Uploading Manuscripts
Bookcicle accepts DOCX and EPUB manuscripts. These formats preserve heading structure best and give the most reliable chapter splits during upload.
Available for Creator, Studio and Basic users
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
1 Format Checklist (by file type)
| Format | What we need | One-line test |
|---|---|---|
| DOCX | Chapter titles styled with Heading 1 (main) and Heading 2 (subtitle). | View ▸ Navigation Pane → every chapter appears. |
| EPUB | Real HTML headings (<h1>/<h2>). No faux headings made with <p><span …>. | Unzip EPUB → open *.xhtml; look for <h1>Chapter 1</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.
Need to upload from another format first?
Convert it to DOCX or EPUB before uploading. Those are the only manuscript file types we currently accept.
2 Uploading
- Start a Story → Bring a manuscript → choose your file.
- Conversion may take a minute; progress shows on the Dashboard.
- If the editor loads empty, click ⚠ Warnings for parsing errors and fixes.
3 Troubleshooting Cheatsheet
| Error | Likely cause | Quick fix |
|---|---|---|
| “Section 1 exceeded maximum words” | Whole book merged—no real headings. | Apply correct heading styles; re-export. |
| Images missing | Absolute paths or images outside archive. | Embed images; use relative paths. |
| Strange block-quotes in output | DOCX 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! ✍️