Chapter 52 · Getting Work In and Out
Exporting an EPUB
An EPUB is the novel as a reader holds it: reflowing text, a contents list, a page turn between chapters. It is the file you hand a beta reader or load onto your own e-reader. Storskarvia builds it from the structure of your manuscript, so the headings you set decide what the book looks like. This chapter covers where to get one, how the chapters are found, what makes it in, and the handful of ways it can surprise you.
Where the EPUB lives
There are two ways to make one, and both are for novels only.
| Route | Where | What it contains |
|---|---|---|
| One document | In the editor, Export ▾ then Ebook (.epub) | That document, as it stands |
| A whole book | On the project page, Compile to, choose EPUB (.epub), then press Compile | Every document the compile includes, with its front matter |
The Ebook entry appears only in a document written in the novel format. A screenplay, stage play, audio drama or video script has no ebook form, so the entry is not in its menu. A prose document inside a screenplay project, such as a series bible, is a novel-format document and gets the entry. The small ⭳ Export menu beside each document on the project page does not offer EPUB; open the document, or compile.
Like every export the server builds, the editor's Ebook entry saves first. The status bar reads Saving…, your latest edit reaches the server, and only then is the book made from it. The file downloads under the document's title. Compiling works the same way and names the file after the project; Chapter 33 covers the compile settings.
Where the chapters come from
Every chapter of the ebook starts at a real heading, and nowhere else. In the Home ribbon's style gallery those are the Chapter and Section cards:
| Style | In the EPUB |
|---|---|
| Chapter | Starts a new chapter, listed in the book's contents, with the heading printed centred at the top |
| Section | Exactly the same as Chapter. The contents list is flat, so a Section sits beside the Chapters rather than under them |
| Subsec | Stays inside the current chapter as a smaller heading, and is not listed |
Each chapter is a separate file inside the book, so every one opens on a fresh page.
The Outline also detects chapters you typed as plain lines, such as Chapter One
on a line of its own. Detection is not enough for the ebook. A detected line is
still body text, and the EPUB runs straight through it. Promote each one first: put the cursor in
the line and press ⌘⌥1, click the Chapter card, or click +H beside it
in the Outline. Chapter 15 explains detection and
promotion in full.
Anything before your first heading becomes an opening chapter, listed in the contents as Opening with no title printed above it. A heading you have struck through completely in suggestion mode is treated as cut: it disappears, and the paragraphs under it join the chapter before.
What goes inside
An export is the accepted view of the draft. In a document with pending suggestions, struck words are left out and suggested additions are in, whether or not anyone has accepted them yet. Chapter 44 covers suggestions. Comments stay behind.
| In the draft | In the EPUB |
|---|---|
| Italic, bold, underline | Kept |
| Body paragraphs | First-line indent, except the first paragraph under a chapter heading and the first after a block quote or a page break |
| Scene break | A rule across the page |
| Page Break | A forced break, in readers that honour one |
| Block quote | Indented and set in italics |
| Bulleted and numbered lists | Kept, including a list inside a list |
| Table | The cell text, run together in one paragraph |
| Picture | Its alt text, in italics. The picture itself is not in the book |
| Footnote | Left out |
Alt text comes from the name of the file you uploaded, and it is the only trace of a picture that survives here. Chapter 14 explains why to name image files with care, and compares every export's handling of pictures, notes and tables. If a reader needs to see the pictures or the notes, send Word.
The type is a serif at a comfortable reading size. Most e-readers let the reader swap the font and size for their own, which is how reflowing books are meant to work.
The label on the book
An e-reader files a book by the details packed inside it, and Storskarvia writes a small set:
| Detail | One document | A compiled book |
|---|---|---|
| Title | The document's title | The project's title |
| Author | None | The name on your account, or the part of your email
before the @ if you never gave one |
| Language | English | English |
| Cover image | None | None |
Two consequences are worth knowing before you send one. A single document's EPUB shows no author in most libraries, so compile when the name matters. And the compile's Author and Title fields print on the title page inside the book, while the label the library shows still uses your account name and the project's title. If you write under a pen name, set it as the name on your account page before compiling. The language cannot be changed, which matters only to readers that pick a dictionary or hyphenation from it.
Each book also carries an identifier made from the document, or the project for a compile, and the title. Exporting the same document again produces the same identifier, and renaming the document produces a new one.
Treat the file as a reading copy. A store upload will want a cover, and details this EPUB does not hold.
When it goes wrong
| What you see | What happened |
|---|---|
| No Ebook (.epub) entry | The document is a script, not prose. EPUB is for novels; use a typeset PDF instead. |
| Not exported, your last change has not reached the server | The save before the export failed, so no file was made rather than one missing your last edit. Check the connection and export again. |
| Not exported: no connection | The request never reached Storskarvia. Try again once you are back online. |
| The whole book is one chapter called Opening | There are no real headings. Promote your chapter titles, as described above. |
| Every Section is its own chapter | Section starts a chapter in the EPUB. Use Subsec for divisions that should stay inside a chapter. |
The file is called book.epub | The file name keeps only unaccented
letters, digits, spaces, hyphens and underscores. A title with none of those falls back to
book, and punctuation such as apostrophes and colons is dropped. |
| The book opens empty | The document has no text yet. The export does not refuse an empty document; it builds an empty book. |
The other ways out of Storskarvia are gathered in Part VIII. Part IX, on your plan, your data and leaving with your work, follows it.
Updated 2026-09-28 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?