What's new in Bookshift: covers, series, and dialogue tools

I have been shipping a lot of practical Bookshift improvements recently, mostly in the places where authors tend to lose time: formatting odd manuscripts, keeping translated series consistent, creating covers that actually understand the book, and turning a finished translation into something you can publish and promote.

This is a quick tour of what has changed, what is already useful, and what is still in beta.

Dialogue format conversion for French, German, and Italian

Bookshift now has a same-language Dialogue Format Converter. It is built for manuscripts where the words are already in the right language, but the dialogue punctuation convention needs changing.

The big one: you can now convert French dialogue from guillemets into em-dash dialogue.

« Bonjour », dit-elle.

can become:

— Bonjour, dit-elle.

This is not a search-and-replace job. Real books have dialogue tags, quotations inside narration, remembered speech, signs, letters, and nested quotations. The converter is designed to inspect the manuscript and convert the dialogue convention without casually flattening all those cases into the same thing.

German and Italian dialogue styles can be switched with the same tool as well. So if you need German guillemets versus low-high quotation marks, or Italian guillemets versus em-dash dialogue, there is now a dedicated workflow for that.

Dialogue Format Converter set to convert French guillemets into em-dash dialogue

French em-dash dialogue is now the recommended default

I have also made further under-the-hood improvements to French em-dash dialogue formatting. There are better checks around the conversion path, and the default French dialogue option in the translation flow is now the modern em-dash style, with a recommended label.

French guillemets are still supported. The aim is not to force one house style on everyone, but to make the most useful default obvious while keeping the classic option available when that is what your book or publisher needs.

Book-aware cover generation

Cover generation has become much more aware of the actual book.

You can now start a cover from:

an existing Bookshift book,
a newly uploaded manuscript,
or manually entered details.

When you use an existing Bookshift book, the cover workflow can use the title, subtitle, author, translated edition details, series text, and stored book context that Bookshift already has. When you upload a manuscript directly, the cover generator can use that file for context rather than relying only on a short prompt.

Bookshift cover generator showing options to use an existing book, upload a manuscript, or enter details manually

This also means the form prefill is better. If Bookshift already knows the title, subtitle, author, series name, or translated edition details, it should do more of the boring typing for you.

Series support for more consistent translations

Series support was added a couple of weeks ago, and it is a big deal for anyone translating book two, book three, or a long-running world.

Bookshift can now understand that a book belongs to a series. That means a later translation can carry context from earlier books: recurring character names, place names, invented terms, relationship labels, tone, and other continuity details that should not drift from one volume to the next.

If you translate book two after book one, Bookshift has a much better chance of keeping the series language consistent.

Hardback wrap PDF generator beta

The print cover generator now includes beta support for hardback wrap PDFs, including KDP hardcover case laminate options.

This still needs more testing before I call it fully reliable, but it is ready enough to try. If you want to experiment with a hardback wrap, have a go and let me know where it behaves well and where it needs more work.

Bookshift print cover generator with KDP hardcover case laminate selected

International KDP category recommendations

I have cataloged the KDP categories across the different international stores. Now, when you translate a book, the resource pack can include recommended categories for that specific store.

That matters because categories are not just translated labels. Different stores organize books differently, and a category that makes sense in one marketplace may not map neatly to another.

A multilingual category browser and search tool is coming soon. The current version is already useful because the recommendations are generated as part of the translation resource pack, right when you are preparing the listing.

Marketing packs are getting more useful

Marketing packs are still a work in progress, but they have improved a lot recently.

They can now help with things like:

Facebook group post ideas,
short posts for Bluesky and X,
book group discussion questions,
alternative blurb ideas,
pull quotes,
and other launch or relaunch material.

They are useful for original-language books if you want more marketing angles, and especially useful for translations. For translated books, pull quotes are taken directly from the translated manuscript. They are not re-translated versions of an English quote, which makes them much more natural to use in the target language.

More reliable translation submission and bulk workflows

There has also been a lot of cleanup work around the translation flow itself.

Document handling is more robust now, especially for books with... unconventional... formatting choices. Bulk translations are smoother and safer. Language and style options are clearer, and Bookshift does more checking before submission so problems are caught earlier.

The upload and submit flow for book translations should also feel more reliable overall. This kind of work is not always flashy, but it is the difference between "the tool works on clean demo files" and "the tool behaves sensibly with real manuscripts from real authors."

What to try first

If you have a French manuscript and need to switch dialogue conventions, try the Dialogue Format Converter.

If you are creating a new edition cover, try starting from an existing Bookshift book or uploading the manuscript for context instead of filling everything manually.

If you write a series, start grouping the books now so future translations can benefit from the shared context.

And if you are close to publishing a translated edition, open the resource pack and marketing pack. The category recommendations, translated pull quotes, and fresh promotional angles should save you a decent amount of setup time.

More improvements are coming, especially around category browsing and hardback wraps. For now, these updates should make Bookshift better at the part that matters most: getting from "I have a book" to "I can publish this edition with confidence."