The Agent-Native Revolution in Publishing
In the past, converting an 80,000-word manuscript from Microsoft Word or Google Docs into a modular LaTeX project took 15 to 20 hours of tedious manual formatting.
Today, AI agents (Claude, Cursor, OpenCode, ChatGPT) can parse your entire manuscript, identify headings, create modular content/chapter*.tex files, wrap drop caps, format bullet lists, and run xelatex in under 60 seconds.
The Exact Prompt Recipe
Download any template bundle from BookTemplatesPro, place your manuscript.docx or manuscript.md in the project folder, and paste this prompt into your agent:
You are an expert prepress book compositor. I have placed my raw manuscript in `manuscript.md`.
Please typeset my complete book using the installed BookTemplatesPro package:
1. Inspect `selfhelpbook.sty` and `main.tex` to understand all structural commands.
2. Parse `manuscript.md` and split each chapter into modular files inside `content/` (e.g. `content/chapter1.tex`).
3. For each chapter:
- Use \bookchapter[TOC Title]{Display Title}{Number} for the heading.
- Wrap the first letter in \bookdropcap{Letter}{rest of word}.
- Convert section headings to \booksection{Heading} and sub-headings to \booksubsection{Subheading}.
- Wrap case studies in \begin{casestudy}{Title} ... \end{casestudy}.
- Format takeaway lists using \begin{bookitemize} ... \end{bookitemize}.
4. Update `main.tex` with the list of included chapters and parts.
5. In `frontmatter/contents.tex`, ensure \tableofcontents is present.
6. Execute `./build.sh` to compile with XeLaTeX and verify there are zero compile errors.
Your agent will autonomously chunk the files, apply typography macros, compile the PDF, and output a finished Amazon KDP deliverable.