Compile is Scrivener's output engine, and it can produce almost any format — which is exactly why it is difficult. For most purposes you do not need that power: you need a clean manuscript for an editor, or a file a formatting tool can typeset. Both are simpler than a Compile preset, and you can leave Compile alone.
A simpler alternative to Scrivener's Compile
What do you actually need out of Scrivener?
Find your row. Three of the four do not require you to master Compile at all, which is the point of this page.
| What you need it for | Simplest route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sending to an editor or beta reader | Compile to plain manuscript DOCX | Editors want double-spaced plain text, not design. This is the easy preset. |
| Editorial work elsewhere, then back | Export the project, or DOCX | Structure travels; you return to the binder afterwards. |
| A properly typeset ebook and paperback | Clean DOCX into Vellum or Atticus | They are formatting specialists and vastly easier than a bespoke Compile preset. |
| A quick PDF to read on paper | Compile to PDF with defaults | Do not tune it. You are reading it, not publishing it. |
| Submitting to an agent | Compile to standard manuscript format | Double-spaced, 12pt, indented paragraphs. Follow the agency's guidelines exactly. |
Try the export with three chapters
Send three chapters and we'll email back the import diagnostics — what was detected, what was uncertain — plus a clean manuscript file, so you can see how it handles your structure.
Why Compile is hard, and it is not you
Compile separates what your text is — a chapter, a scene, front matter — from how it should look in a given output. That separation is genuinely powerful: one project, many outputs, no reformatting.
It is also two conceptual layers stacked on each other, which is why so many capable people bounce off it. The forum posts are not evidence of a user problem; they are evidence of a hard interface for a hard idea.
The practical response is to use it for the simple things it does easily and to stop trying to make it a typesetting program.
The three-word rule
Editors want plain.
Double-spaced, 12-point, indented paragraphs, chapters starting on new pages, page numbers. No decorative fonts, no drop caps, no design. Scrivener's default manuscript preset does this out of the box, and fighting Compile to make it prettier is work that makes the editor's job harder.
The same is true for beta readers, except they mostly want an ePub or PDF for a phone or e-reader — ask which, and compile with defaults.
For an actual published book, use a formatting tool
If the output is a real ebook and paperback, the honest advice is to let a formatting specialist do it.
Vellum at $249.99, Mac only, produces the best-looking output available and does it in minutes.
Atticus at $147, one payment, works on Windows, Mac, Linux and in a browser.
Either will take a clean DOCX and typeset it properly, and the time saved against building a bespoke Compile preset is measured in days. Vellum and Atticus exist because Compile is hard; that is not a controversial statement in this industry.
Where Your Book Pro sits in this
Your Book Pro is a British book-writing platform. You bring a book — an idea, a folder of notes, half a draft, or a finished manuscript written somewhere else — and it gives you the editorial process a publisher would run: a plan, structured feedback, a simulated beta read, a line edit, a proofread, a cover, a blurb and a print-ready file. You can type it, upload it or speak it. The tools sit in one place and work on the same manuscript, so the feedback compounds instead of arriving as twelve disconnected opinions.
On output specifically: the export here produces a clean manuscript with heading hierarchy and chapter order intact, with presets for the main formatting tools — Vellum, Atticus, Word, Novlr, Reedsy Studio and Dabble — giving tailored output and guidance for getting it in. They are presets, not native integrations, and we would rather say what they are.
Before anything is processed, the import diagnostics show you what was found: chapters detected, headings it was unsure about, footnotes, images, duplicated content. That check is the difference between a clean handoff and an afternoon of repair.
The Scrivener round trip is the flagship: .scriv in, .scriv out. It exists because Scrivener is a mature writing environment that people have built years of work inside, and asking them to abandon it would be both rude and wrong. Bring the project here, run the editorial passes, take it back.
And a plain export of your own words is free forever, on every plan. A formatted DOCX or publisher-ready PDF is an artefact and comes out of a credit pack — $15 per 1,000 credits.
Upload a Scrivener project
See the export presets
Email me the exportQuestions people ask
- What's the easiest Compile setting for an editor?
- The plain manuscript format: double-spaced, 12pt, indented paragraphs, chapters on new pages. Do not customise it — editors want plain text, not design.
- Should I format my book in Scrivener?
- You can, and Compile will do it. For a book you are publishing, Vellum or Atticus will produce a better result in a fraction of the time.
- Why does my Compile output look wrong?
- Almost always a mismatch between section types and section layouts. Check which section type each document is assigned before touching the format settings.
- Can I skip Compile entirely?
- For editorial work, largely yes — export a plain DOCX or bring the project across directly. Compile matters when you want Scrivener itself to produce a finished output.
- What format do agents want?
- Standard manuscript format — double-spaced, 12pt serif, indented paragraphs — as a DOCX, unless the agency's guidelines say otherwise. Follow their guidelines exactly; it is treated as a proxy for professionalism.