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Uploading Manuscripts

Bookcicle accepts DOCX, EPUB, single-file HTML, and Markdown manuscripts. EPUB or DOCX are strongly recommended because they preserve heading structure best.

Subscription Availability

Available for Creator, Studio and Basic users

Safety & Ratings

Before you upload, review our Content Safety & Violation Handling page. It explains how flagged passages are handled and defines our 0–4 audience rating.

Bringing an Existing Manuscript​

Bringing an Existing Manuscript​

1 Format Checklist (by file type)​

FormatWhat we needOne-line test
DOCXChapter titles styled with Heading 1 (main) and Heading 2 (subtitle).View ▸ Navigation Pane → every chapter appears.
EPUBReal HTML headings (<h1>/<h2>). No faux headings made with <p><span …>.Unzip EPUB → open *.xhtml; look for <h1>Chapter 1</h1>.
HTML / HTMSingle file only. Must start each chapter with <h1>. Images referenced with relative paths.grep -c '<h1>' manuscript.html ≥ number of chapters.
Markdown (.md)# for chapters, ## for sub-sections.pandoc -f gfm -t html your.md | grep '<h1>'

DOCX details​

  • Use Heading 1 / Heading 2 or insert Section Break (Next Page) after each chapter.
  • Remove front/back matter if conversion fails.
  • Only images are supported—no embedded video/interactive objects.

EPUB details​

  • Chapters → <h1>, sub-sections → <h2>/<h3>.
  • LibreOffice: cursor in title → Ctrl + 1; File ▸ Export → EPUB → Split Method: Heading.
  • Validate with epubcheck.
Fallback behaviour​

If your EPUB contains no real headings, Bookcicle will still try to split it by internal anchors such as <span id="section0002.xhtml"> … </span>. When this happens you will see a warning in the conversion stream:

“EPUB contained no Heading 1/2/3 styles – chapters were inferred heuristically. Consider re-exporting with proper heading styles.”

The resulting chapter titles will be named Section0001, Section0002, … and may need manual renaming.

HTML (single-file) details​

  • One file (e.g. manuscript.html).
  • Begin each chapter with <h1>; use <h2>/<h3> for nested sections.
  • Store images in the same folder and reference them relatively: <img src="images/cover.jpg">.
  • No <iframe>, video, or external CSS links—inline styles are fine.

Markdown details​

# Chapter 1
Your text …

## Scene break
More text …

# Chapter 2

Bookcicle treats # as chapters and ## as sub-sections automatically.

2 Uploading​

  1. Start a Story → Bring a manuscript → choose your file.
  2. Conversion may take a minute; progress shows on the Dashboard.
  3. If the editor loads empty, click ⚠ Warnings for parsing errors and fixes.

3 Troubleshooting Cheatsheet​

ErrorLikely causeQuick fix
“Section 1 exceeded maximum words”Whole book merged—no real headings.Apply correct heading styles; re-export.
Images missingAbsolute paths or images outside archive.Embed images; use relative paths.
Strange block-quotes in outputDOCX was created from a PDF and styles were warped.Re-export DOCX cleanly (no PDF-to-DOCX) or upload as EPUB.

Browser Support​

  • Firefox 75 +
  • Chrome 75 +
  • Edge 85 +
  • Safari 13 +

Happy writing! ✍️