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

Open any book in the series.
Click the + beside Front matter or Back matter.
Under Add to, choose Every book in your series.
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.