Write & design

Studio

Studio is where you write your book, set up the title page and other front matter, design the cover, and export a print-ready PDF. Everything auto-saves as you go.

Starting a book

Open Studio from your Launchpad (or go to /studio/dashboard.html). The dashboard lists every book you've started, with its word count and a status badge (Draft, In Progress, or Published).

Create a new book

Click + New Book at the top right.
Enter a Book Title and pick a Theme (Gilded, Midnight, Stark, Scholar, Memoir, or Modern). The theme controls your typography and chapter-heading style — you can change it anytime.
Click Create Book →. You land in the editor with Chapter One ready.

Import an existing manuscript

Click ↑ Import Manuscript.
Drag in a .docx or .txt file (up to 50 MB), or click to choose one.
Studio detects chapters from your Word Heading 1 styles and sorts common front/back matter (title page, copyright, dedication, epilogue, etc.) automatically. When it finishes, you're taken to the editor.

For the cleanest import, style each chapter title as Heading 1 in Word. Anything not under a Heading 1 becomes part of the previous chapter.

Writing in the editor

The editor has four tabs near the top: Manuscript, Front Matter, Cover, and Settings. The left sidebar lists your chapters and the front/back-matter sections.

In the sidebar, click + next to Chapters to add a chapter, or click any chapter to open it. Drag chapters to reorder them.
Type in the main editing area. Use the formatting toolbar for bold, italics, headings, blockquotes, scene breaks, and chapter opening images.
Your word count updates live at the bottom of the sidebar, and the save indicator at the top shows Saving… then Saved. There is no Save button — it's automatic.

Front & back matter

On the Front Matter tab, toggle on the sections you want — title page, copyright, dedication, epigraph, foreword, preface, acknowledgments (and back matter like epilogue, afterword, about the author). Each has its own editor. The Table of Contents is generated automatically from your chapter titles. Only the sections you turn on appear in the preview and the final PDF.

Designing the cover

On the Cover tab, choose how your cover is built:

Front-only — just the front image.
Separate covers — individual front, spine, and back images.
Full wrap — one continuous front-spine-back image.

Upload your artwork (PNG, JPG, or WebP) or drag it in.
The 3-D preview shows how it looks, and the spine width auto-calculates from your page count and paper. Adjust the page-count control to fine-tune.
Click ↓ Download Print-Ready Cover to export at 300 DPI with bleed. For a Linen Wrap edition you'll get two files — a dust-jacket template and a case-wrap (spine) template.

Previewing your book

While you write on desktop, a live preview on the right shows the printed page layout updating as you type (hidden on mobile to save space). For the exact print result, open Print Proof — a full PDF viewer you can page through to check chapters, front matter, the table of contents, and margins.

Exporting & backing up

Click ↓ Export in the top bar:

View Print Proof — page through the print-ready PDF without downloading.
Print PDF — download the exact, finalized print-ready file (this is what you upload in Direct).
Download Backup — a safety copy containing your full book data plus a printable HTML version. Extract it, open the HTML in your browser, and use Ctrl/Cmd+P → Save as PDF for a readable copy.

When you leave the editor, Studio offers a one-click session-end backup. It's quick insurance — grab it if you did meaningful work.

Your author profile

Open Profile (/studio/profile.html) to set what readers see on your author page: display name, profile photo, tagline, bio, a featured book, your mailing-list link, and social links.

Pick your URL carefully. Your author web address (your "slug") locks once you publish your first book, so readers' links stay stable. Choose it before you publish.

Handing off to Direct

When the book is finished:

Review it in Print Proof and confirm your Profile is complete.
Export the Print PDF (and a backup for your records).
Go to Direct to choose your format, set your price, upload your interior and cover, and go live. The cost calculator and the templates / binding styles pages can help you decide the format first.