Illustrated guide maker: a how-to with a picture in every section

What makes it a guide

An illustrated guide is for a reader doing something with their hands or eyes while they read. So Chapbook plans it as steps, not as an argument: each section covers one part of the job, in the order the reader does it, and its line in the outline lists those steps and the thing to try at the end.

Drafting closes every section with a short Try this: line, one concrete thing the reader can do in a few minutes. A reader who has tried three of them has started, which a chapter of explanation alone doesn’t get them to do.

This page starts from a brief because Chapbook has no sample guide to show yet. Open it, change the topic, and the planner will show you the sections before anything is drafted.

Who it is for

• Trades and makers who explain the same care or setup to every customer: what to do with a new deck, a new bike, a first sourdough starter.
• Teachers of a physical skill whose students need to see the step, not read about it.
• Small businesses and product teams whose customers keep asking how to do one thing, and who want a guide they can send instead of a reply.

The pictures

Each section gets one picture, painted from what that section says and in the art direction of the look you choose, so the book holds together. Real-world subjects default to photographs, and concepts and decorative scenes to illustrations. Pictures appear in the PDF, the EPUB and the Word document alike.

A picture is a generated image, so treat it like one. It can show how a whetstone is held, but it may get the grip or the angle slightly wrong. Read each one as you would a stock photo sent by a stranger, redo the ones that mislead, and put your own photo or screenshot in where the exact detail matters. KDP’s Content Guidelines count generated interior images as AI-generated content, so you must tell it about them if you publish there: the disclosure helper quotes KDP’s definitions.

How it works

1. Write the brief. The job the reader wants done, what they already own and know, and how it should sound.
2. Approve the outline. Planning uses 10 credits. Put the sections in the order the reader would really do them.
3. Choose the look. It sets the type and how every picture is painted.
4. Draft, edit, export. Drafting uses 1 credit per 125 words and 5 credits per picture; credits reserved for words that were not written come back.

What it does not do

Chapbook does not take step-by-step photos of your actual work, and it does not know your safety rules. If a step can hurt someone or void a warranty, check it yourself, because the read-through flags claims no source supports but can’t test a procedure. It writes nonfiction only, in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian and Dutch, and has no hardcover.