Documentation
Everything you need to ship a book.
Guides, explainers, and an API reference for EffortlessAuthor — the file-first KDP authoring studio. Start with the basics or jump straight to a task.
Getting Started
Install, create your first book, and learn the project model.
- Introduction What EffortlessAuthor is, the file-first idea behind it, who it's for, and what you can do with it.
- Quick Start Create your first book, write a chapter, preview it, prepare KDP metadata, and export a KDP-aware EPUB.
- Project Structure The anatomy of a book project folder — book.json, content, assets, sources, styles, exports, series, and section files.
Guides
Task-by-task how-tos for everyday authoring.
- Creating Books Use the dashboard to create a new book, understand the fields you're asked for, and find your way around the book library.
- The Editor A tour of the editor — file-tree sidebar, Markdown editor, live preview, app bar, status bar — plus keyboard shortcuts and how the app handles saving and external changes.
- Organizing Chapters Structure your manuscript with front matter, chapters, and back matter — file numbering, drag-to-reorder, nested sections, and adding, renaming, and deleting files and folders.
- Preparing KDP Metadata Fill in title, description, keywords, categories, series position, and print specs using the KDP metadata editor, then copy each field straight into KDP.
- Exporting a KDP-Aware EPUB Run the validation report, understand what the export pipeline assembles (strict XHTML, KDP-safe CSS, OPF, nav.xhtml, toc.ncx, cover), and write the finished .epub to your exports folder.
- Version History and Snapshots How EffortlessAuthor snapshots your manuscript content and metadata into a local SQLite history, how to restore an earlier version, and how to prune old snapshots.
- Sources and the Style Guide Keep reference material in your book's sources folder and define a per-book style guide so your drafting — especially AI-assisted drafting — stays grounded and consistent.
- Rendering Narrated Audio Generate narrated audio chapter-by-chapter or for the whole book, cast voices with a voice map, tune pacing and pauses, and use the review loop before a final render.
- Working with Series Define a series in series/*.json, plan volume positions, share series metadata across books, and reference a series from a book's book.json.
Explainers
The ideas behind the file-first, KDP-aware workflow.
- A Book Is a Repository, Not a Document Why EffortlessAuthor stores your book as real Markdown files in a transparent, Git-friendly folder — and why that means ownership and durability instead of lock-in.
- What 'KDP-Aware' Means What the export pipeline actually produces — strict XHTML, KDP-safe CSS, OPF, nav.xhtml, and toc.ncx — and the software-QA validation philosophy behind calling it KDP-aware rather than guaranteed.
- Markdown to KDP EPUB: a file-first workflow A practical, file-first path from Markdown chapters to a clean, KDP-oriented EPUB you can validate, inspect, and re-export anytime.
- How to structure a nonfiction book for KDP A practical blueprint for front matter, chapters, back matter, file ordering, and KDP metadata so your nonfiction book is clear and upload-ready.
- EPUB navigation: nav.xhtml vs toc.ncx Understand EPUB 3 nav.xhtml and the legacy EPUB 2 toc.ncx, why including both improves compatibility, and how clean navigation matters for KDP.
- How to keep a book manuscript in Git Why a book benefits from version control, what to track versus ignore, plus a .gitignore, branching tips, and how plain Markdown makes diffs meaningful.
API Reference
The app's local HTTP API for scripts and power users.
- API Reference: Overview How to call the local EffortlessAuthor HTTP API: base URL, JSON conventions, error shape, slugs, and the full list of endpoint groups.
- API Reference: Books Local endpoints for listing, creating, reading, updating, and deleting books, plus stats, the per-book style guide, and the cover image.
- API Reference: Files & Structure Local endpoints for manuscript files and folders, reference sources, the content tree, and reordering within a book project.
- API Reference: Export & Preview Local endpoints for generating a KDP-oriented EPUB, running validation without exporting, and previewing book content in the browser.
- API Reference: History Local endpoints for content version snapshots, book metadata history, restoring previous versions, and pruning old history.
- API Reference: Audio Local endpoints for the audio render manifest, kicking off audio render jobs, and streaming rendered audio files.
- API Reference: Series Local endpoints for creating, listing, reading, updating, and deleting series definitions and viewing their member books.