How to Format a Book Written in Google Docs (Ebook and Paperback)

Google Docs is a great place to write a book. It's free, it saves as you go, it works on any computer, and sharing a chapter with an editor or beta reader takes seconds. Where it struggles is the last step: turning that document into a book.

Here's what Google Docs can and can't do, how to get your manuscript ready, and how to turn it into an ebook and a paperback without retyping a thing.

Can you publish straight from Google Docs?

Sort of. Google Docs can download your document as a PDF or an EPUB, and both will technically upload. But Google Docs was built for documents, not books, and it shows:

• Print needs room for the binding. A printed book has a wider inside margin, called the gutter, so words don't vanish into the spine. Google Docs uses the same margins on every page. (More in book margins and gutter explained.)
• Books have page furniture. Running heads with your name on one side and the book title on the other, page numbers that start at chapter one, chapters that open on a fresh page with a styled heading: all of this is fiddly or impossible in a document editor.
• The EPUB is basic. It's plain text with very little design. That can be fine for a simple book, but always check it in Kindle Previewer before you upload it.

So most authors keep writing in Google Docs and do the formatting somewhere else. The good news is that the work you do in Google Docs now makes that step almost automatic.

Get your manuscript ready in Google Docs

These steps take ten minutes or so and save you hours later:

• Make every chapter title a Heading 1. Click in the title, then choose Heading 1 from the style menu in the toolbar (the one that usually says "Normal text"). If a chapter has a number and a name, make the number Heading 1 and the name Heading 2.
• Keep the story in Normal text. Don't make body text bigger, smaller or a different font by hand. A formatting tool will set the type for you, and hand-made changes tend to get in the way.
• Don't indent with Tab or spaces. Paragraph indents are part of the design, and they're added for you.
• Don't use blank lines for spacing. Use one press of Enter between paragraphs. For a scene break, type *** on its own line. (More in how to format scene breaks.)
• Use real footnotes. If you have notes, add them with Insert, then Footnote, rather than typing numbers yourself. See how to add footnotes to a book.
• Clear out comments and suggestions. Go to Tools, then Review suggested edits, and accept or reject everything. Resolve the comments too.

Check your chapters with the outline

Google Docs has a handy check built in. Open the document outline (the list icon at the top left, or View, then Show outline). Every heading in your book appears there.

Read down the list. Every chapter should be in it, in the right order, with nothing extra. If a chapter is missing, its title isn't a heading yet. If a stray line of story turns up, it's been styled as a heading by mistake. Whatever the outline shows is what a formatting tool will see as your chapters.

Download a Word file

When the outline looks right, choose File, then Download, then Microsoft Word (.docx). You don't need Word installed: Google Docs makes the file itself, and your headings, italics, footnotes and images go with it.

Word files are what almost every formatting tool and publishing platform reads, so this one file is your finished manuscript. Keep it somewhere safe, and download a fresh one whenever you make changes in Google Docs.

Turn it into a book in Koberger

Koberger runs in your browser, like Google Docs, so it works on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebooks with nothing to install.

• Import the Word file. Koberger finds your chapters from the headings you set, along with your scene breaks, footnotes and images. If it gets a chapter wrong, you can split, merge or rename chapters in the editor.
• Pick a design. There are over 30 designs, from thrillers to romance to poetry, and you can change any detail of the one you choose.
• Preview it. See the ebook the way readers will on a phone or e-reader, and page through the paperback as it will print, gutter and all.
• Download your files. An EPUB for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and the rest, and a print-ready PDF for Amazon KDP or IngramSpark at your trim size.

You can import your manuscript and preview every page for free. You only pay when you're ready to download your finished files.