Word Manuscript Template
Free download — pre-formatted and ready to use
Free Word Manuscript Templates for Kindle and ePub — Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Academic, and Cookbooks
Seven free Word templates — for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, academic and technical books, cookbooks, and standard Kindle or ePub editions. Every paragraph style is already set up, and each includes a Read Me page with the checks that matter. Pick the one that fits your book, paste your manuscript in, and it is ready for conversion.
Choose Your Template
Fiction & Novel
Novels, novellas, and memoir.
Chapters, scene breaks, epigraphs, dialogue, letters and messages, part dividers.
Non-Fiction
Business, self-help, how-to, history, biography.
Three heading levels, bullet and numbered lists, callout boxes, key takeaways, image captions.
Poetry Collection
Collections of poems.
A title per poem, line-by-line verse, stanza spacing, indented lines, poem notes.
Academic & Technical
Textbooks, research, manuals.
Numbered sections, tables and table captions, figure captions, equations, code blocks, bibliography.
Cookbook
Reflowable recipe books.
Recipe titles, servings and timings, ingredient lists, numbered steps, notes, photo captions.
Standard — Kindle
Any book, published on Amazon first.
The core styles, plus a Read Me focused on KDP: cover upload, Kindle Previewer, file size.
Standard — ePub
Any book, for Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play.
The core styles, plus a Read Me focused on ePub: image alt text, language, EPUBCheck.
What This Template Includes
Every template is a standard Microsoft Word .docx file with a title page, copyright page, automatic table of contents, sample chapters, and About the Author and Also By pages. The book-type templates add their own styles (listed on each card above); all of them share these core styles:
How to Use This Template
Download and open the template
Download the .docx file and open it in Microsoft Word. It also opens in LibreOffice and Google Docs, but Word keeps the paragraph styles most reliably. If Word is not available, contact us and we will advise on the best approach for your software.
Paste your manuscript content
Copy your manuscript text and paste it into the template using Paste Special → Paste as Plain Text (Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows, Cmd+Shift+V on Mac). This removes any existing formatting from your source document and lets you apply the template styles cleanly.
Apply styles throughout
Select each section of your manuscript and apply the correct style from the Styles panel:
- ✓ All body paragraphs → Normal
- ✓ Opening paragraph of each chapter → First Paragraph
- ✓ All chapter titles → Heading 1
- ✓ All section headings → Heading 2
- ✓ All quoted text → Block Quote
- ✓ All poetry or verse → Poem / Verse
Add your table of contents
Place your cursor on the TOC page → References → Table of Contents → Automatic Table 1. Word builds the TOC from your Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles. Update it by right-clicking → Update Field → Update Entire Table.
Insert your images
Place your cursor at the image location → Insert → Pictures. Set each image to In Line With Text layout. Images inserted using this method are embedded in the file and will transfer correctly during conversion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Modify any style by right-clicking it in the Styles panel → Modify → change the font. The important thing is that all body text uses the same modified Normal style — not a mix of Normal and manually formatted text.
Choose by the kind of book you are writing: Fiction & Novel, Non-Fiction, Poetry Collection, Academic & Technical, or Cookbook. If none fits, use a Standard template — Kindle if you are publishing on Amazon first, ePub for Apple Books, Kobo, and Google Play. Every template converts cleanly to both Kindle and ePub; the Read Me page lists the checks for both.
None of these — fixed layout books are built from your designed pages rather than a Word file. See our Children’s Book Formatting and Fixed Layout ePub services.
Not necessarily. If your existing Word document uses consistent paragraph styles throughout, it may convert correctly without the template. Use our Kindle Formatting Checklist to check your existing document first.