Making your novel look good is more complicated than you think. Thankfully, these software packages, Vellum and Atticus, make it easier. For the most part, the software programs set up the essentials for you.
I will refrain from regurgitating what constitutes book formatting. Still, if you are looking for advice, this piece on book formatting from NY Book Editors explains it well.
My experience over the last two weeks with Atticus and Vellum was mixed. Neither program is perfect, but neither am I. I used each program to prepare a book for print and to update my ebook.
The negatives with Atticus:
You have to toggle between writing and formatting modes.
If you have a series, the regular Book Detail page, where the title page pulls the info from, can't handle it. You have to jump a couple of hoops to generate the title page. That, my friend, is a big, fat drag. I was sent to this page to follow these directions. To Create a customized page for a Series.
You do have to go in and pre-set things. Font size, drop caps, indents, scene breaks, etc., for each manuscript because what is set is most likely inappropriate.
If you have images with bleeds (span the page,) I wonder if this program can handle this (consensus on various websites, say over and over, use a professional book designer unless you are willing to be patient and learn).
I couldn't download a Word DOC from a created document. I don't know about you, but I found and corrected more errors after formatting. I wanted a final document in Word. I wrote Atticus and received this response:
Pasting from other programs often brings foreign coding with it, causing odd formatting issues and preventing exports. Whenever you're pasting into Atticus, we recommend pasting without formatting. This should clear up and avoid formatting issues. Still, it would help if you reapplied any special formatting you may want, such as URLs, italicized or bolded text, etc.
They advised me to do the following:
If you know where you have copied/pasted content into Atticus, please do the following:
o Highlight anything that was pasted from outside Atticus.
o Cut it by pressing CTRL or CMD X.
o Paste it back in place without formatting:
o Press CTRL or CMD + SHIFT + V or
o Right click and choose "Paste as plain text."
You may also want to check for any blank space at the bottom of your chapters, as this blank space might be hiding foreign coding. To correct this:
1. Place your curser after the very last character in your chapter and press the down arrow a bunch of times.
2. If there are any invisible lines, the cursor will move. Once it's as far as it'll go, hit backspace until you get back to the last line of the paragraph.
3. You'll want to repeat this for each page and chapter in your book and then try exporting again.
While I appreciate the above-detailed fix, I don't have the time or inclination to go through a 69,000-word document on which I may have changed four things. If the upload of the Word document had worked in the first place, I would not have cut and pasted these chapters in. It is highly doubtful that I am the first author to cut and paste my document since they seemed to have this lengthy fix prepared. It would have been nice to know to paste as plain text in advance. One line on the Atticus page would be helpful, so I would have been forewarned. On many levels, Atticus is a charming program, but some things are troublesome and need attention.
Positive Things about Atticus:
If you plan to write in Atticus, you can set up writing goals and keep track of them. You can set up your writing days and a prescribed deadline for a project. If you are a deadline kind of person, it even has a timer.
The software's ability to convert my document into a beautiful PDF containing a 6x9 book was impressive. I had no problem uploading it to KDP, and in three days, I had my proof book in my hands.
It can create an ebook version for you, too.
Cost, $149.00. That's a very affordable price. That's what you could pay someone to format your ebook once. You buy this program, learn it, take the time to learn about formatting and earn your money back. The key here is to be interested in the aesthetic side of things. It's not easy, but with each book, you'll learn.
Atticus makes it easy to embed websites into your ebook version, and if you are sticking to Kindle for the most part, it's a no-brainer.
It downloads files to your computer, and you can put them where you want them.
Atticus can handle text variations in your manuscript, whether text messages, verses, call-out boxes, etc.
Excellent customer service. Someone got back to me and handled my issue within five hours and gave me specific information.
Now, on to Vellum. I used it to create my second book.
The negatives of Vellum:
Only available for Macs. That is a significant negative if you don't have a Mac.
The cost. $249.00 is expensive and more costly than Atticus.
More confusion when adding websites to my manuscript. There were several ways to do it on the ebook version; they have web links, store links, and internal links based on whether you wanted the buyer to go to your book, your website, etc. It could be just me that’s confused, maybe you’re more technically savvy and will have no trouble at all, making the correct choice.
Be aware if you want to avoid Prepared by Vellum printed on the copyright page, you need to click this off (unless you want that printed.)
If you have images with bleeding, I wonder if this program can handle this (consensus on various websites, say over and over, use a professional book designer unless you are willing to be patient and learn).
Positives of Vellum:
More accessible for handling Title pages of series. It might be worth sticking with Vellum if you write a series.
I can see both writing screens and formatting at the same time.
Like Atticus it has much versatility when managing portions of your text in your story. For instance, text messages:
Journal entries or letters:
You can pick from a wealth of platforms when generating for ebooks or print, whether you are downloading your files to Kindle, Kobo, Apple, or generic (Draft2Digital), so the file is created specifically for them. It puts them in a file on your desktop and even asks if you want to go to them and see them. Yes, I do, because my desktop is a mess.
Does everything associated with that Manuscript style automatically, saving you precious time and making appropriate choices from the get-go, assuming you might not go in there and check things out and make proper decisions. The pre-sets are set where they should be. They must know people don't check them. Ha!
You can turn off what online links you want to appear between ebooks and printed books, Icons, webpages, etc.
The ability to download a version of your word document if requested and it looked good. (Note, I also cut and pasted versions of my document when inputting, but with Vellum they had no problem generating a Word document.
I never had to call customer service for anything. Everything worked perfectly, with the exception of the download, which I discovered only later had a built in menu that allowed you to adjust the input. Now I know for next time.
I mentioned last week that things were more hidden and not as out in the open on Vellum. However, the more I used this program, the more I adapted. By the time I was halfway through formatting the one book, I knew where everything was located. I also enjoyed the cleanliness of the Vellum platform and found myself less distracted. This helpful video I watched guided me through using Vellum for the design aspects of my book.
I wanted to avoid liking Vellum because it costs more. Still, I find myself leaning in their direction, even though Atticus is a solid program. The three things that stand out for me in preferring Vellum: I can see both the writing and the formatting simultaneously, secondly, it creates a title page for my series easily, with no special treatment, and lastly, I can be much more specific in what platform I'm generating my output files for. Since I publish wide, I want to create specific files for where I'm downloading my books to. However, these advantages I mention could mean little to you.
If you use either Atticus or Vellum, or something else. Share you experience under comments:
Other News:
Wednesday, The 7th, Women in Publishing Conference begins. It's four days and entirely online and costs $197.00. I believe there are coupons available if you search for them. I think Atticus is also a sponsor. You might be able to request a $25.00 coupon from them if you purchase Atticus.
I have never been to this one, but I have heard some good things. Check out the schedule; it is a good mix of marketing and craft. I'm a bit burnt out for attending anything, perhaps next year, but maybe you're in a better place.
Thanks for sharing this, Kay. I have found that Draft2Digital does good formatting with a VERY simple software, and Kindle is also relatively easy. Both are free.
Does they make the books look good? Chances are the "looks" could be better. Then again, if I spent hundreds of dollars (per book) on covers and professional formatting, they would look better still. However, since the cover and formatting won't address the insufferable marketing problem, I prefer to spend my limited resources elsewhere.
I hear where you are coming from. I am still using D2Digital to distribute, but my biggest problem with them is the lack of ways to get reviews. They don't put links within the book—rate my book. When I asked them about it, they said it was because they distribute so widely. They do have a long list of where they distribute, but the truth is, for me, only three are consistently selling my books, Kobo, B&N, and Apple. Books get sold because other readers see book reviews. Book reviews are essential and that is part of marketing. By taking control of the inside of our book, we can list links ourselves to leave reviews, Kobo, Apple, etc., something DD2Digital doesn't do. I might have a more favorable opinion if they gave us the power to pick where to leave reviews within the book structure. Also, I wouldn't say I like seeing their blue DRAFT2Digital letters slapped everywhere within the book. I don't think it looks professional. Those are my main gripes.
Between the two, Kindle Create is the clear winner for free regarding the looks factor and manipulating your text. If, all I'm going to do is create e-books, maybe stick with Kindle Create. Still, when it comes down to printing a book, and I'm asking a reader to spend $18.99 for a 70K word book, I feel responsible for having it look as good as possible. If I were to hire someone to format a book for print, it would be a minimum of $250.00, and there is no guarantee they would do as good a job as I would with formatting software. The decision of where best to spend our money is a juggling act. It was not until this year that I took these books to print, but now I have the software to do this professionally if I learn how to use it correctly.