Google Docs says my book is too large

The ceiling

Google's Drive help gives a limit of 1.02 million characters for a Google Docs document. Hit it and Docs stops accepting text. An uploaded Word file has a second limit to clear, since the same page caps a text document converted to Docs format at 50 MB, and a file that breaks either one will not convert.

Characters are not words. Open Tools → Word count to see both, with and without spaces. English prose runs at roughly six characters a word once spaces are counted, so the wall tends to arrive somewhere near 170,000 words, which is epic fantasy territory or a trilogy kept in one file. Trimming a few paragraphs will not buy much room.

Splitting the book safely

There is no setting that raises the limit. The book has to become more than one document, and tabs are no way around it: Google states the limit per document and does not say how tabs count toward it. Do it in this order:

1. Keep a backup. File → Download → Microsoft Word (.docx) saves the whole thing as it stands.
2. Choose a seam, usually between acts or at the midpoint chapter. File → Make a copy twice, and name the copies Book, part 1 and Book, part 2.
3. In part 1, delete everything after the seam. In part 2, delete everything before it. Check the first and last lines of each against the backup.
4. Move the original into a folder called Archive so nobody types into it again.

If the error came from uploading a Word file, split it in Word before uploading and convert each half separately. A small contents document linking to every part helps you and any reader you share the parts with.

In Tabularia

There is no length ceiling on the prose. The Free plan promises manuscripts of any length, and one project can hold several Books in order, so a series does not need to be cut down to fit. What is metered is images, against an allowance on your account rather than on the book.

Getting a split book back together takes two steps. Download part 1 as a Word file and import it, which creates the project. Then download each later part as Markdown (.md) and add it with Insert from file…, choosing End of manuscript. Its top-level headings start new chapters.

The limits: Tabularia cannot open a Google Docs link, only a file you download. Comments come across in the Word file you import but not in the later parts, so settle or note theirs before you move them. There is also no simultaneous editing; with the Cloud plan, collaborators review a draft you send and hand it back.