At 48 Hour Books, we’re happy to offer free book templates to help make printing your book as easy as possible! To find them, go to 48HrBooks.com and click on “Self-Publishing,” then “Book Templates.” Fill out the form at the bottom of the page for free access to our downloadable templates.
We offer templates for our 4 most popular book sizes: 4.25x7 inches, 5.5x8.5 inches, 6x9 inches, and 8.5x11 inches. Simply click on the book size you’d like, and the template will begin to download. Be sure to save it somewhere on your computer and name it something you won’t forget.
Our templates are designed to be used with Microsoft Word, but should also open using any popular word processing software such as Pages or Open Office.
How to use Our Templates
If you haven’t started writing your book yet, scroll to find Chapter One. If you’d like to name this chapter something else, click and drag your mouse to select just the words “Chapter One.” With the text highlighted, start typing the name of your chapter. Next, select all of the main text within this chapter, and with that text highlighted, start typing your own first sentence. You’ve just replaced all the of text from our chapter one with the beginning of your chapter one! Keep typing, and pages will be automatically added to the chapter as you get to the bottom of each page. When you're done with this chapter, you can move on to the other chapters and chapter titles of your book by scrolling down, highlighting, and replacing each chapter title and text as you go. You can do the same to replace the front matter content as well. Select and delete any of the placeholder content you do not need.
If you’ve already typed your book into another document, it may be easier to simply adjust the formatting of your current document rather than using our template – but we’ll go over how to do that in a separate video. If you want to use our template, go to your existing document and copy a section of text by clicking and dragging to highlight it, right-clicking, and choosing “Copy”.
Open our template in a separate window. You can either click next to or highlight the text that you want to replace. Go to the “Home” menu at the top of the screen and click on the drop-down menu next to “Paste”. Choose “Match Formatting,” then be sure to remove any of the remaining template text that you don’t need. You’ll need to repeat this step for each section of your book separately.
Be sure to replace the Book Title, Subtitle, and Author name on the title and copyright pages with your own and enter an ISBN if you have one. Page numbers will appear at the bottom-center of every page. To edit or remove the headers or footers, double click on the page numbers. You can include your title and author name in the headers at the top of every page of your main content if you’d like.
When you’re done typing and editing your book, scroll to find the table of contents. Right-click anywhere within the table of contents and select “Update Field” and then “Entire Table.” Check to make sure all of your chapters are listed and numbered correctly. If you’re interested, Chapters One and Two of our templates include some additional information that may be helpful.
Keep in mind that while using our templates, you may still need to adjust some spacing or formatting as you go -- so check that everything looks exactly how you’d like it to look in your final product. Be sure to also double check your final PDF to make sure nothing shifts out of place when you convert the file.
Additional Resources
We also have additional resources that you may find helpful:
How Do I Format a Manuscript?
What are My Book Cover Design Options?
Should I purchase an ISBN?
What is a Production Schedule?
If you’re unsure about how to format your self-published book, we’ve got the help you need. Just download 48 Hour Books free Book Formatting Tips. We cover margins, spacing, title pages, and more!
Let the experts at 48 Hour Books guide you through the entire self-publishing process with helpful how-to videos. We're here for you if you need help learning how to set up a book, how to create a book cover, how to place an order, and more!
As always, we’re here to help every step of the way. If you have trouble, call or email us, and when you’re ready to print, place your order!
If you want to know how to publish a book, our website is a great resource. Know exactly what to expect after you place your order by reviewing our detailed pre-press and production schedules, shipping schedules, FAQs and more. Through our blog, learn the ins and outs of publishing, including terms you should know and tips on marketing, design and other important publishing topics.
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