Creating ebooks

Ebooks are the flagship product type in dough. You select a collection of recipes, dough helps you organize them into chapters with intro copy, and the result is a professionally formatted PDF and EPUB cookbook styled with your brand.

Before you start

You need:

• At least 5 recipes in your library with Active status (more is better).
• A collection with the recipes you want to include, in the order you want them. You can also pick recipes individually during the process.
• Your brand kit configured with colors, fonts, and optionally a logo.

Step-by-step: building an ebook

1. Start the ebook builder

Go to Products > New Product > Ebook.

2. Select your recipes

Choose a collection or hand-pick individual recipes from your library. The order of recipes matters — it determines the default order in the ebook.

3. AI chapter organization

dough analyzes your selected recipes and suggests chapter groupings based on:

• Cuisine (for example, grouping all Italian recipes together)
• Meal type (breakfast, dinner, desserts, etc.)
• Dietary theme (a chapter of vegan recipes, a chapter of keto recipes)
• Season (summer grilling, holiday baking)

The suggestion appears as a list of chapter titles with recipes assigned to each. You can:

• Drag recipes between chapters.
• Rename chapters.
• Add or remove chapters.
• Ignore the AI suggestion entirely and organize manually.

Tip

You do not have to use the AI suggestion. If you already know how you want to organize your ebook, skip it and create your own chapter structure.

4. AI intro and headnote copy

Once chapters are set, dough generates:

• Ebook introduction (100-300 words) — a warm, personal intro to the cookbook.
• Chapter introductions (50-150 words each) — a short intro for each chapter.
• Recipe headnotes (30-80 words each) — a brief lead-in for each recipe.

All generated copy uses a warm, first-person voice without marketing superlatives (no “amazing” or “incredible”). Think of it as a first draft that sounds like you wrote it.

Caution

You must review and approve all AI-generated copy before publishing. dough marks it as “unreviewed” and blocks publishing until you confirm each section.

5. Configure details

• Title — the name of your ebook.
• Author bio (optional) — a short bio that appears in the ebook.
• Format — Letter size (8.5 x 11) for a classic cookbook feel, or Trade size (6 x 9) for a more book-like format.
• Template — choose from dough’s template library. Templates use your brand kit colors and fonts automatically.

6. Preview

Click Preview to see a rendered preview of your ebook. Check:

• Are recipes in the right order?
• Do photos look good at the template’s layout size?
• Is the intro copy accurate and in your voice?
• Are nutrition facts displaying correctly (if included)?

7. Generate the final files

Click Generate. dough renders the ebook as both PDF and EPUB. This process takes up to 2 minutes depending on the number of recipes.

When rendering completes, the files are stored on your product record and available for download, preview, and publishing.

Note

If rendering fails (for example, due to a font loading issue), dough falls back to system fonts and notifies you. You can retry at any time.

Ebook contents

A generated ebook includes:

1. Cover page — your product title, primary recipe photo (or a custom cover image), and your logo.
2. Table of contents — auto-generated from your chapter structure.
3. Ebook introduction — your reviewed intro copy.
4. Chapters — each with a chapter intro, followed by recipe pages.
5. Recipe pages — each recipe includes its photo, title, headnote, timing, yield, ingredients, instructions, and optionally nutrition facts.
6. Author bio page — if you provided a bio.

Generating a lead magnet from an ebook

Once your ebook is ready, you can generate a free lead magnet from it. dough selects the top 3-5 recipes by engagement score, creates a condensed PDF, and sets up a Kit opt-in form and delivery sequence automatically.

See Lead magnets for details.

Tips for great ebooks

• Use high-quality landscape photos. They display better in both letter and trade formats.
• Write your own intros. AI copy is a good starting point, but your personal voice and stories make the ebook special.
• Confirm dietary tags on all included recipes. Tags appear as icons on recipe pages and help readers find what they need.
• Include nutrition facts if your audience cares about them. They add perceived value.
• Choose recipes that go together. A focused theme (like “30-Minute Weeknight Dinners” or “Plant-Based Holiday”) performs better than a random assortment.