Block quote vivadesigner7/6/2023 The full version of Vellum empowers you to create print and ebooks for a onetime fee of $250. It would have taken even less time if I hadn’t tried wrestling with image files. ![]() I used a combination of the Vellum help documentation, Youtube, my good friend Google, and good-old-fashioned poking around, to figure it out this morning. With a little self-training, anyone can create, update, and manage files for print and ebooks. That’s all it does, and it does it really well. Vellum is software developed by 180g specifically to format books. I didn’t like the idea of being dependent on someone else to fix every little thing I, or readers, find in my books. However, every time you publish a new book, you should go back to your previous books and update the back matter accordingly… and that can mean many, many trips to the formatter. Costs vary I’ve seen as little as $20/version on Fiverr, to $350 for a package deal from book layout pros. Now I’m an adventurous do-it-yourself(er), and was interested in spending the time to learn how to use Affinity… until I saw the message boards of people pulling their hair out because IngramSpark wouldn’t accept their print files.Īnother option is to hire someone to do your layout for you. ![]() They have varying costs, but all require a good deal of time to learn. These products give you the most options and flexibility. Side note: I’ve given up on creating beautiful documents from Scrivener I now export to Word and play with formatting there.Īt the top of the difficulty ladder are the pro-tools for graphic design and layout, such as InDesign, Affinity Publisher, VivaDesigner, Publisher etc. ![]() Now I love Scrivener for drafting, and I’m very comfortable in Word (anyone want to read my 200-page masters thesis?), but Word does hinky things with formatting at the best of times, and I’ve never exported a file from Scrivener the same way twice. Want to fix a typo? Great. Change your document and go through the whole import process again.Ĭlimbing the ladder of difficulty, some indie authors reported using Scrivener or Microsoft Word to format their print and ebooks. However, to be effective, your manuscript must be DONE. It offers several styles to mix and match, and the resulting product looked nice. ![]() I ran a short story through the Draft2Digital interface, and it’s very easy to use. I didn’t try the Reedsy version, but I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! The most low-cost/low-tech options seemed to be the web-based tools provided by Draft2Digital and Reedsy. In doing my initial research, I found indie authors were handling formatting in several ways. This week, we won’t go down the rabbit hole of what formatting is, or should be, but I may revisit it later! What Are My Formatting Options? If you are also procrastinating getting back to the heavy edits you’re avoiding on your next book like I am, this might be a great time to figure out how you’re going to handle your formatting. You might be waiting to see what typos your proofreader, and your picky Aunt Edna, and that one guy who always has to show you up, find. If you’re where I am, you have a few things you might change. Nearly done with your book? Have a plan for formatting it? If not, consider Vellum.
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