EPUB is the standard file format for ebooks. Most reading apps on phones, tablets and computers open it, and so do most ebook readers. An EPUB is not a fixed page like a PDF: the text flows to fit the screen, and the reader chooses the font and the size. That makes it the right format for a novel, a memoir or a collection of stories that people will read on a screen.
This guide shows how to make one in Retroprose, from one document or from a whole folder of chapters, with a cover, a contents page and a copyright page. EPUB ebooks come with the Zip disk and hard disk editions Zip disk and hard disk editions.
Before you start: get the text in shape
- One document a chapter, in one folder, named so they sort in order:
01 The station,02 The night train. A folder inside the book's folder becomes a part. How to organise a novel has the details. - A heading at the top of each chapter, such as
# The station. The contents page and the reading app's own contents list are built from them. - Three hyphens between scenes,
---on a line of their own. In the Book template they become a short line centred between the scenes. - Notes outside the book's folder. Every document inside it becomes a chapter.
Add the book's details
A book carries more than its text: a blurb, a dedication, a copyright line, perhaps an ISBN. In Retroprose these live with the book, not in the text.
For a book made from a folder, make a document called Book details.md directly in the book's folder, open it and choose File, Properties (Ctrl+F9). It is never a chapter. For a book in one document, use File, Properties on that document.
- Export tab: the title and the author.
- Copyright tab: the licence, from All rights reserved to the Creative Commons licences or public domain, and the year of first publication.
- Book tab: the blurb, a dedication, About the author, the publisher, an ISBN, a notice that the book is fiction, and the cover: on or off, and its background and text colours.
Things that are the same in every book you write, such as your publisher name, About the author and your licence, can be set once in the Exports part of your account page. Each book then follows them unless it says otherwise.
Make the EPUB from a folder
- Open List files (F5) and choose the book's folder.
- Press Ctrl+E, or choose Export as book on the folder's menu. On the dashboard, Export as book is on the folder's menu.
- The Export as book box says what it holds, such as "THE LONG NIGHT: 12 documents in 2 parts", with the title and author filled in from Book details.md. Change them here if you like, for this export only.
- Press 7 for EPUB, then B for the Book template or N for None.
- Press Enter. The book is made while you wait and is named after its title, such as "The long night.epub".
You can also mark several folders and documents with Space and export them together: each marked folder is a part and each marked document a chapter. Chapters and parts go in name order, with numbers counted as numbers, so chapter 2 comes before chapter 10.
Make the EPUB from one document
Open the document, press Ctrl+E, press 7 for EPUB, choose B or N, and press Enter. Each heading 1 in the document starts a new chapter.
Book or None?
| Book | None | |
|---|---|---|
| Cover | Yes, unless you turn it off | No |
| Title page | Title and author | No |
| Copyright page | When there is something to put on it | No, but the details go in the book's information |
| Dedication | On a page of its own | No |
| Contents page | Yes | No |
| Chapter openings | Each heading centred at the top of a new page | The reading app's own style |
| Paragraphs | Indented, with no space between them, as in a printed novel | The reading app's own style |
| About the author | A page at the end | No |
Choose Book for a novel or anything you want to read like a printed book. Choose None for a plain ebook that leaves the look to the reading app, such as notes or a draft to read on a phone.
What is inside the EPUB
- Chapters and parts. Each document starts a chapter, and so does each heading 1 within a document.
\newpagestarts a new page within a chapter. The reading app's contents list shows the parts, the chapters and the heading 2s in them. - Footnotes become pop-up notes, which reading apps show over the text when the reader taps the mark. They are numbered from 1 in each chapter.
- The cover is a picture with the title and author, cream on dark blue unless you choose your own colours. With the cover off, reading apps show their own.
- The copyright page reads, for example, "Copyright © 2026 Jo Bloggs", with the moral rights line, the licence, the fiction notice, "First published in 2026 by" your publisher, and the ISBN, each when you have set it.
- An identifier, so reading apps know that a new copy you make next month is the same book. With an ISBN, the ISBN is used.
- No fonts are named, so the reader's own choice of font and size always wins. The language is set to the main language of your spell check, British English unless you choose another.
- No pictures. Retroprose documents are words only.
The format is EPUB 3, with the older contents file as well, for older ebook readers.
Check it before you share it
Open the EPUB in a reading app on your phone or computer and page through it: the cover, the contents, a chapter opening, a scene break and a footnote. If a chapter is in the wrong place, its name sorts in the wrong order. If a chapter has a number for a title, it has no heading.
If you plan to sell the book through an online shop, read the shop's own rules for files and covers, which change from time to time.
A PDF book as well
The same folder makes a PDF book: in the Export as book box, press 2 for PDF. It has the same cover, front pages, contents and chapters, laid out on A5 pages, with page numbers and bookmarks. It is for reading on a screen, or printing at home. See Ebooks and PDF books for more.