How to Hire a Book Formatter

Meh. I don’t think you need to do this unless you really don’t want to learn how. But I’m stubborn.

 

Joe Konrath has a book formatter he uses for every one of his books so that he just doesn’t have to worry about it. I see the benefit of spending money to spend more time on your books, but Joe Konrath also has a lot more money than me.

 

I’ve looked around and found that book formatters cost about $99 – $200. That’s just one format, too—if you want someone to format your print and eBook editions, you have to pay double or choose a combo package or something.

 

For basic formatting, I don’t think it’s worth it. I’ve included guides on how to format your eBook and print editions, and that works for a majority of books. Now, if you want fancy formatting—images and the like—I can see the benefit of hiring someone. I sure don’t know how to do that, and I’m not completely convinced that I want to know. Maybe hiring someone is easier. Or what if you have a book that requires a lot of HTML editing? Maybe it’s worth hiring someone then so you don’t have to deal with it.

 

There are pros and cons everywhere. But say you do choose to hire someone. How do you find a book formatter?

 

My go-to is Google, always. Do your homework. Look for formatters who have good reviews and happy clients, who have good examples of their work and prove they know what they’re doing. Look for evidence of quick response time and professionalism.

 

Now, Google returns companies, mostly, instead of individuals with a small business. I wouldn’t recommend you go to the big companies because in most cases, they’re going to try to upsell you to something else. Createspace offers formatting services, for example, and it’s a lot easier to find those services than it is to find the easy-to-use templates. That’s why I added the link to the templates in my post on formatting your print edition. That’s kind of slimy of them, really. Still, Createspace is great otherwise. I just wouldn’t recommend you pay them to format a basic book.

 

The benefit of going to a company to format your book is that they’re more accountable if you’re unhappy. They want to keep your business, so it’s easy to assume they’ll redo it if you don’t like it. With individuals, there’s more of a risk that their process won’t mesh with the POD vendor you’re using. Still, that risk is small when compared to the cost savings and growing professionalism in the indie vendors market.

 

Individuals who format books can be best found my recommendation. Send out a tweet asking if anyone knows any good formatters. Here, I’ll even give you an easy one to copy and paste:

Does anyone know a good book formatter? I need a talented professional to format my print edition for Createspace.

Change print edition to eBook if you need to, or change the POD vendor if you aren’t using Createspace. The point is you need to give as many specifics as you can.

 

Working with a book formatter is like working with any other vendor—they’ll likely ask for half up front and expect the rest on delivery. Some may want it all up front, but as long as they have a long list of happy clients, you should be fine in giving it to them.

 

I always recommend you barter and ask to put a down payment on the work. It keeps some of the power in your court to ensure they deliver on time. Remember, you don’t have to work with them. There are plenty of vendors who will accommodate you. Don’t be disrespectful in your negotiations if you have to haggle, but you don’t have to be a doormat either.

 

Who out there has used a book formatter? Let us know how that went for you, who you used, and if you’d use them again. I’m curious to see if there are many people who prefer to hire book formatters.