How a book is put together
You do not need to know any of this to start writing. The tool handles the formatting. But knowing the shape helps you make decisions, so here is the whole picture in plain words.
The three parts of every book
Front matter is everything before the story starts. Body is the story. Back matter is everything after. Publishers order these the same way in almost every book, so readers never notice them. That is the goal.
Front matter (in this order)
- Half title: a page with only the title. Print books only. Optional.
- Title page: title, subtitle, author name. Always.
- Copyright page: the legal notice, the "this is a work of fiction" disclaimer, the ISBN if you have one. Always. We generate a standard one.
- Dedication: one line. "For Sarah." Optional but common.
- Epigraph: a short quote that sets the mood. Optional.
- Table of contents: printed novels usually skip it. Ebooks get a clickable one automatically.
- Foreword, preface, introduction: almost never in a novel.
- Prologue: a scene set before the story proper. Use with care. Many editors skip them.
Body
Your chapters, optionally grouped into parts ("Part One: The Road"). Chapters are made of scenes. More on those below. An epilogue can sit at the end of the body.
Back matter (in this order)
- Acknowledgments: thank people. Keep it to a page.
- About the author: two to four sentences, third person, where to find you.
- Also by / next book: a list, or the first chapter of the sequel.
- Glossary, appendix, maps: mostly for fantasy and science fiction.
The tool's Export screen turns on the right pages for a novel by default. You can switch any of them on or off.
Chapters and scenes
A scene is one continuous stretch of story: one place, one span of time, one point-of-view character. When the place, time or viewpoint changes, that is a new scene.
A chapter is a bundle of one or more scenes that ends on a reason to keep reading. There is no rule for chapter length. A thriller might run 1,500 words a chapter. A literary novel might run 6,000. Somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 words is the comfortable middle.
Inside a chapter, scenes are separated by a scene break. In a manuscript that is a line with a single # on it, centered. In a printed book it becomes a blank line or a small ornament. Use the scene-break button in the editor and the export does the rest.
Every scene should answer three questions, which the editor's side panel asks you: what does the viewpoint character want in this scene (goal), what gets in the way (conflict), and how does it end (outcome)? If you cannot answer, the scene probably is not needed.
Point of view (POV)
Pick who holds the camera and stick to it for the whole scene.
- First person: "I walked in." Intimate. You can only know what the narrator knows.
- Third person limited: "She walked in." Still one character's head at a time, but you can switch between scenes. This is the most common choice in modern fiction and the safest for a first book.
- Third person omniscient: a narrator who knows everything and everyone. Hard to do well.
The editor lets you set a POV character per scene so you can see at a glance whose eyes we are behind.
How long should it be?
| Genre |
Typical range |
| Literary, mystery, romance, thriller |
70,000 to 100,000 words |
| Fantasy, science fiction |
90,000 to 120,000 |
| Young adult |
55,000 to 85,000 |
| Middle grade |
25,000 to 55,000 |
| Novella |
17,500 to 40,000 |
A first novel is easiest to sell between 70,000 and 100,000 words. The dashboard tracks your count against the target you set in the wizard.
Standard manuscript format
When you send a manuscript to an agent, editor or a professional proofreader, they expect one specific look. It is deliberately plain. The tool's DOCX export produces it exactly:
- Letter paper, one-inch margins on all sides.
- 12-point Times New Roman.
- Double-spaced. No extra blank lines between paragraphs.
- Each paragraph starts with a half-inch indent. Left-aligned, ragged right edge.
- A header on every page except the first:
Surname / SHORT TITLE / page number.
- A title page with your name, contact details, and the word count rounded to the nearest hundred. The title sits a third of the way down.
- Each chapter starts on a new page, with the heading about a third of the way down.
- Scene breaks are a single centered
#.
- Italics are shown as italics (underlining is from the typewriter era).
Always check an agent's own guidelines; if they ask for something different, do what they ask.
The usual way to write a novel
- Idea: one sentence. Who wants what, what is in the way, what happens if they fail. The wizard asks for this.
- Characters: at least a protagonist and an antagonist. Fill in the character sheet, especially the Arc section: who they are at the start, how they change, who they are at the end.
- Outline: pick a structure (Three-Act is the simplest) and write one or two sentences for each beat. You now know the shape of the whole book before writing a word of it.
- Draft: write the scenes. Do not edit as you go. A bad first draft is the plan. Dictate if typing slows you down.
- Revise: read it through, fix the story first (what happens), then the scenes (does each one earn its place), then the sentences (last, always last).
- Export: DOCX for editors, EPUB for e-readers, PDF to print.
Audiobooks in brief
An audiobook is the book read aloud, one audio file per chapter, plus a short opening credits file ("Title, by Author, read by Narrator") and a closing credits file that ends with "The End."
If you want to sell it on Audible through ACX, the files must meet their technical spec, which the Audiobook Studio checks for you: 44.1 kHz MP3 at 192 kbps or better, loudness between -23 and -18 dB RMS, peaks no louder than -3 dB, a noise floor below -60 dB, and one to five seconds of silence at the start and end of each file. No file may be longer than 120 minutes.
One important rule: ACX requires a human narrator unless Audible has specifically authorized synthetic narration for your title. The studio's text-to-speech voices are perfect for hearing your book read back, for personal audiobooks, for drafts, and for platforms that accept synthetic voices. For Audible, use the studio to prepare the narration script, pronunciation guide and chapter files, then record with a human narrator, or apply for Audible's own virtual voice program.
Before narration, build the pronunciation table: every invented name and unusual word, spelled out the way it sounds. Narrators ask for this. So do text-to-speech engines.