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.