Manuscript Errors to Avoid
What is a bad break?
Bad breaks are errors that 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?
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. Fix a bad break by deleting it.
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What is a drop cap?
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.
Book Country currently doesn't support drop caps because not all devices are able to display them.
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How do I fix a drop cap?
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?
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?
If your manuscript is filled with footnotes using the Word's footnote functionality, each footnote will be converted into an endnote automatically. The endnotes will then be linked to ensure easy navigation for your readers.
If you 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?
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 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 e-reading devices, could cause blank screens to appear, and may not be usable by Book Country. 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 eBooks, your extra hard returns might not display as you wish.
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How do I fix a hard return?
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?
Headers and footers are areas in the top, bottom and side margins of each page in a document. Page numbers, time and date, logos, the document's title or author's name are not allowed to be inserted in the header or footer because when your manuscript is converted into an eBook, 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?
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. You don't have to do anything.
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What are invalid characters?
Sometimes Word and other text programs include characters that only their system supports. Unfortunately, these characters are invalid with e-readers and eBooks and must be removed.
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How do I fix invalid characters?
Delete them. The Book Country Online Editor will identify where invalid characters appear, making it easy for you to fix.
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What is a page 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 eBooks.
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How do I fix a page break?
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?
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 eBooks.
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How do I fix a section break?
If your manuscript includes section breaks, the Online Editor will automatically remove them. If your uploaded text was formatted in columns, the columns will be removed. It's possible the spacing before or after the removed columns or breaks may be different from what you would like, so you should be aware and review it.
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What is a soft return?
Created when you push Shift+Enter, soft returns do not format correctly within eBooks.
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How do I fix a soft return?
In most cases, you should replace a soft return with a hard return.
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What is an invalid table?
Invalid tables are ones created by spaces or tabs. eBooks do not support tables created from tabs and/or spaces.
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How do I fix an invalid table?
Click the "table" icon in Book Country's editor to create an eBook 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?
Word and other text editors sometimes have font options that only their systems support. 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 the 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?
Your manuscript must be more than 2,500 words.
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How can I check my 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 your 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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