How To Format Your Ebook and Print Book With Vellum 

Glad you find the info useful :)

It's one of those software tools that changes your life :) Makes formatting so much fun!

Great :) You can now do custom illustrated breaks so that will look good with poetry!

Thanks Masim, glad you found the book useful!

Vellum is awesome :) I hope you have fun with it

Thanks, Gail :) I think you will love it!

Glad it helped :)

Glad it was useful!

Thanks :) and yes, Vellum is much easier than Scrivener with many more options too. I use Scrivener to write and then Vellum to format.

Jump in - it's fun :)

Glad you got Vellum. It's fantastic software! I'm a super introvert so am not usually around for coffee, but I do speak at events sometimes, so best to grab me when I am doing 'public' events!

I agree - it's great being so in control

Maybe ask Paul Teague who has a tutorial for PC paulteague.com/how-to-use-vellum-on-a-pc-3/

Don't use Scrivener for formatting - it's awful :) I still use it for writing, as it's awesome for that, but NOT formatting! I just use the standard trims in Vellum, but you can also look at Atticus depending on your needs.

Thanks :) I appreciate you purchasing through my link. Vellum is awesome!

Vellum is not for cover design, you need other options for that - check out this list: www.thecreativepenn.com/bookcoverdesign

Vellum really is simple - and actually enjoyable :) I've never had any errors with their files.

I've heard of authors using it to write in as well but that's not what it's designed for. I use Scrivener to write and Vellum to publish.

I'm not sure, you'd need to ask Vellum.

You can create them directly in Vellum, but I often just copy and paste from my last book and then update.

Vellum is for the interior, not the cover - so it just creates the file you upload for the interior of the book. You still need all the other fields in the self-publishing process.

Image heavy books are much harder as they expensive. I don't have expertise in that, so have a look at what others in your niche are doing.

@@thecreativepenn it's a book about Tantra massage. I am a pioneer of some kind in the way I want to do it. Most have had printed the book first and then created an ebook later. Other ebooks have only few images. The answer is Adobe InDesign probably. Is it possible to convert from InDesign to all possible formats?

Not sure, you'll need to ask them that.

Sorry, you will need to ask Vellum any technical issues.

No, you don't need a company or an imprint to self-publish. You can just do it under your own name. Here's some more detail on why I did it - www.thecreativepenn.com/2017/02/09/small-press/ But in terms of setting up a company, that is done by jurisdiction, so check in your country what is the most appropriate. You will need legal advice!

@@thecreativepenn alrighty, thank you for clarifying that! I’m reading 📖 “Successful Self Publishing” it’s a great read 😃 Thanks for making it freely available & I’ll check out the blog post on why you made “Curl Up Press” when it comes time for me to look more into making my own publishing company 🙏🏽 I’ve got an awesome name, that I’m excited about, already picked out 😄 but it may be easier/more-casual to go w/o for a while until I publish more books as an indie 📚 Happy writing! & I’m looking forward to your “How to Write a Novel” KickStarter ✍🏽🌌📖 -LG

You can use MacInCloud on PC paulteague.com/how-to-use-vellum-on-a-pc/

Yes, you can, but I haven't done one myself so best to ask the guys at Vellum directly :)

@@thecreativepenn thank you!

You can do the links with special Vellum settings for back matter. It's very obvious once you're in the software so worth playing with :)

@@thecreativepenn Thank you very much for the reply! Definitely the info/push I needed to go try it. Happy Holidays!

You can find lots of help on vellum here - help.vellum.pub/text-features/endnote/

You probably need the change the structure - use the gear symbol at the side of the text near the heading e.g. Chapter or something else - but they have a lot of help so probably best to contact Vellum direct or look at their forums.

@@thecreativepenn thanks

not sure, you'd need to go to their help - I know they only do the most common sizing

Page numbers are pretty meaningless on ePub and Kindle files. They are flowable text so you can read the same book on a Phone or a laptop.

@@thecreativepenn That’s really good info to know. I just noticed on my iPad other books on my kindle app have the same issue. So it really doesn’t matter. Thanks so much!

I haven't done it myself, but you could just have a play and try!

@@thecreativepenn Thank you!

It totally depends on genre and also how you are publishing. Full length thrillers are around 50-70K words, but romance is generally shorter and fantasy a lot longer. You can print anything over about 24K - which I have for both fiction and non-fiction. So don't worry about page count. Although of course, longer books cost more to print than shorter books, but you have to write the book you want to write :)

You just import Word docs into Vellum and go from there. Any issues, please contact their support.

Hi Danny, I'm not really sure what you mean - but I've done a lot of books with Vellum and never had any issues. You can always ask their help to find out more.

Vellum also outputs paperback versions, it's just a setting!

Best to go through Vellum help for that - the Brads will let you know. But there is a new release just out.

Thanks for the reply, Joanna. i did get a reply from them, but the initial response is not very promising or helpful. I've replied back, but it's looking more and more like this purchase was a huge mistake. Embedded fonts are pretty standard, especially in non-fiction, and if they can't support them somehow, then they're asking WAY too much money for their software. Currently regretting my purchase VERY much...

My understanding was that was for ebooks, you were dependent on the reader also having the same font - but for the printed version, anything goes? - Or do you have a way around this - So I'm guessing their main target has been for the non - printed book. What I've done for my part heading pages is to use the font I want and to save it as a JPEG. This gets round it but I can't see it as a smart idea for an entire book. I agree that they lack flexibility in this area.

SmontheVidd - Sorry for the late reply, I'll answer in two parts: 1) Custom fonts are possible on almost all eReaders, even if it's frowned upon. There are many Kindle forum posts from independent publishers detailing this. Also, I was previously published through Pronoun/Macmillan, and my custom font was present and worked in every version of eBooks I sold. Based on my research, however, it appears that Amazon/et al give preferential treatment to major publishers, and lets them get away with things that they do not allow indies authors to do. 2) I got a response from Vellum that they do not support custom/other fonts at all, at least in part for legal concerns. They also stated that it's it's easier for them to just strip out all formatting up front from a programming standpoint. So, no: even in print, custom fonts are NOT supported by Vellum at all. I'm looking into using Sigil/Calibre/other software to re-add custom fonts to my ebook, but it completely takes away from the whole "ease of use" aspect of Vellum, and (for me at least) calls into question the value of Vellum at such a high price point ($249 USD), especially considering that there are free/cheaper pieces of software that actually do allow for custom fonts. (Though, their learning curve is definitely higher, and not guaranteed to work perfectly.) It's pretty mind-boggling to me that such expensive software is incapable of allowing custom fonts. I also don't see why they think they would be legally responsible for an author adding a custom font into their own book, being as several other eBook software publishers don't seem to have any such concern whatsoever. But, I'm not a lawyer, so... c'est la vie. To sum up: Vellum does what it does very well, but is EXTREMELY limiting from a customization standpoint. If it was priced at $50, I would consider it a great value, and recommend it in spite of its limitations. At $249 and the Mac-only limitations, however, I consider it incredibly overpriced. My recommendation is to download the trial, and MAKE SURE you don't only use the tutorial. You should definitely process and format your own book to see how it turns out before purchasing. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.

@@jasonbrookshier Vellum doesn't have the option to use any fonts other than those which come with their program. For print books, this severely curtails typography choices. A children's book, a thriller, a mystery, and a romance need distinctive fonts, not generic fonts. I wrote them about this and they said they had a database which included this feature as one option that people wanted, and would add my name to it. I don't think it's ever going to happen, and it really puts me in an aesthetic bind because the software is great otherwise. I do agree with your annoyance about the epub embedded fonts, but for me that's a lesser issue.

I don't know specifically about Lulu - and I suggest you check the Alliance of Independent Authors Watchdog service before you go ahead: selfpublishingadvice.org/allis-self-publishing-service-directory/self-publishing-service-reviews/#listing-L

Thank you ... Vellum is very cool, pricey, but cool. ☮️

I just use Appendices instead of footnotes - which are difficult for ebook formats anyway. They are more designed for print. For The Healthy Writer, which included a lot of medical studies, we have a breakdown per chapter of all the specific studies in the Appendix. If you're still having issues, please ask Vellum help.

Thank you very much. I'll try that!

I only use parts and chapters and then sub-headings within that. I've never used or needed subchapters - so maybe just use sub-heads?

@@thecreativepenn Display of the subheads in TOC is not currently supported by Vellum. It's on their to-do list according to Brad. I ended up creating my own TOC element with subheads for the print version. Hoping it lines up...

@@sherylmelanson9770 Pretty sure they've got that option now! Parts, Title, subtitles (in chapters) are demonstrated at about minute 15 in a video I found this am done by Abbie Emmons ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-phus9fRekR4.html

After you have done as much self-editing as you can, then it's time to work with a professional editor. You usually send them a MS Word doc which they mark up with Track Changes.

Thank you. So my understanding would be that the ms document is effectively the master document.

Yes, absolutely. I still use Vellum for every book. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing better :)

The Creative Penn thank you

I enjoy it with Vellum!

@@thecreativepenn I have never used Vellum but I plan on it for my book I'm working on. Great video by the way!

not sure, you'd need to go to their help - I don't do any color interior - that would make it very expensive

You don't print an ebook, you buy a print book if you want a print version :)

Yes, but you can use Mac In Cloud to run it on a PC

You can use MacInCloud - here's help for PC users: paulteague.com/how-to-use-vellum-on-a-pc/

Or, if you have the technical knowledge (and a powerful enough computer) to follow along with this tutorial, you can install Mojave in VMWare as a virtual machine on your PC for free and use Vellum that way. Just tested this last night. Works like a charm on my 9 year old desktop. techsviewer.com/install-macos-mojave-vmware-windows/

Just ask Vellum Help, they are very friendly

You have to buy a license :)

This might help - paulteague.com/how-to-use-vellum-on-a-pc/

Thank you, Joanna!