Characters and worlds evolve. A hero in book one might become a villain by book three; a city might be rebuilt, ruined, or seen in an earlier era. BookZeta tracks an asset's version history across your entire series so each book can use exactly the right iteration without disturbing the others.

Why assets have versions

When you cast an asset from the Series Bible into a book, you get a localized copy you can edit freely. Over the course of a series, those copies naturally diverge — book one's version of a character differs from book three's. BookZeta keeps the lineage connected so you always know these are iterations of the same underlying asset.

The version picker

When you cast an asset into a new book, BookZeta checks whether that asset already has multiple iterations across earlier books. If it does, the version picker opens.

The version picker is a visual view of the asset's whole history. It lets you see every iteration and explicitly choose which one to import — for example:

• The original from the Bible — the clean, canonical version.
• A later, evolved version from a previous book — such as a damaged or transformed iteration.

You decide which makes sense for the book you're starting:

• For a prequel, pick an earlier version of a character (younger, before later events).
• For a sequel, pick the most recent version so the story picks up where things left off.

How casting protects continuity

Casting always creates a localized copy in the destination book. Editing that copy never rewrites the canonical Series Bible entry. This means:

• Each book stays internally consistent with the version you chose.
• The Bible remains your stable source of truth.
• You can have several books, each carrying a different iteration of the same character, all tracked under one lineage.

Step by step

1. Start (or open) the book you want to bring an asset into.
2. Cast the character, setting or entity from the Series Bible.
3. If the version picker appears, review the asset's history and select the iteration you want.
4. Edit the localized copy as needed for this book — the original stays untouched.

Tips

• Let the version picker guide you: it surfaces the full history so you don't have to remember which book changed what.
• Match the version to the story's timeline — earlier iterations for prequels, latest for sequels.
• Treat the Bible's original as your reset point; you can always cast it fresh if a book needs the canonical version.

Common pitfalls

• Expecting Bible edits to flow into existing books. They don't — casted copies are independent once created. Update the relevant book's copy directly.
• Importing the wrong era. Before confirming in the version picker, double-check the iteration fits where the new book sits in your timeline.