Background I am not very experienced with LaTeX, but I am looking to use it to create the PDF so we can self-publish a short story anthology (previously our group has used MS Word, but that is really painful; now we hope to use pandoc to convert from .docx to .html; and from .html to markdown; and from markdown to LaTeX). Over the past few weeks, I've scoured tex.stackexchange.com, reddit.com/r/latex, CTAN and various blog posts for advice on templates to use. It looks like a lot of people recommend the memoir document class, but memoir seemed very complicated. I wound up starting from book and I've added in various solutions to try to accommodate the fact that we are doing a multi-author short story anthology (so it is good to put the story title and story author in the TOC, in the page headings and in the title page for each story).
What I need help with The template I have appears to work okay for our needs, but I feel like Frankenstein building his Monster--I don't really know all the parts of how LaTeX works. I've just been copy/pasting (with some adaptations) to create the following template. So I am hoping that some of you who are more knowledgeable could give a quick look at this template and see if there are some redundancies, things that could be done more cleanly, or things that could be done correctly (vs. how I'm doing them now).
The template:
% ==========================================================================================
% SIMPLE NOVEL TEMPLATE for LaTeX
% Also good for short story anthologies
% 6" x 9" with bleed
% Built by NewMexicoKid 2017-08-05
% based on the answer by https://tex.stackexchange.com/users/30640/user12711
% Ref: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/66902/latex-template-for-typesetting-a-novel
% ==========================================================================================
\documentclass[12pt,twoside,openright]{book}
\usepackage[paperwidth=6.125in,paperheight=9.25in,top=69.0pt,bottom=66.0pt,headsep=21pt,headheight=66.0pt,outer=36pt,inner=53pt]{geometry}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{verse} % for poetry, but you need to end each line with \\
\usepackage{alltt} % for PRE-formatted poetry
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec} % Lets one use system fonts (but with no math)
\setmainfont{EBGaramond} % EBGaramond font; this is the free Garamond clone
\usepackage{anyfontsize}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\usepackage{titlesec}
% remove chapter name and number: http://blog.chapagain.com.np/latex-remove-chapter-name-and-number/
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\normalfont\bfseries}{}{0pt}{\Huge}
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % fancy headers
\usepackage{microtype} % use this to improve typography
\usepackage{hyphenat}\hyphenation{my-word, hyphen-ate, never, hyphen}
\usepackage[english]{babel} % - for lorem ipsum
\usepackage{blindtext} % -- just for lorem ipsum
\usepackage{setspace}\onehalfspacing\frenchspacing\flushbottom\sloppy
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/65355/flushbottom-vs-raggedbottom
\setstretch{1.15}
\setlength{\dimen0}{\textheight}
\addtolength{\dimen0}{-\topskip}
\divide\dimen0\baselineskip
\setlength{\textheight}{\number\dimen0 \baselineskip}
\addtolength{\textheight}{\topskip}
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem} % Needed for \sout (strikeout)
\usepackage{suffix} % Needed for different chapter headings
\usepackage[english]{babel}
% --------------------------------------------------------------------------
% hyperlinks for the e-book and PDF
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{Blue}{RGB}{4, 6, 145}
\hypersetup{colorlinks,linktocpage,linktoc=all,linkcolor=Blue,urlcolor=Blue}
% --------------------------------------------------------------------------
\usepackage{etoc}% only so far to enable multiple uses of "\tableofcontents"
% maybe the document class already allows it.
\usepackage{emptypage} % No headers on empty pages
\DeclareRobustCommand*\AUTHOR [1]{}
\newcommand\SHOWAUTHORS {%
\DeclareRobustCommand*\AUTHOR [1]{{\normalfont\small\itshape ##1}}}
% =========================================================================================
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/156862/displaying-author-for-each-chapter-in-book
% The following code not only displays chaptername and author in the TOC but also at the
% start of each chapter.
\makeatletter
\newcommand\smallcaps[1]{\textsc{#1}}
\newcommand\newchapter[2] {\gdef\@chaptertitle{#1}\gdef\@chapterauthor{#2}\chapter[#1 / \AUTHOR{#2}]{#1}\printchapterauthor{#2}}
\def\@chapterauthor{}
\def\@chaptertitle{}
\fancypagestyle{mystyle}{%
\fancyhf{}%
\fancyhead[LE]{\thepage\quad\smallcaps{\@chaptertitle}}%
\fancyhead[RO]{\smallcaps{\@chapterauthor}\quad\thepage}%}
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{##1}{}}%
}
\makeatother
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{#1}{}}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
\renewcommand{\chaptername}{}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{}
\setcounter{chapter}{-1}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\printchapterauthor}[1]{%
{\parindent0pt\vspace*{-25pt}%
\linespread{1.1}\large\scshape#1%
\par\nobreak\vspace*{35pt}}
\@afterheading%
}
\makeatother
% =========================================================================================
% ---------------------------------------------
% Fancy headers with story name and author
% Refers back to mystyle defined above
% ---------------------------------------------
\pagestyle{mystyle} %fancy
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{#1}{}}
% ---------------------------------------------
% ========================================================================
% Needed for scene breaks with a "flowerleft" flourish
\usepackage{adforn}
% \Scene macro is used for scene breaks * * * * *
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\Scene}{%
\par\nobreak\@afterheading
\vspace{\topsep}
\addvspace{\topsep\relax}
\noindent\hfil%
\adfflourishleftdouble\quad\adfflowerleft\quad\adfflourishrightdouble
\hfil\par%
\vspace{\topsep}
\@afterindentfalse\@afterheading%
}
\makeatother
% ========================================================================
% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
% use begin{itpars} ... end{itpars} around blocks of text to be italicized
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/258394/make-block-of-text-italicized
\newenvironment{itpars}
{\par\itshape}
{\par}
% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
% ===============================================================
% Provide the author, title and date for the title page
\author{Author Name} \title{Anthology or Novel Title} \date{2017-08-05}
% ===============================================================
\begin{document}
\frontmatter % the front of the book has (lowercase) roman numerals
\SHOWAUTHORS
% \tableofcontents
% -------------------------------------
% Front matter pages
\thispagestyle{empty}
% \begin{figure}[htbp]
% \centering
% \includegraphics[width=3.2in]{title_image.png}
% \end{figure}
\begin{center}
\fontsize{50}{60}\selectfont ANTHOLOGY TITLE
\end{center}
\vspace{1.0in}
\begin{center}
\Huge{Author Name}
\end{center}
% \vspace{1.1in}
\vfill
\begin{center}
\emph{\large{06 August 2017}}
\end{center}
\clearpage
\vspace*{4.5cm}
\begin{center}
\Huge{\textsc{Interior Book Title}}
\end{center}
\vspace{2em}
{\parindent0pt % no indentation for this section
Written by Author Name
\vspace{2em}
Copyright \textcopyright 2017 by Author Name
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of
this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
\vspace{2em}
ISBN XXX TO BE FILLED IN
% \vspace{2em}
\vfill
Cover Design by A Book Cover Designer
} %end no indent
\clearpage
\emph{This page constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.}
\begin{center}
\emph{Story One} copyright \textcopyright 2017 by Author Name
\emph{Story Two} copyright \textcopyright 2017 by Other Author
\end{center}
\clearpage
\tableofcontents
\clearpage
\section{Acknowledgements}\label{acknowledgements}
The Editors of this anthology would like to thank folks.
\section{Introduction}\label{introduction}
\Blindtext
\Blindtext
% -------------------------------------
% \chapter*{Foreword} % \chapter* (* excludes from Contents)
\section{Foreward}\label{Foreward}
% \input{Foreword.tex}\clearpage
\Blindtext
\mainmatter % the main part of the book will have standard pages
%
% ======================================================================
%
% Import the chapters; specify chapter title and author with \newchapter
%
\part{Book One}
\newchapter{Story One}{Author One}
% \input{Story_One}
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\clearpage
\newchapter{Story Two}{Author Two}
% \input{Story_Two}
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\clearpage
\part{Book Two}
\newchapter{Story Three}{Author One}
% \input{Story_One}
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\clearpage
\newchapter{Story Four}{Author Three}
% \input{Story_Two}
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\Blindtext\clearpage
\clearpage
% ======================================================================
\end{document}
Here's the PDF that is generated by the template.
\raggedbottom
, because the different spacing between paragraphs is bad. I think that for your needs ConTeXt will be a better choice than LaTeX: the former supports grid typesetting, which is a must-have when you typeset printed books.