Here are some insider’s formatting tips if you’re writing an ebook to sell or give away as a bonus, or when you’re writing reports or other business documents in general …

FORMATTING

Use Word Templates when you can. They have great ones.

Human eyes cannot easily scan very wide lines of small text, when the lines are close together. We get to the end of the line, and then when moving the eyes back to the next line, sometimes grab the wrong line on the left.

Bummer.

There is an optimal ratio of size of text, width of line, and spacing between lines. You don’t have to find the optimum, but just examine what you’ve got, and adjust these and you’ll see readability improve.

For example …

Just like in ads, long blocks of text look formidable, and more than one idea in a paragraph obscures your message. So use a mixture of short and medium-length paragraphs, to make material most accessible.

SERIF and SAN-SERIF FONTS

Humans most easily read serif fonts — ones with little ‘feet’ — so unless you have a darn good reason, it’s best to use serif fonts for body copy in general.
This means that san-serif fonts make great subheads. If you’re not using a template, it will look more pro if you mix exactly two fonts. Serif for body text, and san serif bold for subheads.

SUBHEADS and STYLE

Subheads break up the material, and also tell the reader what it’s about. I like to use humorous or contrasty subheads, but it’s the best practice usually to not do that, but to use summary subheads as ‘labels’ for the content below.

Don’t use a lot of fonts. Looks amateurish.

Don’t use an elegant or formal looking template if your language is casual.

EXPANDING YOUR REPORT

If your report is really short, then make it ‘larger’ by

1. consider using a slightly wider line, larger font;
   …
2. consider using line and a half line spacing;
   …
3. add a table of contents (this can be done nicely inside Word using the ‘outline’ view *if* you’ve used headings and subheadings;
   …
4. consider adding any extra pages, as they cost nothing in pdf, such as title page (with graphic if you gotto), legal page, and some ‘appendix’ stuff at the end.
   …
5. don’t overlook adding some end pages with adverts for your other sites or offers; they ride for free.

EBOOKS AND SEO

In some cases, you may use the content of an EBook or report online. In that case, remember that you can use the headlines, and subheads to focus your content, so that Google knows what you’re talking about, and to improve the SEO of that page and your site.

Use H2 or H3 tags for your subheads, and make sure the subheads are keyw0rdish.

If you discover that the subheads seem not to relate to the keywords you’re after, it’s telling you that your content is off-target. Consider adding or altering content, to get where you want to go.

Want to format to make your info most readable? Want to look professional? We bet you’ll find these tips useful!