I didn't justify the right alignment my text.
My book look likes this:
- A door opened releasing a sliver of light and a small girl onto a darkened street. The girl, bundled in a thick jacket, stepped onto the sidewalk. She shut the door behind her, blackening the street once more. Cianna shivered. Spring mornings were cold in the port town of Flores and she was up and out before the sun today. The salty breeze off the Borgan Sea ruffled her long, red hair.
It should look like this:
- A door opened releasing a sliver of light and a small girl onto a darkened street. The girl, bundled in a thick jacket, stepped onto the sidewalk. She shut the door behind her, blackening the street once more. Cianna shivered. Spring mornings were cold in the port town of Flores and she was up and out before the sun today. The salty breeze off the Borgan Sea ruffled her long, red hair.
Look at the right margins, do you see the difference? Text must be right and left justified. Doubt me? Pick up the fiction book closest to you (not your own and not an indie book) and look at it.
I first read about text alignment at LL Book Review. I checked my book and saw my mistake. Then I raced to my daughter's bookshelf and opened ten of her books from classics to modern fiction. The right alignment on all of them is justified. Then I logged onto Amazon and started checking indie books. Some of you justified the right side and some of you didn't.
No reader has pointed this out to me. I'm not sure how much it bothers them. However, it's not professional and it's simple to fix in the document's file with one click of the mouse. Also, LL Book Review suggests they reject books that are not right justified. I plan to fix mine everywhere it's published: KDP, Smashwords and Createspace.
I know my book needs a makeover from the formatting to the cover (all my fault, not my artist's), but I'm happy with the story. I want to give my book every chance to compete so I'm going to fix my alignment, re-do my cover and hire a proofreader in the coming months.(It's already been edited but I think a few typos slipped through as I applied her changes.)
Right alignment, important or not, what do you think?
(please see comments below, ebooks may be different)
(please see comments below, ebooks may be different)
To Do: Check your book's text alignment. If you need to fix it, it's a good time to go over any other issues you might have. Here is a link to LL Book Review's top-ten list of book boo boo's.
Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Author of The Pet Washer
a novel for children aged 8 and up
I don't right justify my text in my ebooks. In the Smashwords Style Guide, Mark Coker says he finds that text conversion in the various ebook formats is usually cleanest when text is simply left justified. Still, the guide says to go ahead and try it, because it works fine for some books. It's an aesthetic thing, so I guess it all depends on the author!
ReplyDeleteMeghan, you make a great point. I didn't think about alignment on ebook versus paperback. I think it's essential in paperback. Maybe not so much in ebook if it doesn't look right. Thanks for responding!!
ReplyDeleteI do the justification on my Kindle books and often wondered why more don't. You don't want to do it if you upload in .doc though, it doesn't convert correctly. I had to upload in html to keep the formatting.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tip, Will!
ReplyDeleteI justify, as well. Not-justified books (seeing I can't call them unjustified! :-) don't look right.
ReplyDeleteOnly a writer would choose their words so delicately, Rasana! Thanks for chiming in!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree that in paperback, justified books look much cleaner! As Will mentioned, it's when uploading in .doc format that it can cause a problem in conversions. I suppose that's why Smashwords doesn't recommend it.
ReplyDeleteIt appears the issue for paperback's has been put to rest! Not so much for ebooks.
ReplyDeleteI just checked The Hunger Games kindle edition--guess what? It's not right justified!
I may never see this again ... but ...
ReplyDeleteI've read plenty of paperbacks without right justification. Maybe they are all P.G. Wodehouse novels from Great Britain ... I don't remember. But I do remember the books I have been reading are not justified ... and Amazon Kindle has justified my novels sent in html unjustified.
Do you think it's a British/American thing?
ReplyDeleteI dislike books that are not justified - be they digital or not - but unjustified ones are still readable and some people prefer them that way.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is that I have read that I should not do anything to my html because Kindle automatically justifies text. However, it does not seem to be the case...
I like it too, especially in physical books. It was a complete oversight on my part for The Pet Washer. An oversight I will be correcting when I release the new cover!
ReplyDelete