Newsletter to ebook: turn your archive into a book, word for word
To turn a newsletter into an ebook with Chapbook, paste links to up to 20 public issues or add up to 10 files, and each issue becomes a chapter in your own words, for no credits. You merge, split or drop chapters, choose a look, and export a typeset PDF, an EPUB 3 and a Word document. Files without the watermark need a paid plan.
A brief to start from
A short book drawn from two years of my weekly newsletter on bookkeeping for freelancers: when to charge tax, how to chase a late invoice, what to keep for an audit and how to pay yourself. Plan it as one argument rather than a list of issues; I will add my best issues as sources for you to draw on. Reader: a freelancer in their first three years. Plain, dry and practical.
Start from this brief- Free to import
- Reading your issues in costs no credits, and nothing is created until you choose Create my book. AI actions on the book, such as a polish or a generated cover, cost credits as usual.
- 20 links or 10 files
- At a time: public posts by link, or DOCX, Markdown and TXT files of up to 20 MB each. A draft holds up to 500,000 characters and starts with up to 100 chapters.
- PDF, EPUB and Word
- Plus a cover image. Pick the nonfiction kind and it also exports a KDP-sized paperback interior. Files without the watermark need a paid plan.
How the import works
Choose I have a draft on New book, or use the button at the top of this page. Add your issues in one of two ways:
- Paste links, up to 20 at a time, one per line, to issues on your public web archive. Each one becomes a chapter, in the order you pasted it.
- Add files, up to 10 DOCX, Markdown or plain-text files. A document splits into chapters at its main headings, so one long file with a heading per issue works as well as many small ones.
Nothing is stored at this point. You get a list of chapters to rename, Merge with next, Split, or Leave out. Then you choose the kind of book and the language your issues are in, confirm the words are yours to publish, and choose Create my book.
What to fix before anyone reads it
An import is word for word, which means the things that belong in an inbox come along too. The book gets better fast if you go through it for these, by hand and for free:
- The greeting and the sign-off. “Hi friends” and “see you next Tuesday” read oddly on page 40. Cut them from every chapter.
- The news of that week. “Last week I mentioned”, “as I write this in March”, and links to a sale that ended. Cut them, or date the piece on purpose.
- Repeats. You explained your main idea many times, because each week had new readers. A book needs it once. Merge the best versions and leave the rest out.
- The order. An archive runs by date. A book runs by what the reader needs next, so paste your links in that order, or reorder the chapters once the book exists.
Then a read of the opening and closing chapters tells you what the book is missing. Those two are often the only new writing an archive needs.
Who wrote what
An import leaves its own mark in each chapter’s history, and anything the assistant writes afterwards is recorded as the assistant’s. Chapbook can’t know who wrote what you brought in, so what you say about it is your call. If you sell on KDP, the free AI-generated or AI-assisted helper quotes KDP’s definitions so you can answer its question for your own book.
If you want new writing instead
Start from this brief takes the other route. You describe the book, the planner proposes an outline, and Chapbook drafts new chapters, drawing on up to 10 sources you add, of which up to 5 can be web pages. Your best issues can be those sources. That gives you one argument rather than a set of issues, at the usual price: planning uses 10 credits and drafting 1 credit per 125 words. It is AI-drafted text from your material, not your words as you wrote them.
If you want one issue, not a book
Chapbook’s Newsletter kind is something else: it designs a single issue, with a masthead and 4 to 8 short pieces in two columns, 800 to 4,000 words in all. It is for a printed or downloadable issue. Don’t choose it for an archive, because a long book in two columns reads badly.
What it does not do
Chapbook does not connect to your newsletter platform to fetch the archive: you paste each link or add the files yourself. It does not import your subscribers, and it never sends email to them or to anyone. On a paid plan the book can get a public page where new readers sign up to download the PDF; their sign-ups land in your Readers list and export as CSV, and your email tool sends its own confirmation when you import them.
Guides
- How to turn a newsletter archive into a book Export the archive, choose one theme, drop issues tied to their week, and group the rest into chapters. How to export from Substack, beehiiv and Ghost, and what to cut.
- How to turn blog posts into an ebook Choose posts that answer one question, order them as a path, and rewrite the joins. What to fix in each post, the rights to check, and what KDP Select means for your blog.
- KDP AI disclosure: AI-generated vs AI-assisted, in Amazon’s own words KDP asks you to declare AI-generated text, images and translations, but not AI-assisted content. Amazon’s wording, and how to apply it to a book that mixes both.
Questions people ask
Does Chapbook rewrite my newsletter?
Not when you import it. Your words go in exactly as you wrote them and each issue becomes a chapter. You change them by hand, or ask the assistant for a polish or a rewrite, which costs credits and arrives as suggestions you accept or reject.
How many newsletter issues can I import?
20 links or 10 files at a time, up to 500,000 characters in a draft, and a book can start with up to 100 chapters. A single document with many issues splits into chapters at its main headings.
Can Chapbook read paid or subscriber-only issues?
No. A link must be a public page, so an issue behind a paywall or a login cannot be read. Copy those into a DOCX, Markdown or TXT file and add the file instead.
Do pictures in my issues come across?
From a Word document, yes, along with headings, lists, tables and footnotes. A post read from a link brings its text only, so add its pictures in the editor afterwards.
Can I use guest posts in the book?
Only with permission. Before you create the book you confirm the words are yours to publish, so get a written yes from every guest writer, or leave their issues out with Leave out.
Which kind of book should I choose?
Chapbook suggests a lead magnet up to 10,000 words and a nonfiction book above that, and you can pick another. Choose nonfiction if you want a paperback, which lead magnets don't have.
Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.
The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.