Creating a new book in Reedsy Studio is relatively easy. Even if you don’t have a title yet, you can set up the manuscript and start typing. Today, I’m going to show you the ins and outs of setting up your new book and tips on how to manage the manuscript.
This will work for both the free and paid versions of Reedsy Studio. However, some tools are expanded upon with the paid service, such as the writing timeline.
Ready to set up your book?
My video on creating and managing books in Reedsy.
How to Create the Book in Reedsy Studio
I’m going to assume that you have created your Reedsy Studio account and are ready to write. If you haven’t created an account yet, now’s the time.
You have two methods you can use to create a new book in the Reedsy book editor. You can either create a new book from scratch or import a file.
Importing to Reedsy
You can import DOCX and ODT files to Reedsy Studio that are 250MB or smaller. Most text will have no problem fitting under this criterion. However, files that have a lot of imagery may need to be altered before uploading.
Creating a New Book
From your Reedsy Bookshelf, click on the “Create book” button.
Give the book a title and subtitle (optional) and click, “Create book.”
Subtitles are not required for any book. Some authors will use them as a further explanation of what readers will find within the text.
Your book will then become available on the bookshelf. Books will show in order of when they were last accessed.
Managing the Book in Reedsy Studio
Hover your mouse over your book and click, “Manage.” This will open the management options in Reedsy.
From the management section of your book, you have three options: Settings, Exports, and Access. Let’s take a look at all three sections and what they do for your manuscript.
Settings
The Settings section in Reedsy Studio is where you can edit your title and subtitle, add your book cover, set email notifications, create a copy of the book, archive the manuscript, or delete it entirely.
Usually, I’ll put in a working or project title until I come up with a more permanent solution later on. It’s often the case that I don’t have an actual title of the book until I am more than halfway through writing the first draft.
If, for any reason, you need to make alterations, Reedsy makes it easy to change the title, subtitle, or book cover. Come back to this screen and make the necessary changes.
Why would you want to copy the book? Creating a duplicate saves you a lot of headache, should you decide to add collaborators, which I’ll go over in a moment. Besides, you can then archive the original manuscript to keep it safe while working from the copy.
When should you archive your book in Reedsy Studio? It depends on your preferences. Perhaps you don’t want to see a long list of books you’ve already published. Archiving them saves the manuscripts aside from the visible bookshelf in Reedsy. That way, you can keep all of your works in progress front and center.
I often archive the original first draft and leave the published books available. I do so for motivation; to remind me that I am a published author and to be proud of the work I’ve created.
Exports
On the Exports screen, you’ll find options to download your manuscript in PDF or ePub formats. Most online eBook systems use either of these file types.
There is also a link directly to the Settings screen, should you need to upload or change your book cover.
Reedsy has limited formatting options, but they are the industry standard. If you want something with a bit more flair and pizzazz, you’ll probably need to use something like Atticus or another tool with greater formatting options.
From the Export page in Reedsy Studio, you can choose to hide chapter numbers, add drop caps, and decide where to place End Notes (should you use them).
You can also adjust the trim sizes for traditionally printed books if you’re planning on creating physical copies. There are four trim sizes in Reedsy Studio:
- Trade (6″ x 9″)
- Digest (5.5″ x 8.5″)
- Reedsy Standard (5″ x 8″)
- Pocket (4.25″ x 6.87″)
If you need a special trim for the size of your book, you may have to look elsewhere. However, I often find myself using the Trade and Reedsy Standard for all of my printed book dimensions, and they look superb.
I have been advised by Reedsy that more formatting options are coming soon. I don’t know if they will be for free or paid accounts, but they are currently working on adding more to the book-writing app.
Access
The Access section is where you invite collaborators in Reedsy Studio to help you write or edit the manuscript. These people will have access to edit, update, or export the entire book. So, it’s a good idea to have absolute trust in those you invite.
The last thing you want is some stranger downloading your book and then passing it off as their own.
Those you invite will need to create a free Reedsy Studio account, even if you’re using the paid version. They don’t need to pay to access your story, and you can invite as many people as you’d like.
For instance, I have a select gathering of beta readers that I completely trust with my manuscript. Their goal is to simply read through the manuscript and comment on sections, words, or sentences that may need tweaking or further explanation.
Perhaps one of the best ways to avoid issues with collaborating is to write the first draft of your book and then create a duplicate copy for editing. That way, if something goes terribly awry, you have the original stored without anyone having access to the text.
You can also manage who has access on the page. Below the Invite Collaborators area, you can remove folks as you see fit.
I’ll go a bit deeper into collaborations in a future post, but it’s probably one of my favorite functions in Reedsy Studio. That’s because I use several beta readers to help polish up the text and a few editing folks to make sure everything jives well.
Always Create Backups
Never underestimate the value of backups for your manuscript. Not only does it help you save copies of your book, but you can also use those backups in a number of other apps.
For example, you can use Reedsy Studio to write the book and then import the manuscript into something like AutoCrit for editing before passing it on to beta readers, editors, or even agents. Or, you can then import the book back into Reedsy after editing with AutoCrit.
You don’t just have to save DOCX files as backups, either. You can download Print-Ready PDFs and ePub files as often as you’d like. And Reedsy Studio will keep track of every instance, so you can download older versions if you lose one.
The bottom line is that it’s always good practice to have saved versions of your story.
A great use of PDF and ePub backups is to test how they appear before publishing. I’ll go deeper into that in a future post, but essentially, you can install an eReader on your desktop computer for free and run the eBook to see how it appears.
Always test the eBook and printed copies before publishing them.
Reedsy Makes Self-Publishing Easy
Reedsy Studio is an easy-to-use tool that has a lot of flexibility for developing a good story. Managing the book is only a small part of publishing, and most functions in the app are self-explanatory.
Plus, you don’t have to hunt too much to find the settings you need at any given time.
If you’d like to see more of what you can do in Reedsy Studio, I have a How To Reedsy playlist on YouTube. It covers a wide scope of the functions and abilities of this writing app, and is constantly in development.
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