest of the text and drops down two or more lines. They’re commonly seen in novels or children’s books.
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How do I fix a drop cap?
DELETE IT
The online editor will point out where a drop cap occurs. You must delete the letter and make sure it’s the same size as the rest of the text within your manuscript.
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What is a footnote?
CITES SOURCES
A footnote is a note that appears at the bottom of a page that is commonly used to cite sources within a book.
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How do I fix footnotes?
CONVERTED TO ENDNOTES AUTOMATICALLY
If your manuscript is filled with footnotes using the Word’s footnote functionality, each footnote will be automatically converted into endnotes. The endnotes will then be automatically linked to ensure easy navigation for your readers. If you simply typed in your footnotes manually at the end of each page in Word, you will need to strip them out of the document and add them to your manuscript using Word's footnote functionality, or add them as endnotes in your manuscript and upload your document again.
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What is a hard return?
"ENTER" OR "RETURN" BUTTON
A hard return is a paragraph break. It differs from a soft return because it starts a new paragraph. A few common misuses of the hard return is to place multiple hard returns at the end of a single line of text in order to break the text on to the next line, similar to the operation of a typewriter, or to use hard returns to force content to start on a new page as in the beginning of the next chapter.
Manuscripts that incorrectly use hard returns will not render properly on the e-reading device, could cause blank screens to appear, and may not be usable by Booktango. Please note that some hard returns are necessary.
Here’s an example of two sentences with an extra hard return in the middle:
See Spot Run.
[This is an extra hard return]
See Spot Jump.
Sometimes extra hard returns are necessary, and it’s up to you if you want to keep them. However, please be aware that since the formatting is free flowing in e-books, your extra hard returns might not display as you wish.
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How do I fix a hard return?
DELETE IT
The online editor will highlight extra hard returns. You just need to delete the extra spaces.
If you decide to delete the extra hard returns, simply push ‘Backspace’ until “See Spot Jump.” is on the same line as “See Spot Run.” Then push ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ to add a hard return correctly.
Here’s our example fixed:
See Spot Run.
See Spot Jump.
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What is a header and/or footer?
TEXT IN THE TOP AND BOTTOM MARGINS
Headers and footers are areas in the top, bottom, and side margins of each page in a document. Page numbers, time and date, logos, document title or author’s name are not allowed to be inserted in the header or footer. Why? When your manuscript is converted into an e-book, the formatting must be free-flowing in order to display properly on all devices.
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How do I fix a header and/or footer?
YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING
If your manuscript is filled with headers and/or footers using Word’s header and/or footer functionality, the text will be stripped out of your document during the upload and validation process.
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What are invalid characters?
SYMBOLS NOT SUPPORTED BY E-BOOKS
Sometimes word processors include characters that only their system supports. Unfortunately, these characters are invalid with e-readers and e-books and must be removed.
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How do I fix invalid characters?
DELETE THEM
Invalid characters must be removed. The Booktango online editor will identify the area where these invalid characters appear making it easy for you to fix.
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What is a page break?
FORMATTING BREAK
A page break is a formatting function in Word that forces text to start on a new page. This formatting break is not supported within e-books.
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How do I fix a page break?
AUTOMATICALLY REMOVED BY ONLINE EDITOR
If your manuscript includes page breaks, our online editor will automatically remove them. You won’t be informed on where the break was found, but it is possible the spacing before or after the removed breaks might be different from what you would like, so you should be aware and review it.
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What is a section break?
FORMATTING BREAK
A section break is a formatting function in Word that breaks up sections for various purposes, such as column formatting, chapter formatting and image formatting. These formatting breaks are not supported within e-books.
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How do I fix a section break?
AUTOMATICALLY REMOVED BY ONLINE EDITOR
If your manuscript includes section breaks, our online editor will automatically remove them. If text is uploaded that was formatted in a columns, the columns are removed. You won’t be informed on where the break was found, but it is possible the spacing before or after the removed columns or breaks might be different from what you would like, so you should be aware and review it.
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What is a soft return?
SHIFT+ENTER
Created when you push Shift+Enter, soft returns do not format correctly within e-books.
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How do I fix a soft return?
REPLACE WITH A HARD RETURN
In most cases, you should replace a soft return with a hard return.
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What is an invalid table?
CREATED BY TABS AND/OR SPACES
E-books do not support tables created from tabs and/or spaces.
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How do I fix an invalid table?
BOOKTANGO EDITOR
You'll be able to click the "table" icon in Booktango's editor to recreate an e-book optimized table, or create a valid table in your document using the Table functionality in Word before uploading.
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What is invalid font?
WON'T DISPLAY PROPERLY ON E-READERS
Word processors sometimes have font options that only their system supports. The font you use must be a universally-accepted font in order for it to display properly on e-readers.
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How do I make sure my font is valid?
CHECK THIS LIST
We have a library of more than 300 fonts, including the most popular fonts used in publishing today. To make things easier, download this list of allowable fonts »
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What is the minimum word count?
2,500 WORDS MINIMUM
Your manuscript must be more than 2,500 words.
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How can I check my word count?
TOOLS > WORD COUNT
It's easy to check your word count in Microsoft Word. Simply click on "Tools" on the upper navigation toolbar, and then click "Word Count."
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What if I have "Track Changes" turned on in my Word Doc?
ACCEPT ALL CHANGES
It’s a helpful tool in Word, but if you have "track changes" still on when you submit your manuscript, it could lead to problems in the publisher. Please click "Accept All Changes in Document" in Word before you submit your document to the editor.
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