Import my entire novel to InDesign?

[RSKrules]

My novel currently exists in Scrivener, but that allows me to compile and export into any number of different file formats. 

Which file format will allow me to import this 56k book directly into InDesign? Is there any way for me to keep my formatting while doing so (font changes, spacing, page breaks, etc)? 

This is for the print version, a standard 6x9 paperback for both KDP and Ingram Spark. 

I feel like this is a normal thing people use InDesign for? I was sold on this product specifically because it is used for book formatting, so if anyone can tell me how to import my book so I can use it for formatting, please let me know!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, there are several layers of answer here. The first that occurs to me is that Scrivener is supposed to be a soup-to-nuts tool, from organizing your ideas all the way to exporting print-ready pages — isn't it? If you've come this far in the tool, and your goal is the relatively simple one of print editions of a novel from amateur/indie publisher friendly sources like KDP, why complicate things by switching to any other tool?

The other end of the answers is that yes, InDesign is probably the premier publication layout tool available, with few limitations in producing print-ready pages of any complexity and for any destination print method or process. So if you want maximum capability and professional features, there are few if any serious challengers you could choose instead.

As for the direct question  — I don't know offhand what formats Scrivener exports to, but in general the whole writing/publishing industry is pretty Word-centric, and InDesign imports Word very well, especially when the files are very "clean" (which can get into fairly complex areas to fully explain). I would export to either RTF or Word DOCX, and then as a suspenders-and-belt operation, open that export file in a copy of Word and re-save it as DOCX. (Word as a standard is a little slack, and import problems often trace to faults in export from tools like Google Docs, Pages, and — I would suppose — Scrivener. A cleanup pass through Word can often help. But in general any Word format from any source is as good as any other, and most import problems come with things like extensive endnotes and complex formatting, not basic novel layouts.)

Note that InDesign is not 'yet another word processor' and does not work quite like Word etc. There is a fairly steep initial learning curve, even for what seems like the basic process of setting up a document with page sizes and margins and then dumping prepared text into it. It's also extremely styles-driven, so if you are the sort of word processor user who is casual about defining and using styles and uses a lot of local or spot formatting (grab some text, apply bold, grab some text, apply a font, etc.) then you may find getting started with InDesign, and getting to a clean, press-ready layout, a bit of a headache. In a word, ID is more "manual" than most word processors and you have to tell it, define, apply, and adjust things that Word et al. sort of do automatically (if badly, from a document management perspective). ID can handle complexities like multi-file Books, footnotes, endnotes, many kinds of lists like TOCs, Indexes and cross-references, tables and illustrations without breaking a sweat... but that's not saying the same for a new user who may not need any of those advanced layout features.

The best thing you can do is work through the basic set of InDesign tutorials until you're comfortable setting up a new document with all the features needed for book printing, with page sizes, format, margins, and a set of styles that accomplish your goals. Just plunging in and figuring it out while you go has not, if reported experience is any guide, the most productive path.

So, again: why do you want to make this midstream choice if you are (apparently) comfortable with Scrivener? Especially with a novel, which as simply pages of flowing text with some chapter and section breaks, is pretty much the simplest long-form document there is? What do you expect ID to bring to the effort?

[Peter Spier]

If you don't have Word, and Scrivener can export RTF, I would try just importing that direct into InDesign.

[RSKrules]

Yes, but how? I compiled my book into a .rtf file - but I don't see any "import" options, nor does InDesign recognize any of the file formats I use (.docx, .pdf, .rtf) when I try to open them? 

[BobLevine]

File > Place. But I'm going to be very blunt here. If that is a command you are unfamiliar with, you really need to get some training or hire a professional.

[RSKrules]

I'd be happy to learn if there were any actual tutorials on how to do this. I spent a few hours trying to find someone who has done this before and this is my last resort. Was I mistaken in thinking that I can import 56,000 words into InDesign to use it as formatting software for a print version? 

Place isn't available unless I make a page, and regardless of which file format I use to "Place" it only gives me the first page, not all 56,000 words I've written. Unless there are more steps needed beyond just Place? If you have any tutorials on how to import 56,000 words into InDesign pages please let me know. 

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

Create a new one page document. Then use the file >place command to browse to the doc you want to import. Here's the important part...with the cursors loaded, hold down the shift key and then click on the page. If you do that right, the document will be populated and new pages created to hold it.

[RSKrules]

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. Looks like there's a significant amount of issues with the text after importing, but I can figure out how to take it from here.

[Peter Spier]

File > Place is the command for importing content into InDesign

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As I noted, InDesign is very different from "word processors," and it starts with the point that it only opens its own file formats. Everything else has to be "placed" in a created ID document, at which point it ceases to be Word or RTF or any other format and becomes wholly ID's own format. You also can't save from InDesign back to any other format, except in a very limited way.

It's not a word processor. It's not simple to learn. And I am still not quite certain what it will bring to your publication process that Scrivener is not already supposed to be able to manage.

As Bob and others note, you might want to think your steps through before you spend too much time going down a path that might result in wasted time, money and effort.

[RSKrules]

Once I found out here how to import my book, I did all of the formatting I needed to do in about two hour's worth of work. I didn't even need to look up how to do anything else, InDesign is a relatively easy program to use - I just didn't know how to do that one thing. 

I appreciate the concern, but I'm already done with my project!

[RSKrules]

Thanks for the reply! 

Scrivener doesn't do formatting. It lets you 'compile' the book into any different file format, but it has no integrated formatting options. I do a lot of in-line formatting (single word font changes mid-sentence, for example) that other software options like Atticus can't handle. I'm not afriad of learning how InDesign works, so long as I can actually bring in all the text I've written so far without having to cut-and-paste each page individually. 

The main issue I'm facing now is that InDesign isn't recognizing any of the file formats I use. I can't open any of the files, so I can't import the text. That's what I'm trying to find out how to do here. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

To be extremely blunt... nothing you say in any way changes my very low opinion of Scrivener. I thought it had at least basic page formatting capabilities, which would redeem it as a "one tool" solution for author-publishers. Without that, it's just an app pitched at amateur writers promising to make writing easy... at the expense of turning a book into a pile of legos that has to be "assembled" or "compiled" so that some actually capable tool can finish the job. (In that, it's much like old-school approach to e-books, where instead of "writing a book" you build a bunch of technical components. Not exactly conducive to the creative process except to give you lots of check boxes and to-do lists.)

You may simply want to do your page formatting in Word, which will be more familiar to you and, for simple books like novels, can do an excellent job. Trying to banzai your way into ID when the first few steps have tripped you up does not bode well.

But, editorializing off, we're here to help, and more than one of us here is experienced at the writing-publishing workflow.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@James Gifford—NitroPress 

But looking at the website - it's not so bad?

Familiar Text Editing

If you’ve ever used a word processor, you’ll feel right at home in Scrivener’s editor. Add bold, italics and all the other formatting you’d expect. Highlight phrases that need work. Add comments and annotations. Make lists, or insert images and tables. And by switching to page view, you can see the pages fill up as you type.

Formatting Presets

With Styles, you can indent a block quote and make its text smaller at the same time—or make a heading large and bold with one click. You can even tell Scrivener to format all your block quotes one way when creating an ebook and another way when producing a PDF.

Import

Already have writing or research in other apps? You can import all sorts of files into your Scrivener projects, including Word documents, plain text files, Final Draft scripts, images, PDF documents, movies, sound files and web pages.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It emphasizes the wrong processes for successful writing, replacing development of genuine skills with gimmicky features and obsolete approaches. But this isn't the place to discuss it, really.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

It emphasizes the wrong processes for successful writing, replacing development of genuine skills with gimmicky features and obsolete approaches. But this isn't the place to discuss it, really.

By @James Gifford—NitroPress

I'm not discussing, that it's not a right tool to prepare printed version - it isn't.

Just that there are Styles and some basic formatting - so not a "plain text".

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, the feature list claims it does print-ready pages.

Just to summarize and clarify — while I don't like Scrivener for many reasons, I don't have an issue with its users; we're all free to choose whatever tool or process we like.

Boil all of my comment here down to this: I can't think of a more difficult leap in process than from Scrivener to InDesign, because of the wildly different process/methods each uses and the aims of each tool. Even sitting down cold at InDesign might be easier in that no preconceptions or "wrong learning" have to be overcome. Tough enough coming from, say, Word, where the tools work in similar ways although the hurdle there is to replace sloppy work methods with ID's more rigorous ones. Nothing about Scrivener is a standard word processor or publication tool, and the conceptual leaps to anything page/content based are big ones.

I am also wary of any amateur who has been told InDesign is the right path to publishing something, especially simple material like a novel. It's well-intended advice but about like being told you have to qualify as a Formula 1 driver to make a grocery run. The change is only useful if ID is going to become a standard part of the process and has other benefits besides getting one book to KDP or Lulu.

[RSKrules]

Why is this still an ongoing discussion? I imported to ID, made my formatting changes, and uploaded the updated document to KDP with no issues. The formatting process was easy, intuitive, and only took me about two or three hours in total. Issue resolved!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, the discussion got broader than just your questions, as often happens. I was addressing the accumulated issues.

And all good that you got the resolution you were seeking. Good luck with all the next steps in the process.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Put another way, you're in exactly the right place for help with InDesign and getting to your goal of print layouts for KDP etc. But it's going to take patience and some dedicated learning on your part to learn the new platform, which is truly different from word processors you've used. You've got a lot of tall steps still before you are at a basic but competent user level. (I think Styles are going to give you some headwind, for example, as will the notion of Parent pages.)

And... you are perforce leaving Scrivener behind, as there's no going back (and forth) between the tools. You can do all the further editing and changes you like once you have the content flowed into ID, but you can neither bring forward additional changes in Scrivener nor take the book back there for further work.