Has anyone used the interior templates on CreateSpace

I've used them and found them very easy to work with. I used the 5.25 by 8 template the most. It was slightly better than the 8.5x11 one, but couldn't give you a specific reason why. You can't just use it and go. You have to still pay attention to page breaks, section breaks, and text flow, but I found it to be a good starting structure to work from.

Note that I'm also extremely comfortable working in Word. Not sure what the experience would be for someone who wasn't.

Same here. I thought it was very easy to work with.

I recommend the BASIC template. It's pretty easy to start from. Remember that you want to use STYLES for all formatting, not page breaks, blank lines, tabs or spaces, etc.

Once you get the hang of it, you can format a manuscript into pretty much exactly what you want easily enough.

I take the next step and export to PDF before sending to CreateSpace so that I have full control over what they print though. I've found that even once I format with their template they can change things before they create the final proof.

The CS template with sample text comes with embedded styles you can use. (Or change if you want to use a different font, for example).

I too save to PDF immediately before uploading to CS.

So, Thewitt, if you want to have each chapter start on the right-hand side, how do you do that without using a page break if it would naturally fall on the left-hand side? (With my non-fiction titles and short story collections I like to have each chapter start on the right-hand side.)

Use a Section Break, and then apply a style that starts on the RH page. I believe the Basic template includes a style defined that way for the beginning of the manuscript. You can Page Break between pages - like in your front or back matter - but it's not the best move between chapters.

Ah, got it. Thanks!

I used one of these, too, but I found that it needed to be modified a bit before I could actually make my submission. The margins were needed to be tweaked a bit, and I also found the spacing to be slightly off for my tastes.

Reddy2Pub said:

Has anyone used the interior templates on CreateSpace? Have any issues? File size, formatting, etc.

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yes, they are relatively easy to work with though I had a nightmare formatting the page numbering...headers and footers.

marinapr9 said:

yes, they are relatively easy to work with though I had a nightmare formatting the page numbering...headers and footers.

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Same here. Templates are quite simple to use, didn't have any serious issues except for page numbering.

I also have used the 5.25 by 8, but I play with it quite a bit. Really I only use it to be sure I have a margins and trim correct.

marinapr9 said:

yes, they are relatively easy to work with though I had a nightmare formatting the page numbering...headers and footers.

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OMG yes, this. I had such a screw up at one point that I trashed the whole template and started over again. But they are, in general, easy to use, especially if you keep all the pre-set pages, etc (I, for example, got rid of the TOC and I think that messed everything up!).

Another thing I did that I don't think is necessary, but caught things that I didn't catch in the initial digital proof is that I ordered physical proofs. Otherwise, I would have never noticed that I'd used the wrong back cover (slightly different typeset and one tiny spelling error!). Again, I was sure I'd looked over everything in the digital proof but it really took a hard copy for me to see things -- just like I need to typically print my MS off and find more errors there, and read on Kindle before release.

I'm confused about all the talk about interior templates and formatting. On advice gained here, I took my Word doc (no headers, footer, page numbers), ran it through D2D to get a pdf, then ran the pdf through CreateSpace to make the books. I had read all the horrors of formatting and templates but never even ran into them.

augusto said:

I'm confused about all the talk about interior templates and formatting. On advice gained here, I took my Word doc (no headers, footer, page numbers), ran it through D2D to get a pdf, then ran the pdf through CreateSpace to make the books. I had read all the horrors of formatting and templates but never even ran into them.

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That's because D2D did all that for you using a standard template they have. If you look in your PDF that they generated for you there are likely headers and page numbers. But many of us, including me, aren't huge fans of the look of the D2D PDF. Or want more control over our paperback.

For example, for each new chapter do you want it start on the right-hand page or just the next available page? Do you want your chapters to have different headers or is the same header throughout the entire book okay with you? What about if you have a chapter that ends with just one line on the final page? Okay, or do you want to tweak paragraph spacing to pull that line back onto the prior page? What about section breaks? Do you want two spaces (whereas maybe your e-book uses a symbol) or do you want a special symbol that isn't used in your ebook? What about font? I use a different font for my non-fiction versus my fiction and a different font size. What about book size? I've used two different book sizes for my books and I don't think either are D2D's default.

So, yes. You can go through D2D, they'll generate a PDF in thirty seconds, upload it to CS, and go. But...At least for me personally, I'd rather download the CS template and tweak it to get the look I want. YMMV. It takes me five or six hours for a print book. With CS, I could be done in five minutes.

And, in response to Amity Lassiter's comment about the physical proofs. I would definitely recommend always reviewing a physical proof. (I also read each physical print and inevitably catch another handful of errors or decide that I really didn't need this comma or that one.) For a couple of my books I had to completely change up the covers to get them to work in print. What looked like red on my screen came off as bright pink in print, for example. If you can't do that, physically print your cover page to see what the colors look like in print. It's not the same as on your computer screen. (Unfortunately, the thumbnail is then what works for print...)

Thanks, M.H. Lee. I guess I was only thinking of the harm I could do on my own. With my lack of skills, my mileage is dependent on the help of others like D2D.

I made changes after the initial physical proof without ordering another and things turned out fine, but yes, not *necessary* but definitely beneficial to catch things you don't catch on screen! This is why during my editing process, I go through it in Scrivener, then print out the whole thing, then read again on my Kindle.