With Leanpub, you can convert a book manuscript written in Word to the EPUB format for free.

You will have to some work preparing the manuscript for conversion, but in most cases (especially for novels!) the process is really simple:

- Delete your Table of Contents and anytthing else using special Word formatting features

- Format all your chapter headings as "Heading 1"

If you want a full tutorial on preparing your Word document before importing, please see this article:

When your Word file is ready, you can create a book on Leanpub here:

https://leanpub.com/create/book

All you need to do is enter your title and create an account (which is free in the default writing mode that will be selected for you):

When you're ready, click the button at the bottom of the page:

Next, click on "Settings":

Then, click on "Import":

That will take you to the "Import Word" page:

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Choose File":

In this article, we're using Leanpub's template Word document, that has working example of all the Word features we support in it.

You can download our template Word file here if you want to take a look at it, or use it as a template for converting your own manuscript to conform to our Word template:

When you've selected the file, click "Start Import":

You'll see "Import In Progress" while Leanpub's book generators get to work:

When the process completes, the page will go back to looking like this:

Next, you just take a second to delete the two manuscript files Leanpub adds to all new books by default.

(Most Leanpub books are written directly in Leanpub, not imported from Word as a single manuscript file, which is why you need to do this, sorry! But it should only take a minute.)

Click "Write" at the top left of the page:

At the top left, hover your mouse next to "The Basics" and click on the gear wheel that will appear:

Click "Delete File":

Click "OK" to confirm:

Do the same thing for the second default Leanpub manuscript file:

Finally, click on your own manuscript to see what it looks like in Leanpub:

Here's what our example Word document looks like:

Let's go create the EPUB file!

Click "Versions" at the top:

This will take you to the "Preview" page:

Scroll down and click "Create Preview"

You'll see a progress bar at the top of the page while Leanpub's book generators get to work again:

When the process completes, click "Download the EPUB File":

Here's what the EPUB from our example Word file looks like, viewed in Apple Books, in Dark Mode:

If you see any issues with your EPUB file, you can correct them be editing your book in your browser!

Just click "Write" again:

You can edit the text here (your changes will be automatically saved_ and create new versions of your EPUB any time, like you've already done!

If you have any questions or feedback for this article, please email the Leanpub Team at hello@leanpub.com.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Growing our audience there really helps Leanpub authors like you get discovered! Plus you'll learn about other authors, and their experiences writing and publishing.

If you have any feedback or questions about this article, please email the Leanpub team about it at hello@leanpub.com!

If you have any questions or thoughts on writing and self-publishing with Leanpub, please join our global community of authors in our Authors Forum here!

Are you interested in self-publishing, and creating your first Leanpub book? Here are some quick tutorials for our most popular writing modes: http://help.leanpub.com/en/articles/3088382-quick-walkthroughs-for-getting-started-on-a-leanpub-book

Are you looking for great deals on Leanpub ebooks, ebook bundles, and courses? Sign up for our Weekly and Monthly newsletter sales here!

You can also follow Leanpub in lots of other places!