Books and series

• Front and back matter
• Choose where a section appears: print, ebook or both
• Sections a series shares
• Make an omnibus

Front and back matter

Front matter is everything before chapter one—the title page, the copyright page, a dedication, the contents. Back matter is everything after the last chapter—acknowledgments, an afterword, your author bio, a list of your other books. This page is about adding those sections, arranging them, and the handful of settings each one has.

Where they live

In the manuscript list on the left, Front matter sits above your chapters and Back matter below them. Click any section to open it in the middle of the screen.

Add a section

Click the + beside Front matter or Back matter. A small window opens with the sections most books have, ready to click:

Screenshot: the Add front matter window, with Add to (This book / Every book in the series) and the list of sections.

• Sections you write yourself—a dedication, an epigraph, a foreword, acknowledgments, an afterword, a glossary. Choose one, or Other section… to give it any name you like. It opens on a page, ready for you to write in, just like a scene.
• Sections Write makes for you, which wear a small Auto tag once they're in your manuscript list. These are set up rather than written, and they stay current on their own:
  • Title page — your title, subtitle, series line, byline and publisher, from Book details.
  • Copyright page — the standard wording, or one of your own copyright pages, with the year, ISBNs and the rest filled in.
  • Table of contents — your chapters (and parts), with page numbers in print and links in the ebook. When you open it, the page under As it will print shows estimated page numbers, so it appears in a moment instead of waiting for the whole book to be set. Preview and Publish print the real numbers.
  • Book list — one of your book lists, for an "Also by" page.
  • About the author — one of your author bios, so every book under that pen name says the same thing.
  • Image page — a page that is a picture: a map, an illustration, an art plate.

If the book is in a series, the window also asks where the section goes: This book, or Every book in the series. A section for every book is written once and appears in each of them—handy for an author bio or a reading-order page. See Sections a series shares.

Put them in order

Drag a section up or down in the list, or use Move section up and Move section down from its … menu. The order in the list is the order in the book.

The settings above each section

When a section is open, a slim bar across the top holds its settings:

• Print edition and Ebook — which editions the section appears in. Both are on to begin with. See Choose where a section appears: print, ebook or both.
• Starts on — where the section begins in print: the next page, a right-hand page or a left-hand page. Write adds a blank page before it when one is needed, and the blank keeps its running head and page number, so nobody wonders whether it was meant to be there. Most front matter starts on a right-hand page; a copyright page, which sits on the back of the title page, doesn't offer the choice. A left-hand page is for the left half of a picture across two pages (see Choose where a section appears).
• Show title — turn it off to print the section without its heading, as a dedication often is. The name still shows in your list and in the contents.
• Centre on the page — sets the whole section in the middle of the page, as a dedication or epigraph usually is. This is for print; an ebook flows from the top.
• Background… — a picture behind every page of the section, in print.

Screenshot: an open front-matter section with the slim settings bar across the top, showing Print edition, Ebook, Starts on, Show title, Centre on the page and Background….

Not every section has every setting; you'll only see the ones that apply.

Remove a section

Choose Remove section from its … menu. If the section comes from the series rather than this book, the menu offers Leave out of this book instead, which hides it here and leaves the other books alone.

Choose where a section appears: print, ebook or both

Most front and back matter belongs in every edition of a book. Now and then, though, a page makes sense in print but not on a screen, or the other way round. Each section has two boxes for exactly this, so you can keep a print-only version and an ebook-only version side by side.

The two boxes

Open the section, and in the bar across the top you'll see Print edition and Ebook. Both are ticked to begin with.

Screenshot: the bar across the top of an open section, with Print edition and Ebook beside Starts on and Show title.

• Both ticked — the section is in the paperback, the hardcover and the ebook.
• Only Print edition — it's in the print PDF and left out of the ebook.
• Only Ebook — it's in the ebook and left out of the print PDF.
• Neither — it's out of the book altogether. It stays in your list, faded, so you can tick it back on any time.

A section in just one edition wears a small Print or Ebook tag in the manuscript list, so you can see at a glance which is which.

The contents page in each edition lists only the sections that edition has, so nothing points to a page that isn't there.

An example: a picture across two pages

Say you have a map that spreads across two facing pages in the paperback. In an ebook, two half-maps on two screens would be no use to anyone; you want the whole map on one screen. So you make three image pages:

1. The left half — Print edition ticked, Ebook not, and Starts on set to a left-hand page.
2. The right half, straight after it — Print edition ticked, Ebook not, and Starts on set to the next page, so it faces the left half across the gutter.
3. The whole map — Ebook ticked, Print edition not.

Each edition gets the version that suits it, and you only ever change the one you mean to.

Because the left half starts on a left-hand page, the two halves always face each other, however the pages before them fall. If the section before the map ends on a left-hand page, Write puts a blank right-hand page in between; it keeps its running head and page number, like any blank page in the book. When you look at the left half on its own, its preview starts with that blank page and a note saying why. It won't print that way unless the book needs it.

Why some sections don't have the boxes

• The title page and the table of contents are in every edition, always.
• A section shared with the series shows the boxes greyed out, with a Shared with series tag at the top. Changing them there would change every book in the series, so instead choose Make a copy for this book, just above, and set the editions on this book's own copy.

Chapters

The boxes are only for front and back matter. Every chapter is in every edition—a chapter missing from one would make it a different book.

Sections a series shares

Some pages are the same in every book of a series: your author bio, a note on the reading order, a "Join my newsletter" page at the back. Rather than keep a copy in each book and update them all by hand, you can write the section once on the series, and every book in it carries it.

Add a section to every book in a series

1. Open any book in the series.
2. Click the + beside Front matter or Back matter.
3. Under Add to, choose Every book in your series.
4. Choose the section.

Screenshot: the window that opens from the + beside Front matter, with Every book in (the series' name) chosen under Add to, above the list of sections.

It appears in every book in the series, now and in any you add later, with a Series tag beside it in the manuscript list.

Changing a shared section

Open it from any of the books and edit it as usual. A Shared with series tag at the top, and a line underneath, remind you that what you change here reaches every book in the series. That's the point—fix a typo once, and it's fixed everywhere.

Screenshot: a section shared with the series, open in one book, with the Shared with series tag and the line under it at the top, and the Make a copy for this book button.

When one book needs to be different

Sometimes one book needs its own version: a different bio for the prequel, say, or a reading-order page that stops at this book. Open the section in that book and click Make a copy for this book. From then on this book has its own copy, which you can change freely; the other books keep the shared one.

Some settings are only offered on a book's own copy for the same reason—Print edition and Ebook among them, since an edition is a choice for one book. They show greyed out on a shared section; make a copy to set them.

Leaving it out of one book

If one book shouldn't have the section at all, choose Leave out of this book from its … menu in the manuscript list (or from the bar at the top of the section). The other books keep it.

Removing it from the whole series

Choose Remove from every book in the series from the section's … menu. Any book that made its own copy keeps that copy.

Sections every book starts with

You may also see a few sections tagged Template. These are defaults that every new book begins with. Edit one, and this book quietly gets its own copy with your change, leaving the default alone for everyone else.

Make an omnibus

An omnibus is one book made of several of yours: a whole series in one volume, a box set of books one to three, or any mix you like. This page shows you how to make one and what it does with your books.

The important thing to know first: an omnibus reads its books live. It doesn't copy them. Every time you build it, it prints each book as it is that day, so a typo you fix in book two is fixed in the omnibus too, with nothing to redo.

Make one from a series

1. In the Library, open the … menu on the series' row and choose Create omnibus (boxed set).
2. A window opens with the series' books already ticked, in shelf order. Your other books under the same pen name are listed below, unticked, if you'd like to add any.
3. Give it a title, such as The Complete Saga, untick anything you'd rather leave out, and click Create omnibus.

Nothing is made until you click that button, so it's fine to look and cancel. The omnibus sits on that series' shelf, below its books, and opens in the editor.

Screenshot: the Create omnibus (boxed set) window, with a title field and a series' books ticked.

To start, it borrows the first book's page setup and the way its chapters open. Both are the omnibus's own from then on, so you can change them without touching the books.

Make one from any of your books

For a mix that isn't one series—your first books from two series, say—click New omnibus at the top of the Library (it's there once you have at least two books). The same window opens, with every book listed by series and nothing ticked yet: tick the ones you want, give it a title, and click Create omnibus. It goes under the pen name of the first book you ticked, and borrows that book's page setup and chapter openings.

Choose which books it holds

Where a book would list its chapters, an omnibus lists its Books.

• Add a book: click + beside Books and choose any of your books, from any series.
• Change the order: hover over a book and use ↑ and ↓. The order in the list is the order they print in.
• Take one out: hover over it and click ×. The book itself is untouched; it just stops being in the omnibus.
• Work on a book's chapters: click its title. The editor explains that its contents can't be edited from the omnibus—when the omnibus builds its PDF or EPUB, it pulls each book's text from the book itself—and offers Open the book to edit it, which takes you there.

Above 3 books in the omnibus. Below, clicking the + to add a fourth book.

 

If you archive one of the books, the omnibus keeps it in the list, faded, but leaves it out of the build until you restore it.

What prints

• The omnibus's own front and back matter, such as its title page, copyright page and contents. A new omnibus starts with a contents page. Each book's own dedication, copyright page and about-the-author are left behind; add what the omnibus needs to its own front and back matter.
• Each book behind its own title page: its title, subtitle, series line and byline, on a right-hand page.
• Each book's chapters, numbered as that book numbers them, with its parts if the book prints parts.
• A contents page that lists the books, with each book's chapters indented beneath it. The ebook's navigation is nested the same way.
• Running heads that name the book a page belongs to, not the omnibus.

The whole volume uses the omnibus's page setup and chapter openings, so it reads as one designed book. Preview shows it; Publish builds it, with its own ISBNs from Book details.

Good to know

• An omnibus has no chapters of its own, so you can't add one or import a manuscript into it.
• A book that's in an omnibus says so at the top of its manuscript list—Also printed in The Complete Saga—with a link to the omnibus, so you know a change there reaches the omnibus's next build too.
• Only you can change which books it holds, and only with books you own. If you share the omnibus, whoever you share it with can read its books' text in it.