Bookmaker

The gap between “my manuscript is done” and “my book is on sale” is surprisingly wide. A finished Word doc is not a finished book. A finished book is a typeset, laid-out, platform-compliant PDF with front matter, back matter, proper margins, correct trim size, right color profile, proper headers and page numbers, and all the typographic details that separate self-published books from professionally-produced ones. Most indie authors navigate this gap with some combination of Vellum (Mac only, which Windows users can’t use), Atticus (web-based with limitations), Reedsy Book Editor (limited customization), or manual InDesign work (expensive and a full additional skill to learn). The Bookmaker is Ishvana’s answer for Windows authors who want print-ready output without buying another specialized tool. It takes the manuscript from your Outline and compiles it into PDF with platform-specific presets for KDP, IngramSpark, DriveThruRPG, and Lulu, plus full customization of trim size, margins, typography, ornaments, front matter, back matter, and per-section layout adjustments. It’s not as powerful as a dedicated typography tool, but it’s substantially more capable than a generic export-to-PDF button, and it lives alongside the rest of your writing project instead of requiring you to ferry files between applications.

This page covers the full Bookmaker reference — templates, platform presets, layout and theme configuration, content sources, the compilation pipeline, and the page review system for manual adjustments.

Book templates

The Bookmaker starts with a template that sets layout defaults and enables template-specific features. Five built-in templates:

Standard prose layout — single column, serif body font, chapter openers on recto (right-hand) pages, conservative margins. The default for 90% of novels.

Template selection is a starting point, not a commitment. Every setting in the template can be customized after the fact — templates just save you from setting up every knob from scratch on first use.

Platform presets

Pre-configured trim sizes, margins, bleed, and color profiles for the major print-on-demand platforms. Each preset handles the specific technical requirements of its target platform so you don’t have to research them yourself.

Preset	Platform
KDP Paperback	Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (paperback)
KDP Hardcover	Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (hardcover)
DriveThruRPG	DriveThruRPG / DMsGuild
IngramSpark	IngramSpark (wide distribution)
Lulu	Lulu Press
Custom	Manual trim, margin, and bleed configuration

Layout configuration

All measurements in inches. Every value is user-configurable:

Trim size — width and height of the finished page. Common presets: 5x8, 5.5x8.5, 6x9 (the standard for fiction novels), 8.5x11, A4, A5. The trim size fundamentally shapes how the book looks and feels in a reader’s hands; pick carefully.
Margins — top, bottom, inner (gutter side), outer. The inner margin is the one that matters most for binding — if it’s too narrow, text disappears into the spine.
Bleed — extra area beyond the trim for full-bleed images. Standard is 0.125in. If your book has images that run to the edge of the page, you need bleed; if all your images are contained within margins, you don’t.
Columns — 1 to 6 columns per page, with configurable gap. Fiction uses 1. RPG rulebooks often use 2 or 3.
Chapter start page — any, recto (right), or verso (left). Traditional fiction starts chapters on recto pages.
Running headers — none, book title alternating, chapter title, or custom.
Page numbers — none, bottom center, bottom outside, or top outside. Bottom outside is the most common for fiction.
Color profile — CMYK for print, RGB for screen or ebook. Print-on-demand platforms require CMYK.

Theme configuration

Beyond layout, you can customize the typographic theme per book.

Colors

Full color palette per book, every color user-editable:

Primary, secondary, accent.
Page background, text primary, text secondary.
Stat block border and background (for TTRPG templates).
Sidebar background.
Table header and stripe colors.

For black-and-white print books, you mostly leave these at defaults. For color interiors (rare in fiction, common in RPG rulebooks and art books), the theme colors shape the whole visual identity.

Fonts

Four font slots with size controls:

Body. Main prose. Default: Libertinus Serif at 11pt. This is the font readers see most of the time and the one that matters most for readability.
Heading. Chapter titles, section headers. Default: Linux Biolinum G at 18pt.
Stat block. Text inside stat blocks. Default: Alegreya Sans.
Mono. Code blocks and monospaced tables. Default: IBM Plex Mono.
Line spacing. Default 1.4. Higher values produce more readable prose at the cost of more pages.

All four defaults are professional-grade typography choices suitable for fiction. Change them if you have specific typographic preferences; leave them at defaults if you don’t.

Ornaments

Decorative elements for transitions and chapter openers:

Chapter divider — none, simple rule, three asterisks, ornate divider, or custom upload.
Scene / section break — same options plus custom ornament upload (PNG or SVG, max 2MB).
Drop caps — none, standard, or ornate.

Drop caps on chapter openers are the fastest way to make a book look professional. Turn them on.

Front matter

Each section is toggleable on/off. Content can be pulled from a specific document or typed inline:

Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Table of contents (auto-generated from your chapter structure)
Epigraph
Foreword
Preface

Fiction novels typically use title page, copyright, dedication (optional), and table of contents. RPG rulebooks often use more — foreword from a guest author, preface explaining the setting, etc.

Back matter

Appendices — can be auto-generated from your Legendry (see Content Sources below).
Glossary
Index
Author bio
Also by (other works)

Content sources

This is where the Bookmaker gets interesting. It doesn’t just lay out your manuscript — it pulls data from other Ishvana systems during compilation so your book’s content stays connected to your worldbuilding.

Lore appendices

Auto-generate appendices from your lore database entries:

Filter by entry type (characters, locations, factions, etc.).
Filter by status (published, draft, etc.).
Custom label per appendix.
Toggle portrait images from the Visual Gallery.

A fiction novel with a character appendix, a location glossary, and a faction reference at the back becomes substantially more valuable to readers who want to track a complex world — and generating it from the Legendry means the appendices stay accurate as your world evolves through the series.

Character sheets

Pull character sheet data into the book as stat blocks or full-page sheets. Option to include a blank character sheet at the back for readers using the book as a TTRPG reference. Only relevant for TTRPG rulebooks and setting books.

Interior art

Place visual assets from the Visual Gallery at specific points in the book:

Placement options. Chapter start, full page, inline, or half page.
Target a specific outline node for precise positioning.

This is how you get illustrated chapter openers, inline figures, and full-page art plates into your finished book.

Agent-generated content Agent

Hawken can generate publishing content for the book during compilation:

Back cover blurb
Chapter summaries

These are drafts, not finished products. Review and edit before shipping.

ProseGuard quality gate

Run ProseGuard lint before compilation as a quality gate. Optionally block compilation if ProseGuard finds errors above a configured severity. This catches the “I thought I’d fixed all the Machine Tells before shipping” problem before the book leaves the app.

Compilation

Single compile

Compile the book to PDF for the selected platform preset. Returns the output file path, the page count, compile time, and any errors encountered during compilation. The PDF is ready to upload to the target platform.

Batch compile

Compile for multiple platform presets in a single operation. Useful when you’re publishing wide and need separate PDFs for KDP, IngramSpark, DriveThruRPG, and Lulu. Each output gets the correct settings for its target platform.

Page estimate

Before committing to a full compile, get estimates for:

Total word count across all included content.
Estimated page count at trade (6x9), mass market (5x8), and digest (5.5x8.5) sizes.
Spine width in inches — critical for cover design.
Chapter count.

Useful when you’re picking a trim size or designing the cover and need to know roughly how thick the final book will be.

Pre-publish lint

Run ProseGuard against the book content. Returns violations with rule ID, message, severity, and paragraph number. The last safety net before compilation.

Page review and adjustments

After compilation, you can review the book page by page and apply manual adjustments before re-compiling.

Preview

Page-by-page rendered preview images show each page exactly as it will print.
Content manifest maps outline nodes to page numbers so you can find where a specific chapter or scene lands.
Navigate by page number or by content entry.

Adjustments

Per-node layout overrides that get applied during compilation:

Adjustment	Effect
Page break before	Force this content to start on a new page
Column break before	Force this content to the next column (multi-column layouts only)
Spacing before	Add extra space above the element
Spacing after	Add extra space below the element
Keep together	Prevent the element from splitting across pages

Each adjustment includes an optional note field for your reference — “added to prevent widow” or “scene break needs more breathing room.” Adjustments persist across compiles, so you don’t have to redo them when you recompile after editing.

Manual adjustment is the last 5% of book layout. Most books don’t need any; long books or books with unusual structure usually need a few per section to fix edge cases where automated layout picked suboptimal breaks.

Edition types

A single book entity can be configured as different editions:

Edition	Use case
Standard	The complete book
Player	TTRPG player-facing content (no GM secrets)
GM	TTRPG game master edition (includes all content)

For fiction, you usually only use Standard. For TTRPG content, Player and GM editions let you ship two versions of the same book from the same source material — players get a book without spoilers, GMs get the full thing.

Book metadata

Per-book metadata fields that populate the title page, copyright page, and platform metadata:

Title and subtitle
Author
ISBN
Publisher
Copyright text
Description
Cover asset (from the Visual Gallery)
Outline root — which part of the outline tree this book compiles

What’s next

Outline & Structure The story structure Bookmaker compiles from.

ProseGuard Run the quality gate before compilation to catch issues.

Marketing Publishing The launch workflow that follows Bookmaker output.