Most people think book formatting is just “make it look clean.” It’s not. It’s structure, rhythm, and psychology on a page. Here are mistakes I caught while formatting a western fiction manuscript — and what I did to fix them: 1. Chapter pages started too high The opening felt rushed. No presence. Fix → Pushed chapter openings to about 1/3 down the page. Result → Instant “published book” feel. 2. Inconsistent spacing between chapter elements Chapter title, subtitle, and body were fighting each other. Fix → Standardized spacing (title → subtitle → body). Result → Clean visual hierarchy. 3. Drop caps breaking the flow Looked good in some chapters… awkward in others. Fix → Removed drop caps entirely for consistency. Result → Smoother reading experience. 4. TOC dots looked heavy and cheap Too dense = cluttered. Fix → Adjusted leader dots spacing + right tab alignment. Result → More premium, breathable layout. 5. Page numbers too close to the edge Small detail, big impact. Fix → Pulled them slightly inward. Result → Balanced page composition. 6. Copyright page sitting awkwardly Floating too high = amateur look. Fix → Lowered content block intentionally. Result → Proper publishing standard. 7. Title page lacked presence It didn’t feel like a “moment.” Fix → Increased space before/after title and subtitle. Result → Stronger emotional entry into the book. 8. TOC and body styles not aligned Fonts and spacing didn’t match the book’s tone. Fix → Unified typography system across the entire book. Result → Cohesion. The truth? Formatting isn’t about making things “look nice.” It’s about removing friction so the reader disappears into the story. Most authors don’t lose readers because of bad writing. They lose them because the reading experience feels off. That’s what I fix.

This weekend, I hope to meet some of you at the London Mastermind. Last week was pretty slow for me because of Easter preparations, and this week is shorter due to travel preparations. Nevertheless, it was interesting to review the results of March. For the first time in my experience, a book published at the start of a month earned $200 by the end of that same month. It is a book in a very limited niche, not one with high potential, but it is interesting to see how powerful series can be. Every new book starts faster than previous one. I hope I will have a lot of interesting ideas to share after the mastermind. How is your week going? Will you be in London this weekend?

A small yet powerful tool was added today to Publisher Tools at RoyaltyGuild.com: KDP Sales Analyzer. KDP Royalty Estimator is good for seeing sales for a period, but it offers very limited options for seeing trends. Publisher Champ is a great solution, but it could be overwhelming with the amount of reports it provides. To make decisions about the development of our portfolios, we need to see the key data and trends. You can visit https://kdpreports.amazon.com/royalties, open Start Date, choose Lifetime, and click the big button Download report on the right. After you save the report file, drop it into https://royaltyguild.com/tools/sales-analyzer, and you will see the most important data in a very intuitive format. The service does not save any data on a server; all data is processed in your browser. And it's free for everybody. Enjoy!

If you do not use NotebookLM in your book production, just postpone everything and watch this video. This is the essential tool for nonfiction book creation. If you are already using NotebookLM, please share the tasks you are using it for.

Today I was a bit disappointed with the performance of one of my books. Not many sales, BSR not so good (35k) and competitors with much lower BSR occupying the adspace on my details page. Then I started my old and trusted Publisher Rocket for my main keyword, where all these nasty competitors show up as well. When I looked at the results, I was happy again. You not always have to chase reviews, ratings and BSR. Have a look at the attached screenprint and you know why :)