Google Docs for Writing a Book: Cloud Author Guide KDP Interior

Table of Contents

okay so here’s the whole google docs setup I’ve been using for like 4 years now

Look, I tried Scrivener twice and hated it both times. Spent $45 and maybe used it for three days total. Google Docs is free and it’s where I’ve written probably 150+ books at this point, so let me just walk you through exactly how I set this up.

First thing – and this is gonna sound obvious but I see people mess this up constantly – you need a dedicated Google account for your writing or at least a really organized folder system. I use one Google account for all my pen names and publishing stuff because mixing personal docs with manuscripts is how you accidentally share your grocery list instead of Chapter 3 with your editor. Trust me on that one.

the basic document setup that actually works

So when I start a new book project, I create a folder first. Not the document, the FOLDER. Name it something like “BookTitle_Draft_2024” or whatever. Inside that folder I’ll have:

Main manuscript doc
Research & notes doc
Character sheets or outline doc
Edit tracking doc (for keeping notes from beta readers or editors)
Marketing copy doc (where I draft my book description, author bio, all that)

The main manuscript is where you’re gonna spend most of your time obviously. Here’s how I set it up and this is important – go to File > Page Setup right away. Set it to 6×9 inches if you’re doing paperback or just keep it standard if you’re only doing ebook. I usually keep it standard letter size during drafting because it’s easier to read on screen, then I adjust later.

For formatting, I use Arial or Times New Roman, 12pt, double spacing during the draft phase. Yeah I know that’s like high school essay format but it makes editing SO much easier. You can see everything, spot repetitive words faster, and when you’re doing your own line edits your eyes don’t get as tired.

the voice typing feature that changed everything for me

Wait I forgot to mention – if you’re not using voice typing in Google Docs you’re missing out on probably the best feature. Tools > Voice Typing or just Ctrl+Shift+S. Last year I wrote a 30k word non-fiction book in like 5 days using mostly voice typing because I had this wrist strain thing going on from too much typing.

It’s not perfect, you gotta edit afterward obviously, but for getting words on the page when you’re stuck or when you’re on a roll and your fingers can’t keep up with your brain? It’s incredible. I’ll pace around my office just talking through scenes. My dog thinks I’m insane but whatever, the book gets written.

The accuracy is pretty good now too. It handles punctuation if you say “period” or “comma” or “new paragraph” out loud. Takes like 10 minutes to get used to the rhythm of it but then you can just flow.

version control without losing your mind

Here’s where Google Docs really shines and where it beats Word honestly – the version history is automatic and it’s saved my butt probably 20 times. You know how you used to save files like “Book_Draft_v3_FINAL_actuallyfinal_REAL.doc”? None of that garbage anymore.

Everything autosaves every few seconds to the cloud. But more importantly, go to File > Version History > See Version History. You can see every change, go back to any point in time, name specific versions, restore old versions. It’s all there.

What I do is name major versions. Like when I finish the first draft, I’ll go into version history and name that version “First Draft Complete – Jan 15 2024” or whatever. Then when I finish developmental edits, I name that version. When I finish line edits, same thing. This way I can always jump back to a specific milestone if I need to.

And okay so funny story – I had a client last year who accidentally deleted like 8,000 words from their manuscript. They were panicking, sent me this frantic email at like 11pm. I just told them to check version history, go back 3 hours, and boom – everything was there. They thought I was some kind of wizard but it’s literally just a feature that’s built in.

the comment and suggestion features for editing

When you’re working with an editor or beta readers, the collaboration tools are where Google Docs really earns its keep. Up in the top right, there’s a sharing button – you click that and you can share the doc with anyone.

Here’s the key thing though – pay attention to the permission settings. You’ve got three options:

Viewer – they can only read it
Commenter – they can read and leave comments but can’t change the actual text
Editor – they can change anything

For beta readers, I always use Commenter. For editors I trust, I’ll use Editor mode but with Suggesting turned on. There’s this little pencil icon in the top right corner of the doc where you can switch between Editing mode and Suggesting mode.

Suggesting mode is like track changes in Word. When someone makes a change, it shows up as a suggestion that you can accept or reject. Everything’s color-coded by who made the change. You can see exactly what was added, what was deleted, what was changed.

Comments are great for back-and-forth discussion. Highlight any text, click the comment icon or just Ctrl+Alt+M, and you can leave a note. The other person gets notified, they can reply, you can have whole conversations in the margins of your manuscript.

I usually have like 50+ comment threads in a document during the editing phase. Some are me leaving notes for myself like “fact check this” or “this metaphor is terrible, fix it later” and some are from my editor asking questions or pointing out plot holes or whatever.

the outline and research document setup

Okay so in that same folder with your manuscript, you want a separate doc for outlining and research. Some people try to do this all in one document with the manuscript and it gets messy real fast.

For my outline doc, I keep it simple. Usually just a bulleted list of chapters with a sentence or two about what happens in each one. For non-fiction it’s even simpler – just the main points I want to hit in each chapter.

But here’s a trick I learned maybe 2 years ago – use the heading styles in Google Docs to create a table of contents for your outline. If you format your chapter titles as “Heading 1” (there’s a dropdown at the top left that says “Normal text” by default), then you can go to Insert > Table of Contents and Google Docs will automatically create a clickable table of contents.

This means you can jump around your outline super fast. Click a chapter in the table of contents and it takes you right there. As you write and your outline changes, the table of contents updates automatically. It’s a small thing but it makes navigation so much faster when you’re working on a long project.

For research, I basically treat that doc like a dumping ground. Links to articles, copied passages from research books (with citations so I don’t accidentally plagiarize), photos, whatever. Just throw it all in there. Google Docs handles images fine, you can drag and drop them right into the document.

using bookmarks to jump around your manuscript

This is something I didn’t discover until like year 3 of using Google Docs and I felt like an idiot for not knowing about it sooner. You can insert bookmarks in your document and then link directly to them.

So let’s say you’re writing Chapter 15 and you reference something that happened in Chapter 3 but you can’t remember exactly what you wrote. Instead of scrolling up and down like a caveman, you can insert a bookmark in Chapter 3 (Insert > Bookmark), then link to it from Chapter 15.

Or what I do is keep a “Navigation” section at the very top of my manuscript with links to each chapter. Click the link, boom, you’re at that chapter. Saves so much time on long projects.

To make this work, you format your chapter titles as headings (Heading 1 usually), then Insert > Table of Contents at the top of your doc. Same idea as the outline doc I mentioned before. Now you’ve got a clickable navigation menu right in your manuscript.

formatting for actually publishing on KDP

Alright so here’s where things get a little more technical but stay with me because this is important. Google Docs is great for writing but it’s not perfect for publishing. You’re gonna need to do some cleanup before you upload to KDP.

For ebooks, the process is actually pretty simple. When you’re done with all your edits and you’re ready to publish:

Remove that table of contents you added for navigation (unless you want it in the actual book, which sometimes you do)
Make sure all your chapter titles are formatted consistently with the same heading style
Check that you don’t have any weird formatting quirks – double spaces between words, tabs instead of indents, that kind of thing
Go to File > Download > EPUB Publication (.epub)

That EPUB file is what you upload to KDP for your ebook. Amazon will convert it to their format automatically. Usually works fine but you should always use the KDP previewer tool to check how it looks on different devices before you publish.

For paperback it’s a bit more involved. Google Docs isn’t really designed for print layout so there are some limitations. But I’ve published probably 50+ paperbacks using docs from Google Docs so it’s definitely doable.

What you gotta do is download as a Word document (File > Download > Microsoft Word), then open it in Word or upload it directly to KDP. KDP will format it for print but you might need to make some adjustments.

The main things to watch out for:

Page breaks – use Insert > Break > Page Break in Google Docs to force chapter starts on new pages
Headers and footers – these are tricky in Google Docs, honestly I usually add them in the KDP formatter tool instead
Page numbers – same deal, I add these in KDP not in Google Docs
Margins – remember to set appropriate margins for your trim size before you export

Oh and another thing – if you’re doing a paperback, you might want to create a separate document just for the print version. Keep your main manuscript as your master file, then make a copy for print formatting. This way you don’t mess up your ebook file with print-specific formatting.

dealing with images and graphics

If you’re writing non-fiction or any kind of illustrated book, you can work with images in Google Docs but it’s kinda clunky compared to dedicated layout software. You can insert images (Insert > Image), and you’ve got some basic options for wrapping text around them or sizing them.

But here’s the thing – image quality can get weird when you export from Google Docs. I learned this the hard way on a cookbook project where all the photos looked great in the doc but came out compressed and fuzzy in the final PDF.

If your book is image-heavy, you might want to use Google Docs just for the text and then do your layout in something else. Or at the very least, keep high-res versions of all your images in that project folder so you can reinsert them later if needed.

For simple stuff like a few chapter illustrations or a headshot in your author bio? Google Docs is fine. Just make sure you’re starting with high-quality images and check the preview carefully before publishing.

collaboration workflows that dont make you want to scream

I work with different editors and cover designers and formatters depending on the project, and over time I’ve figured out some workflows that keep things organized when multiple people are touching the same document.

First rule – never have more than one person editing in Editor mode at the same time. You’ll end up with conflicts and weird version issues. If you need multiple editors looking at it simultaneously, use Commenter or Suggesting mode for everyone except yourself.

Second rule – use the comment system for questions, not for making changes directly. Like if your editor thinks a paragraph should be moved, they should comment and suggest it rather than just moving it. This way you understand their reasoning and can make the call.

Third – and this might sound paranoid but I promise it’s worth it – before you share a document with anyone, make a backup copy. Just duplicate the whole doc and put “BACKUP” in the filename. Store it in the same folder. Takes 5 seconds and has saved me from disasters more times than I can count.

I had this thing happen last month where an editor I’d never worked with before went rogue and just started rewriting entire sections without asking. They were in Editor mode because I’d given them full access, and by the time I noticed they’d changed like 3,000 words. Luckily I had version history so I could revert, but it was a whole mess. Now I use Suggesting mode for new collaborators until I trust them.

the notification settings you should probably adjust

By default Google Docs will email you every time someone makes a comment or suggestion. On an active project with multiple collaborators this can be like 50 emails a day. It’s too much.

Go to Tools > Notification Settings in the document. You can change it to send you a daily digest instead of individual notifications, or turn off notifications entirely and just check the doc when you have time.

I keep mine on daily digest for most projects. That way I get one email each morning with a summary of all the comments and changes from the previous day. Much more manageable.

keyboard shortcuts that will speed everything up

Okay this is gonna sound boring but learning even just a few keyboard shortcuts will make you so much faster in Google Docs. Here’s the ones I use constantly:

Ctrl+Alt+M – add a comment
Ctrl+K – insert a link
Ctrl+Shift+C – word count (I check this obsessively while drafting)
Ctrl+F – find (use this for editing passes where you’re hunting down specific words you overuse)
Ctrl+H – find and replace (life-changing for fixing character name typos consistently)
Ctrl+Shift+V – paste without formatting (huge for when you’re copying stuff from research sources)
Ctrl+Alt+1 – format as Heading 1
Ctrl+Alt+0 – format as Normal text

That last one, find and replace, I probably use it on every single book. Like you get halfway through writing and realize you’ve been spelling a character’s name two different ways, or you decide to change a term you’ve been using. Ctrl+H, type the old version, type the new version, click “Replace all” and done. Would take hours to do manually.

the explore feature that nobody uses but should

Down in the bottom right corner of Google Docs there’s this little star icon. That’s the Explore feature. Click it and you get this sidebar that can search the web, search your Google Drive, grab images, all without leaving the document.

I use this mostly for quick fact-checking during the drafting phase. Like if I’m writing and I need to verify what year something happened or check the spelling of a historical figure’s name, I can just search right there in the sidebar instead of switching to a browser tab.

It’ll also suggest related topics and images based on what you’re writing, which can be useful for research or inspiration. Though honestly I find that feature kinda hit-or-miss. Sometimes it’s weirdly accurate, sometimes it’s suggesting stuff that has nothing to do with what I’m working on.

working offline because internet goes out and deadlines dont care

So Google Docs is cloud-based which is mostly great but what happens when your internet dies? I live in an area where we get random outages and I learned real fast that I needed an offline solution.

You can enable offline access for Google Docs. Go to Google Drive (not in the document, go to the main Drive page), click the settings gear icon, go to Settings, and there’s an option for “Offline”. Turn that on.

This downloads your recent docs to your computer so you can keep working even without internet. Your changes sync automatically once you’re back online. It’s not perfect – sometimes you get sync conflicts if you edited the same doc on different devices while offline – but it’s way better than being completely stuck.

I’ve written entire chapters sitting at a coffee shop with no wifi, then had everything sync up perfectly when I got home. Just works.

the mobile app for when ideas hit you at random times

This is gonna sound weird but some of my best writing happens on my phone. Not like serious drafting, but dialogue snippets or scene ideas or just random lines that pop into my head when I’m nowhere near my computer.

The Google Docs mobile app is actually pretty decent. You can pull up your manuscript, jump to wherever you need to be, and jot down notes or even write full paragraphs if you’re willing to thumb-type that much.

What I usually do is keep a separate doc in my project folder called “Random Ideas” or something, and when something hits me I’ll grab my phone, open that doc, and type it out. Later when I’m at my desk I can go through that doc and incorporate the good stuff into the actual manuscript.

Voice typing works on mobile too which is clutch. I’ve definitely been on walks with my dog and stopped to voice-type a whole scene into my phone because I didn’t want to lose it. Must look crazy but whatever, the book’s getting written.