Book Creation Basics

How to Rearrange Chapters in a Manuscript

In the text editor, there are a couple ways to manipulate where a chapter appears in your book.

Inserting a New Chapter Between Existing Chapters

To insert a new chapter between existing chapters, click the “Add chapter” button that appears on the line separating chapters in the editor.

Clicking the “Add chapter” button below Chapter 1 inserts a new chapter between Chapters 1 and 2. Clicking below Chapter 2 creates a chapter between Chapters 2 and 3.

An “Add chapter” button also exists before Chapter One. Clicking this creates a new first chapter of the story. If you’ve serialized or uploaded an entire book and wish to add a copyright notice, dedication, or other front matter to the beginning of the book, this is the easiest way to do it. Simply click the “Add chapter” button before Chapter 1 and write or paste in that content.

See our Custom Numbering Tutorial to learn how that option can be used to label front matter items like Prologues, Copyright, Dedications, etc.

Rearranging Chapters Within A Book

At the top left corner of the screen at the beginning of each chapter are three symbols. Clicking the up and down arrow icon on the left turns on the chapter rearranging mode. Click that button on the chapter you wish to move.

The up and down arrow icon will increase in size for the chapter you selected to show your current choice. The editor will collapse all chapters to show just the chapter number and title. Every chapter will have thick lines between them. Clicking one of those lines moves your selected chapter into that position.

To cancel moving a chapter, click the ESC key, or click anywhere in the editor other than one of those chapter division lines.