Among the most common novice writers formatting their ebooks run into is including headers, footers and page numbers in their manuscript. Unfortunately, this often leads to the book’s title, author’s name, and page numbers appearing in the middle of the text on an ereader.

There’s no need to include any headers, footers or page numbers in a manuscript formatted for an ebook. The software used to translate your formatted manuscript into a format readable on an ebook won’t treat the headers and footers as would your Microsoft Word program.

In any case, you don’t need to include a header indicating the book’s title in an ebook. At least with Kindle, the software that translates your formatted manuscript automatically places the title at the top of the ereader screen.

In addition, page numbers are superfluous in an ebook, as readers can adjust the text’s font and point size, and hence change how many words appear on a screen before the “page” has to be turned.

If reformatting your Word manuscript for a paperback into an ebook, always delete all of the headers, footers and page numbers from the document.