Publishing Studio

What Is Publishing Studio?

Publishing Studio takes a finished manuscript and makes the files retailers ask for: a checked ebook, a typeset print interior, and a print cover. You choose which formats you want, StorytellerOS makes the files, and then you decide where each one goes:

• Direct2Readers: send a format to Direct2Readers as a draft listing. Nothing goes on sale until you publish it.
• Your Shopify store: if you've connected one in Sales Studio, add a format to it as a draft product (see below).
• Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Barnes & Noble Press, Draft2Digital and other retailers: download an upload bundle with the right files, named the way that retailer expects, plus a step-by-step checklist. You upload those files in the retailer's own dashboard. StorytellerOS doesn't upload to these retailers for you.

Getting to Publishing Studio

Open Publishing Studio in the sidebar. Pick a book, then choose how you want to work:

• Format and distribute: StorytellerOS makes the ebook, print and Word files from your manuscript, then you choose where they go.
• Distribute ready files (coming soon): for finished files you already have, for example from another formatting tool or a designer. You will be able to attach them and send them on without reformatting.

Your progress saves as you go, so you can leave and pick up where you stopped. A book needs at least one chapter before StorytellerOS can make anything from it.

eBook vs. Print: Same Book, Different Variations

A variation is a different format of the same book. The story doesn't change, only how it is delivered. Publishing Studio can make:

• eBook (.epub): the standard ebook file accepted by Amazon KDP, Draft2Digital, Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play. Every ebook is checked against the retailers' ebook rules before it is marked ready.
• Manuscript (.docx): a clean Word file, useful for editors, ARC readers, or a retailer that accepts Word uploads.
• Print (paperback or hardcover): a typeset interior PDF sized to your trim size, plus a print cover for each retailer you choose.

Choose as many as you want in one pass, for example an ebook and a paperback together, and each one is made as its own file.

Format and Distribute, Step by Step

The steps are listed down the side of the wizard. A step that doesn't apply to the formats you picked is skipped (for example, Print editions only appears when you choose Print).

Formats

Choose what to make: eBook, Manuscript (.docx), and Print. Pick any combination.

Book design

Pick one of fourteen interior designs, in four groups. The design controls chapter openings, scene breaks and type in both the ebook and the print interior, so your book looks the same across formats. A sample shows the layout of your choice before you commit. To see it in the design's own typeface, use Preview a chapter in the Front & back matter step and choose Show the printed pages.

• Classic: Meridian, Atlas, Harbor, Ledger and Quill.
• Romance and script: Lyra, Rosewater, Serenade and Velvet.
• Modern and bold: Signal, Northline and Monument.
• Easy to read: Clearview, set in Atkinson Hyperlegible for readers with low vision, and Steady, set in OpenDyslexic for readers with dyslexia. Both use larger, more open spacing, and their lines end where they fall, with no words broken across lines.

Books that already use Meridian, Lyra or Atlas look exactly as they did before.

Swap a part of a design

Every design is made of parts, and you can change any one of them for your book while keeping the rest. Open Swap a part on the Book design step. Each change applies to the ebook and to print, and Use the theme's puts a part back.

• Chapter opening: centered, set to the left, or number and title on one line; the number as 1, One or I, or no number at all; the word “Chapter” (or your own chapter word) before it or not; capitals, small capitals or as written for the chapter number; the same choices for chapter titles, or the design's own; whether chapter titles show; a line above or below, a printed mark, or an ornament from the library; and a size, up to an oversized number.
• First paragraph: a drop cap, small capitals for the opening words, or both.
• After a scene break: small capitals for the opening words, or not.
• Page headers (print): your name and the title, the title on both pages, or nothing, in spaced letters, small capitals or italic.
• Scene breaks: a printed mark, a blank line, or an ornament from the library. A scene break ornament you set under page art still comes first.
• Contents page: classic, dotted lines to the page numbers, or centered.
• Title page: classic and centered, set to the left, or the title in spaced capitals.

Number words (One, Two, Three) are written in English; a book in another language shows the number instead. Your AI assistant can make these changes too, one part at a time.

Change what something is, without retyping it

Your AI assistant can turn a chapter into front matter, back matter or a part title page (or back into a chapter), and turn a paragraph into a block quote, a heading, verse or a letter, and back. It always asks you first and shows you the change. Before anything changes, the chapter is saved as a version you can bring back from its history, and only the formatting changes, never your words. Scene breaks, pictures, lists and tables are left as they are.

Typesetting: quotes, hyphens, drop caps and the contents page

Every file is set the way printed books are. None of this changes your manuscript: your words stay exactly as you typed them, and the changes are made only in the files you build. The choices below are on the Typesetting card in the Book design step.

• Curly quotes and apostrophes. Straight quotes become printer's quotes in the ebook, the print interior and the Word file, including ’tis, ’90s and quotes inside quotes. Web addresses and measurements like 5'10" are left alone. This works for books in English and German, however the language is written on the format (English, en, en-US or eng all count). If a format has no language saved, the book's other formats decide, and English is used when none has one. Other languages keep the quotes you typed. Turn on Keep straight quotes under Typesetting to keep them as typed.
• Hyphenation in print. Long words break at the end of a line where a dictionary says they can, so justified lines don't stretch. Headings, web addresses and words in capitals are never broken. Ebooks leave hyphenation to the reading app, which knows the reader's screen and font size.
• Drop caps. In designs with a drop cap, an opening quote mark sits beside the large letter instead of being enlarged with it. Choose a drop cap two or three lines tall under Typesetting.
• After a scene break. Some designs, such as Meridian and Atlas, set the first few words after a scene break in small capitals. In print, a design with blank-line scene breaks prints a small centered mark instead, so a break that falls at the top or bottom of a page can still be seen.
• Contents page. Print and ebook files get a contents page after the title, copyright, dedication and epigraph pages, with page numbers in print. Turn either one off under Typesetting. Ebook apps keep their own contents menu either way.
• Footnotes. Choose where the notes you add in the Writing Studio print. Foot of the page (the default) puts each note at the bottom of its page in print, and in the ebook a reader taps the number to see the note in a pop-up and taps again to go back. End of each chapter lists a chapter's notes after its last line. End of the book gathers every note in one Notes section at the start of the back matter, under the name of its chapter. Notes are numbered from 1 in each chapter. The Word file uses Word's own footnotes for the first choice. A box set prints notes at the end of each chapter.
• Half-title page. Turn on a page with the book's title alone, before the title page, in print, in the ebook or both. In print the title page then starts on the next right-hand page.
• Title page. Besides the author, the title page credits anyone listed on the book as introduction writer, translator, illustrator, editor or contributor (“Introduction by”, “Translated by” and so on), and shows your pen name's imprint logo when it has one.
• Chapter word. When you change the word for a chapter (for example “Part” or “Episode”), every design uses it, and the contents always does. Running heads and page numbers grow with larger trim sizes.

These changes can change your print page count, which changes the spine. If you use a cover you made or uploaded yourself, check its spine against the new page count before you upload it.

Print editions

Only shown when you choose Print.

• Binding: paperback or hardcover.
• Print retailers: tick every retailer you print through. Each one gets its own trim size, paper and cover finish, limited to what that retailer accepts.
• Trim size: the physical page size, for example 6" × 9".
• Paper: white or cream, or color paper for books with images.
• Cover finish: matte or gloss.

Each retailer shows an estimated page count and spine width based on your word count. The exact numbers are worked out from the finished interior when you generate.

Large Print paperback: open More print options and turn this on to make a second paperback format with a bigger interior font (14pt to 20pt; 16pt is the usual large print size). It gets its own list of print retailers. Your regular paperback keeps its normal type size. When Large Print is on, More print options opens on its own.

Two setups at one retailer: an older book can have two setups for the same edition at the same retailer, for example two Amazon KDP paperbacks at different sizes. Each one is changed on its own. A retailer takes one paperback (or one hardcover) per book, so we make files for the first one and keep the other, with its settings, as it is.

Front & back matter

Add the pages that surround your story: dedication, epigraph, foreword, preface, acknowledgments, copyright page, and about the author. Each page is a card, shown in the order the book prints them, with your chapters in the middle. Open a card to write that page; closing it keeps what you wrote. Store links, fonts, text size, page art and where each chapter prints are under More options at the bottom of the step. Everything here is optional:

• Leave the copyright page blank and StorytellerOS builds one from your pen name, publication year, ISBN, and publisher. If a build has no format chosen, those come from what is saved on your book's formats in that language, ebook first, then print, using the earliest publication date. The finished files list a note saying so.
• Leave about the author blank and it uses your pen name's publishing bio, if you have one set up.
• A switch controls whether this book appears on the "Also by" page in your other books. That page lists your released titles.
• Add your own pages to the front or back of the book, such as Keep Reading, a reader's guide or a free book offer. A page can also be a promotion that points readers to another of your books, with a link.
• Back matter order: after the story, your own back matter pages and your custom back matter come first, so readers reach "The End" and your next-book teaser right after the last chapter. Acknowledgments, About the Author and the Also By list follow. To change that, use Back matter order in this step and move each part up or down. The order is used for the ebook, print and Word files, and you can set it through the API too. Chapters you marked as back matter always come first.

Your own front and back matter pages

• Each page has a heading and starts on a new page, with its own entry in the table of contents. In the ebook it is marked as front or back matter.
• Write the page with headings, bold, italic, underline, centered lines, lists, links and images, using the same editor as your custom back matter.
• Choose the formats each page prints in: ebook, paperback, hardback and large print. For example, a page with a QR code can print only in the paperback.
• Choose the languages each page prints in, so each language has its own words, links and images. A page with no language ticked prints in every language, as it always has. To give French readers their own Keep Reading page, tick English on your page, then add a new page with French ticked. See Pages for each language.
• Move your pages up or down to change their order. Remove a page and you can restore it for 30 days under Recently removed.
• Every saved version is kept. Open a page and choose Earlier versions to bring one back. If someone else saved the page while you were editing, your text stays on screen and saving again keeps both versions.

Bibliographies, full-page pictures and part pages

• Bibliography. Set a page's Page layout to Bibliography and each paragraph prints as one entry, with its second and later lines indented and the lines never stretched to the margin.
• Full-page picture. Set the layout to Full-page picture for a map, a family tree or a piece of art. The picture fills the page, with no heading and no page number. The page heading names it in the contents. Any words on the page print under the picture.
• Part pages. To divide your book into parts or volumes, add a chapter for each part and set In the published book to Part title page (in the chapter's Chapter Detail panel in the Writing Studio, or under Chapters in the book in the Front & back matter step). Your AI assistant can do this for you too. Its title prints on a page of its own, with any words you write in it (an epigraph, for example). The chapters after it, up to the next part, are listed under it in the contents and in the ebook's contents menu. A part page is never numbered as a chapter, and when your book opens with a part, page 1 is the part page.
• Verse, letters, text messages and centered text you add in the Writing Studio are laid out in every file. See Footnotes, verse, letters and text messages.

Shared pages for a series or pen name

• Save a set of pages once, such as More from the author, a gift offer and About the Author, and every book of the series or pen name prints them.
• A book uses its series' shared pages when the series has any, otherwise its pen name's. Shared pages print after the book's own pages.
• On any book, choose Change for this book to give that book its own version of a shared page, or leave a shared page out of that book. Other books keep the shared page.
• Placeholders are filled in for each book when it is built: {title}, {next_book_title} and {next_book_cover} (the next book in the series), {next_book_link} (its store link), {review_link}, {series_url} and {author_url} (your pen name's website).
• A web address placeholder written in the text prints as a link showing the address, so print readers can type it. To make words into the link, select them, choose the link button and type the placeholder, such as {review_link}.
• The Placeholders for this book box shows what each one fills in and warns you when a page uses one with nothing to fill it. Add the book's review link and the series page right there.

Pages for each language

• The language of a build comes from the format you build (its Language field). A build with no format chosen is in the book's own language.
• A page set to some languages prints only in those, exactly as written, with its formatting, links and images. It needs no translation in Writing Studio.
• A page with no language ticked prints in every language, so a French file gets it too. Tick the page's own language when you add a version for another language.
• Shared pages work the same way: give a series or pen name a page for each language and every book prints the right one. If a series only has pages for some languages, the other languages use the pen name's pages.
• On a book, Change for this book can make a version for one language and leave the others on the shared page. A shared page can have one version per language in a book, plus one for every language.
• Placeholders such as {review_link} and {next_book_link} fill in the same values in every language, so write a language's own link into that page when it differs.

Below the fields, Chapters in the book lists your chapters and how each one prints:

• A chapter called Prologue, Epilogue, Interlude or Afterword (or one ending in "(Epilogue)") prints without a number, and the chapters after it keep their numbers. You can number it anyway, or take the number off any other chapter.
• Set a chapter to front matter or back matter when it isn't part of the story, like "A Note from the Author". It prints with that matter and has no chapter number.
• If a chapter is called Copyright, About the Author or Also By and you move it to the front or back matter, it takes the place of the page StorytellerOS would build for you, as long as you haven't filled in that box above.
• The same goes for a page in your custom back matter (or a custom section) titled About the Author or "Also by" followed by your name: it takes the place of the page built from your pen name's bio or your other books, and prints where you put it. A custom front section titled Copyright does the same for the copyright page. A box you filled in yourself always prints, and the finished files tell you if a page would print twice.
• When a chapter would repeat a page that already prints (for example a "Copyright" chapter plus your copyright page), the wizard tells you and shows how to fix it. Nothing is removed for you.
• Chapter numbers use your own chapter word from the title's settings, so a book that uses "Part" prints "Part 1".

Below the chapters, a few choices about how the book is built:

• Give each heading in your custom back matter its own page (on to start). Each main heading, such as "Keep Reading" or "More from your imprint", starts a new page with its own entry in the table of contents. Turn it off to keep your custom back matter on one page.
• Add store links to the "Also By" list, separately for the ebook, the Word file and print (off to start). Each book links to its universal book link if it has one, otherwise to a store link saved on that book's ebook or print edition. Some stores turn down ebooks that link to a different store, so a universal book link is the safest choice. In print, the address prints after the title. With print links on, you can also add a QR code beside each store link in print.
• Include the theme's fonts in the ebook (on to start). Readers see your theme's typeface even when their device doesn't have it. The fonts add about 0.3 to 1.2 MB to the file, and some stores charge a small delivery fee per sale based on file size, so you can turn this off.

Links and images in your book

• Links you add in your chapters or custom back matter are tappable in the ebook and the Word file. In print, the words are followed by the web address in parentheses so readers can type it.
• Images you add in a chapter, or in your custom back matter, are placed in the ebook, the Word file and the print interior. Images on the web need an address starting with https://. Images from your media library work too.
• JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP pictures up to 10 MB each work. SVG drawings can't be placed in a book file, so save them as PNG or JPEG first.
• If an image can't be copied into the book (for example, the website is down or the file is too big), its description prints in its place and the finished files list a note naming the chapter or page, so nothing you wrote goes missing.
• To add an image to your custom back matter, use the image button in its editor on the book's page: choose from your media library or paste an image address, and pick its size, such as a third of the page width. The ebook, the Word file and print all use that size.
• To center an image or a line, put it on its own line and use the center button. To make an image a link, such as a cover that opens its store page, select the image and use the link button.

QR codes in print

Readers of your paperback or hardcover can't tap a link, but they can scan a QR code with their phone. You choose which links get one, such as your review link, your newsletter and your store pages. The ebook and the Word file keep the plain tappable link with no code.

• Custom back matter and front or back matter pages: select the link, use the link button, and tick Show a QR code in print. Tick Print the link's words under the code to add a short caption.
• Chapter text: type {qr} right after the link, for example [Leave a review](https://example.com/review){qr}. Use {qr caption} to print the link's words under the code.
• Also By list: turn on print store links in the wizard, then tick the QR code choice under it.
• The code prints beside the link, about 0.8 inch square, black on white, with a clear border so phones read it. On narrow pages it prints under the link. It never splits across two pages.
• Codes work for web addresses (https://) only. An email link keeps its words and address with no code.
• A long address makes a busy code, and Publishing Studio tells you so. A very long one is too dense to scan from paper, so it prints without a code and you get a note. A shorter address, such as a short link, fixes both.
• Codes are drawn by StorytellerOS when your book is built. Your links aren't sent anywhere to make them.

How each image prints

Every image in a chapter can have its own settings. Select the image in Writing Studio and use the image settings button in the toolbar, or open Page art and images in the Front & back matter step of the wizard, where every image in your chapters is listed with a Change button.

• Size: as it is, small (about a third of the text width), half width, large (three quarters) or full width.
• Alignment: left, center or right.
• Caption: printed in small italics under the image.
• Placement: with the text, on its own page (centered, with no page number or running head), or a full page that runs to the trimmed edges of the paper.
• Use: a picture in the text, a chapter heading image (printed above the chapter number and title), or a scene break ornament.
• Keep on the same page as the text after it, and start a new page before or after it.

The print interior and the Word file follow the same settings. The ebook reflows on every screen, so it uses the nearest match: the same width share, alignment and caption, and an image set to its own page or to the edges starts on a new screen. A full page to the edges has no room for a caption in print, so its caption shows in the ebook and Word file only.

When you build a print interior, we check how sharp each image will print at the size you chose. An image under 200 pixels per inch may look a little soft and one under 150 will likely look blurry; the finished files list a note naming the chapter and the image. 300 pixels per inch is best. Front and back matter images, like a small cover on a Keep Reading page, get a note below about 300, measured at the width you set for them.

The settings are saved in your chapter text, right after the image, so they stay with the chapter in its version history and exports. If you change an image's settings in the wizard while the chapter is open in Writing Studio, reopen the chapter there to see the change.

Page art: heading images, ornaments and backgrounds

In Page art and images, in the Front & back matter step, you can set, for the whole book:

• A chapter heading image, printed above every chapter title. A chapter with its own heading image uses that one instead.
• A scene break ornament, printed for every scene break instead of the theme's mark.
• An ornament from our library, for your scene breaks, above your chapter titles, or both. Next to the scene break ornament or the heading ornament, choose Choose from our library, pick one of the 28 swashes and dividers, then pick a size. It prints sharp in black in every file you build, including box set files and chapter previews. Choosing one replaces the picture you added for that spot. To switch back, choose Undo last change straight away, before you change the size, or add the picture again.
• Backgrounds for chapter opening pages, every other chapter page, front matter pages and back matter pages. Each has a strength (how faded it prints), a fit (fill the page, the whole image, or a repeating pattern) and whether it runs to the edge of the page or stays inside the margins.

Under Backgrounds for one chapter, any chapter can use the book's backgrounds, none at all, or its own art for its opening page and its other pages. If you use a chapter as a part divider (for example "Part One"), give it its own opening art here. A chapter set to print with the front or back matter uses the front or back matter background; its own choice is kept for when you set it back to a chapter.

We check that your text stays readable: if parts of a background are dark enough to make words hard to read, the wizard and the finished files suggest a lower strength. Backgrounds print in shades of gray on a black-and-white interior. The ebook can't place art behind text, so it shows each chapter's opening art at the top of the chapter instead; the Word file has no backgrounds.

Art that runs to the edge of the page (and a full page image to the edges) needs a bleed interior: each page is 0.125 inch larger on the edges the printer trims. Publishing Studio turns bleed on for you when your page art needs it, and turns it back to your own choice when it no longer does. When you upload a bleed interior, choose the bleed option at the printer. The text area stays the same size, so the page count doesn't change.

Every change to page art saves at once. Undo last change brings back the settings from before, even after you close the page.

Fore-edge art

Fore-edge art prints a picture on the outer edge of the closed book. Each page gets a thin slice of the art along its outer edge, so when the pages are trimmed and closed, the edges form the picture. Tall, narrow art works best: the left side of the image is the front of the book. The wizard shows a preview of the closed book's edge.

• It prints only with printers that publish a bleed interior specification we follow: Amazon KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu, paperback and hardcover. Other print editions build without it, and your art stays saved.
• Printers trim every copy a little differently (up to about 1/8 inch, or 1/16 inch at IngramSpark), so the picture on the edge shifts slightly from copy to copy.
• Color art needs a color interior. On a black-and-white interior it prints in shades of gray.
• Fore-edge art makes the interior a bleed interior, as above.

Text size and line spacing

Under Text size and line spacing in the Front and back matter step, choose the size of the story text and the space between lines for print and for the ebook. Leave a choice on The theme's own to keep the theme's setting. The ebook size is a share of the reader's own size, so readers can still make the text bigger or smaller on their device. Large print editions keep the size from their print setup.

Preview a chapter

Under Preview a chapter in the Front & back matter step, pick a chapter and choose Show the printed pages to see its first pages exactly as they will print, with your theme, trim size, paper and text settings. Choose Show the ebook page to see it as the ebook shows it, on a phone and on an e-reader. A print preview needs a print format with its printer, trim size and paper saved. Previews never change your book.

Box set and omnibus files

Once a box set is set up (Titles, then Box sets & anthologies), open the box set's own title. The Build the box set files card puts every book in the set into one ebook or one print interior, saved on the format you choose like any other file.

• The box set's own title page and copyright page come first, using that format's ISBN and publisher. The print interior also gets a contents page listing every book and its chapters, with page numbers. The ebook's contents list puts each book's chapters under it.
• Each book starts with its own title page on a right-hand page, then the pages it keeps (dedication, foreword and so on: you choose which), then its chapters.
• Chapter numbers can start again in each book or run straight through the set.
• About the author and Also by pages can print once at the end of the set (each different one once) or at the end of each book.
• Pages you leave out are listed when the build finishes. Nothing in the books themselves changes.
• In a print box set, page numbers run straight through from the first page, so the contents page numbers match.
• Box set files are typeset like any other book: curly quotes, your imprint logo on the title page and your chosen ornaments. In print, the box set's own contents page takes the place of each book's single contents page. In the ebook, the reader's contents menu lists every book with its chapters under it.

Ebook details

The ebook carries your publisher, ISBN, description, language and series from the ebook format you build it for, and its translated title when the format has one. If you build without choosing a format, those details come from the book's formats in that language, ebook first, then print, and the finished files say so. An ebook never carries the ISBN of a print format.

Your AI assistant, connected to StorytellerOS, can also change where a chapter prints. Your chapters stay in Writing Studio either way.

These fields are saved to the book, so you only need to fill them in once. The title page and table of contents are made for you.

Covers

For an ebook, the book's ebook cover is placed inside the file. Manage that image from the book's own page.

For each print format, choose one:

• Upload a finished cover: a one-page, print-ready cover PDF from your designer or formatting tool. StorytellerOS checks it against that format's size and tells you if something needs attention.
• Build a cover from your front cover: StorytellerOS wraps your front cover art around the spine and back, with spine text you can edit. You can add an optional background image for the back and spine.
• How the front art fits: by default your whole front cover sits a little inside the trim, so your title and author name stay clear of the edge where the printer cuts and pass the retailer's cover check. Printers ask for an eighth of an inch inside the trim to stay clear, so the art is shrunk to sit inside that line and keeps its shape. The colors along the edges of your art carry out to the trim, so the front still reads as one picture. Most ebook covers are a slightly different shape from a print trim size, so the strip is wider on two sides: an ebook cover at 2 by 3 on a 5.5 by 8.5 inch book sits about a third of an inch from the top and bottom and an eighth of an inch from the outside edge. Cover Studio shows the measurements for your own cover under this choice. For a front with no strip, ask your designer for a print-size front with extra art past the trim (bleed) and choose Run my art to the edges instead. Your art is never stretched.
• Back and spine: unless you pick a color, the colors along the edges of your front cover carry across the spine and back. The Edge color blend slider makes that smoother or keeps more of the detail. Text is near-black or white, whichever is easier to read on the part of the cover it sits on, unless you pick a text color.
• Spine: the title runs from the top and your name sits at the bottom. Each is sized so its letters fit the spine's width with room to spare. Amazon KDP prints spine text only on books over 79 pages, and a very thin spine is left blank. If the spine title and name are too long to fit, the cover isn't saved and you're asked to shorten the spine title; nothing is cut off.
• Imprint logo: add your imprint or publisher logo on the pen name's page (Pen names, then Edit). Print covers for that pen name's books put it at the bottom of the back cover, away from the barcode area, and the back cover text stays above it. A PNG with a clear background works best. Turn it off for one cover in Cover Studio. Removing a logo from the pen name keeps the file, so you can put it back.
• Large Print band: Large Print editions get a band across the top of the front cover that reads LARGE PRINT EDITION, with the art below it. Change the wording or its color, show it on another edition, or hide it, in Cover Studio.
• Wrap preview: drawn from the same plan as your print file, so what you see is what prints: the background, the art, every line of text at its real size, the barcode box and your logo. The tinted edge is cut off when the book is trimmed (on a hardcover it folds around the board); keep text inside the blue lines. On a hardcover the shaded strips beside the spine are the hinges, where the cover bends, so keep them clear. Notes, such as art that may print soft, show under the preview before you make the cover. Click Enlarge for a full-size view.

Review & generate

This step lists anything that stops you from generating, and anything worth a second look. These stop you until they're fixed:

• The book has no chapters.
• No format is chosen.
• Print is chosen but no print retailer is ticked (or Large Print is on with no retailer).

Other notes, such as no ebook cover or no ISBN on the ebook, are warnings: you can still generate, but check them before you upload. Click Generate and StorytellerOS makes each format and shows its progress. When a file is ready, a Download button appears. Download links last 24 hours; everything you make stays listed in Publishing Studio, so you can come back for a fresh link later.

If you made print files, every print format needs a cover before you can move on to Distribute. Go back to Covers to finish any that are missing; their sizes now use your book's real page count.

Distribute

For each format that has files, you can:

• Create a draft on Direct2Readers. The format is added to Direct2Readers as a draft with its cover and details, and a print format also takes its print files. For an ebook, you attach the EPUB to its delivery in your Direct2Readers dashboard yourself. Nothing goes on sale until you publish it. The format needs a price first. Sending it again updates the same listing, and returns it to a draft: if that book is already on sale on Direct2Readers, it comes off sale until you publish it again there.
• Download an upload bundle for a retailer: KDP, Draft2Digital, Apple Books, Kobo or Google Play for an ebook, or your print retailer for a paperback or hardcover. Everything downloads all of that format's files at once. Each bundle has the files named the way the retailer expects, your book details, and an upload checklist.

Below the formats you'll see the history of what you've sent. When you're done, click Mark publishing finished. Your files and history stay with the book; publishing it again later starts a fresh run through the wizard.

Selling on your Shopify store

If you've connected your Shopify store in Sales Studio, the Distribute step shows a Sell on Shopify box for each format. One store can sell books from all your pen names, so you connect it once, not per book.

1. Click Add to Shopify as a draft. The book is added to your store with its title, description, price, cover and SKU (or ISBN), but it isn't on sale yet.
2. Check the draft in your Shopify admin.
3. Click Publish to put it on sale in your online store. The store link is added to the book's retailer links.

Shopify handles the sale itself: set up shipping for print books, and delivery of ebook and audiobook files, in your Shopify admin. For ebooks and audiobooks, set up delivery in your store's download app and turn off shipping on the product in Shopify. An audiobook can be listed once you've uploaded your finished audiobook file to its format.

Distribute Ready Files

Use this path when your files are already finished. It has three steps:

1. Ready files: add an ebook, paperback or hardcover, then attach its files: the EPUB for an ebook, or the interior PDF and cover PDF for print. You can also keep your formatting tool's project file with the book. It is saved, but it isn't sent anywhere, so attach the exported files too.
2. Review: check which formats have everything they need.
3. Distribute: the same choices as above.

Cover and Spine

A print cover has to wrap around a spine that matches your page count and paper. Get the spine wrong and the cover won't line up when printed. For most print retailers, Publishing Studio builds the complete cover for you, sized from your book's real page count. Add your front cover first: without one, there is nothing to build from.

Barnes & Noble Press doesn't publish its spine math. For it, you get the interior file plus a measurements sheet (trim size, spine width and margins) to use with its own cover template tool or to hand to your designer.

Hardcovers are printed on a sheet that folds around the boards. For Amazon KDP and Lulu hardcovers, Publishing Studio builds that full sheet. The edge that wraps the board and the hinges beside the spine match the sizes each retailer's own cover calculator gives, and on KDP the barcode area sits where KDP asks for it.

The back cover text comes from the Back-cover copy box in Cover Studio. If that is empty, it uses the description on the print format, and if that is empty too, your book's synopsis. Long text is set in a smaller size so it fits. Text is never cut short: if your own back-cover copy or description is too long to fit even at the smallest size, the cover isn't saved and you're asked to shorten it. If your synopsis is too long, the cover is made without back text and you're told to add back-cover copy. Either way the message tells you how many words your text has and about how many fit, so you know how much to trim. What you type in Cover Studio is saved as you type, so Generate on the Review step uses it even if you never pressed the button to make the cover.

For best results, use a cover image that is high resolution, at least 300 pixels per inch across the full front panel. If your cover art is too low-resolution for the trim size you picked, Publishing Studio warns you before you generate.

Troubleshooting

The Generate button is grayed out

• Make sure the book has at least one chapter. An empty book has nothing to make.
• Make sure at least one format is chosen on the Formats step.
• If you chose Print, make sure at least one print retailer is ticked (and one Large Print retailer, if Large Print is on).

A file failed to generate

• The wizard tells you in plain words what went wrong for that format and what to change, for example a page count your retailer does not accept
• Click Try again after making any needed changes to the book
• If a file takes far longer than usual, the wizard stops waiting, says so, and offers Try again
• If it keeps failing, contact support and tell us which book and format

I can't move on to Distribute

• Every print format needs a cover first. Go back to Covers and upload or build the missing ones.

"We couldn't read Chapter 4, so the book wasn't built"

• Publishing Studio never makes a book with a chapter missing or blank. If one chapter can't be read at that moment, nothing is made and the message names the chapter.
• Your words are safe. Wait a moment and click Try again.
• If it keeps happening for the same chapter, open that chapter in Writing Studio to check it, then contact support with the chapter name.

I refreshed the page, or closed it while my files were being made

• Your files keep being made. Open the wizard again and the Review and generate step shows their progress, or the finished files, right where you left them

Is my front and back matter saved?

• Yes. The Front and back matter step saves as you type and shows All changes saved when it is done
• If the same text was also changed somewhere else, such as the title's details page, the wizard keeps your version on screen and asks which one to keep
• If you try to leave the page with text that is not saved yet, your browser asks first

I removed a page by mistake

• Click Undo right away, or find it under Recently removed and click Restore. Shared pages have their own Recently removed list
• Removed pages can be restored for 30 days. A restored page goes back at the end of its front or back matter
• To undo a change instead, open the page and choose Earlier versions

Making cover art with AI

• Making front art with AI is included with your plan; you do not need your own image key
• If you saved your own image key in Settings and it stops working, you still get art from the included service, with a note telling you to update or remove that key
• You see the art first. Nothing changes until you click Use this cover
• In Covers, new AI art is used for that print format only. Your ebook cover stays as it is

Download link says expired

• Download links last 24 hours after you request them.
• Everything you've made stays in Publishing Studio. Open the book again to get a fresh link; there's no need to redo the whole wizard.

The print cover doesn't line up

• If you changed the manuscript after generating, generate the print files again so the spine matches the new page count.
• For Barnes & Noble Press, IngramSpark and Draft2Digital Print, check the cover against the retailer's own cover template before uploading.

Publishing Studio isn't in my sidebar

• Publishing Studio is in early access. To ask for access, email [email protected].