Thank you for releasing this! I just picked up Atticus yesterday and I wanted to cry today (good tears!) when I formatted my eBook and it came out looking so professional! I would like to send hugs and friendly kisses to the WHOLE ATTICUS TEAM!
As a beta tester for Atticus, I want to add that the support team is beyond fabulous! I've always been jealous of those Mac users and how easy they made Vellum look and thought...why hasn't someone invented something similar for PC users? I'm thrilled Dave and his team thought of this first and were creating this while I made do with Kindle Create and D2D's platforms. Best investment in my writing business by far! I've now uploaded all of my books into Atticus and I couldn't be happier with the print and ebook versions. Thank you, Dave!
I LOVE Atticus. I bought it when it was pre-release with an author discount. When it finally gets the story planning/plotting feature it will likely replace even Scrivener for me.
I love this! I bought a copy and already started making serious progress on formatting a finished book that I've had collecting dust as a PDF. It really is as if Scrivener, Vellum, and Google Docs had a beautiful baby and I'm hooked. I'm planning to adjust my book writing process so that I write rough drafts on my FreeWrite typewriter, but then edit and organize those in Atticus (instead of Notion) because the formatting is built-in when I'm ready for it.
Oh my gosh! Where have you been my whole life? I can already tell this is going to save me weeks of time I spend formatting my paperbacks by hand. I love Vellum for ebooks, but their conversion to paperback is seriously lacking. Cant wait to see what this new software can do!
I'm a registered of Vellum but have registered Atticus and am not looking back. Throughout the days and weeks I switch to other platforms such as iOS and Windows in order to run other software that doesn't work on Mac or iOS, but the bulk of my work and hobby software run on Apple devices. I registered this as an early adopter and have seen the features grow over the last several months. Also, I am excited to look at the roadmap published to see where this is going. I see a couple of thumbs down in the reviews but the number of thumbs up speaks volumes. Very happy to have made the jump.
I have Vellum and once I got over the learning curve it was super easy to use, and I have Scrivener but found it complex and tedious as much as I love the features, but I do love new options and bought this as well. So far I've uploaded all my past published short stories and new ones and I absolutely love it. I have to finish a book and check formatting but so if all the features they're claiming are added it's going to be amazing. I'm looking forward to dark mode and the outlining and plotting features.
This looks VERY interesting. As someone who loves to write and who dreams of being a full-time author, I was surprised by how difficult formatting books can be. Scrivener was decent but complicated in places, and the less we say about InDesign, the better! 😋 This formatting tool looks both simple to learn and even fun to use. I look forward to trying it out.
Atticus makes book formatting a breeze! After spending a very challenging evening learning how to format with Scrivener, Atticus was refreshingly easy. The templates are easy to use, easy to customize, and they look fantastic. Now that I've received proof copies of my forthcoming novel from Amazon, I can say that the finished product looks amazing as well!
@@jackiegoldman7968 you can export Atticus as a PDF or as an epub, and those are what I used for the hardcover/paperback and ebook on KDP, respectively. KDP does not require a .docx file, although Atticus does also export in that format.
Didn't even need to think about it. I'm in and loving it! Love the layout, chapters on the left, content center and how it looks on the right. So obvious and so great to work with. Loving the merge chapters (on imported heavily subtitled books)... I haven't figured out how to get more than one level of subtitle yet (I use 3 or 4 on non-fiction sometimes) so I need to work on that. Exciting times to be a writer!
I honestly can't thank you enough for creating this software. As a diehard PC user and someone who has no intentions of ever using a Mac, I felt left out in the cold in terms of being able to format my books with Vellum. I can't wait to add Atticus to my list writing software tools.
I've played with the same idea for years, but the real job got in the way. In 2020, my business master's team won a competition for a business proposal that covers all four corners of where you are going. I'm very excited to see this come to fruition, even if I'm not on the inside. Congratulations. (May see you at 20to50K)
Atticus is a great tool! It also seems friendly to use. And I learned from previous videos and articles on this channel that Atticus has also the advantage of a diversity of beautiful and free fonts. The books look terrific!
I just purchased it! I'd been putting off buying Vellium because I use a PC. I'm thrilled I waited. Thank you, thank you, Dave and Kindlepreneur for providing an easy to learn formatting PLUS program!!
Getting it ASAP! I don’t have a MAC so I always had the need to hire someone to format my books! Not anymore!!!! I’m looking forward to it and all the creativity you can put into it to make it look just as you imagine. Thank you !
Okay, I use Scrivener, but that is bullet in the head for print formatting! Such a pain. But, I love Scrivener's research tool because I post tons of photos, web articles and PDFs into my doc. Will Atticus have a split-screen research function? What about Notecards for plot formatting? I have a very large Scrivener file for my current novel. Wondering how Atticus could receive the whole import? (And congrats to your team for building a better mousetrap!) Hoping Atticus will be our new Swiss Army Knife!
Pretty much all of those things are on the way. We will create a note card section, and split screen and plotting capability as well. As for posting tons of photos and web articles and PDF, I'm not sure yet.
Congratulations on your launch! It's high time that Scrivener and Vellum got some legitimate competition. I will definitely be buying this and testing it out over the next few weeks. :) A few questions I found weren't answered on your site: 1. I love the backup in the cloud option, but is there a way to use this program *without* uploading the book to the cloud at all, or at least a way to do that in the works, or will cloud be necessary in perpetuity? 2. I see it offers PDF exports. Is this standard PDF/a only, or does it have PDF/x also? Note that PDF/x alone would make the purchase of Atticus more than worth it, and would singlehandedly make Atticus the best writing/editing software overnight, above Word, Scrivener, etc. So if it's not currently in place, are there plans in the future?
Awesome and sounds good. As for the questions: 1. Sadly, no. We put the hard core formatting program on the server, so it would need to reach out to format the book in the end. So, while you can use it to write and such, in order to format in the end, or do Collab when we set that up, you'll need online capability and thus the server attachment. But i will admit, something I want me team to really research and develop out is a way for people to select the storing of files as both, or either. 2. Not yet - but my programmers have been working on that and my head of product development has a meeting with the team about it tomorrow - so if you contact me via email, I can let you know specifically what he says. All in all, it's a priority and we will be there. ;)
Why are they jerks? There are lots of Mac-only developers out there? I agree it's unfortunate that Vellum is only for Mac, but calling them jerks seems harsh.
Absolutely - we'll be doing a webinar for users soon to show how it will work. Wait until you see it. It has special ways to collab with writers, editors, ARC/Beta Readers and Formatters as well. Only Formatters and Writers will need a copy. The others wont.
@@Kindlepreneur Sounds awesome. I had a horrible experience with another "beta reader" app, and have stuck to google docs since then, but have been wishing/hoping something better would come along. Look forward to more info!
@@Kindlepreneur Will there be a way to track changes (important for us editors)? It's difficult to wean editors away from editing in Word. The easier you can make it, the better for both writers and editors.
@@alexandrauth212 Absolutely....we will make it look and feel just like Word and have track changes. Because you're 100% correct. It is super hard to wean them off of it and the closer it is to it, the more likely more editors will adopt it.
Wow, so exciting! I'm a very happy Vellum user and still ... this is tempting. You mention "Volumes" and by that, do you mean "Bundles"? Vellum makes it super simple (drag and drop files) to create multi-book bundles. Looking forward to the collaboration feature! As always, above and beyond, Dave!
Dave, this sounds AMAZING! I am so excited for this highly needed all-in-one publishing solution. I do have a question. Is there any special consideration for converting a series of books into a boxed set? This is something I've been meaning to tackle, but just haven't had the chance to really explore.
Say I create a children's picture book in Canva, will Atticus work well for picture-heavy projects conversion to epub, and btw can I skip Canva altogether and format a picture-laden book in Atticus?
You can create a book completely out of full page images, if you had all the artwork and the text was embedded into the graphics. Atticus does allow for full bleed, but not currently as a spread. To create a spread, you'll have to have 2 separate images, but that can also be done. We have an Image Sizing reference page here: www.atticus.io/image-sizing-for-print-and-ebooks/ - hope that helps.
This looks great! I have had so many problems with formating my books, that is something that I really dread, and it just takes up so much of my time. Will the updates of the software cost money, or will it be like Publisher Rocket?
Atticus is yours? I have it, and love it so far. It’s so freaken easy to use. I love it! PS, it keeps crashing on chrome… running it on Opera without any problems tho. Anyway, great work!!!
Yup and that's awesome to hear. As for Chrome, there might be a chance that there is a Chrome plugin you have runniing that is causing it. One of the culprits we've found is Grammarly. Grammarly in general has this affect on things with lots of writing. It's code causes it to freeze or slow down on things where it analyzes all the writing.
Woah! This looks pretty awesome! As a non-Mac user, this looks to be a pretty fine solution. As a KDRocket user (lovely program by the way) I am definitely interested in taking a look at this.
I have Vellum already but I hate using my iMac. It's not even an old computer but I just don't care for it. I'm tempted to get Atticus and then sell my iMac. I have a Lenovo laptop now and would love to be able to write and format all in one program--but one that isn't complicated like Scrivener.
This is soooo wonderful and sooo needed. Dave, can you add some layouts for Children Picture Books? Since you can make images Full Bleed CAN this be used to create Children's Books? Asking for a Friend.. LOL
Looks great for formatting the books. 1. Are more writing features expected to be added (especially for fiction writing e.g. characters, locations, etc.)? 2. Is there a plan to release Atticus as an app for Windows and Android? Good work so far.
It really is. As for your questions: 1. Oh yeah, always. 2. App for Windows and Android? It currently works on both. You can download the app on a Windows computer or Chromebook. It can also be an app on a smartphone, however, it doesn't have the right layout so it doesn't look good on the smartphone apps yet.
Great content Dave. I just had a quick question. When writing out my manuscript using pro-writing aid, when line- spacing should I double-space? Or at one-and-a-half spaces? This would be for a 'fictional' book. I'm hearing varying cite's from SEVERAL people, so I'm not sure.
Hi Dave! I'm saving up to buy Atticus, but please please please add a BLURRED SCREEN option. There was this neat site blindwrite where I could set up a timer and write on a blurred screen. Thanks to that my productivity skyrocketed and the nasty internal critic was mostly silent as a stone. Unfortunately the creator took it down and ever since I've been trying to find something similar with no success. You and your team are already the coolest, but if you add this option, I will love you until the end of time.
Wowwww. Atticus really sounds great! I am used to Scrivener and it works really well for me, but I see now Atticus is what I need for editing and final formatting. So… What happens if I travel to a remote place without internet? Will I be able to access my Atticus software without signing in? Thanks.
So long as you have it downloaded to your computer, and that you have logged in, you can go off into the woods and work on it. Then when you hit the internet again, it will sync up. However, I just recommend you check you're logged in before leaving. It takes like 6 months for the system to try to log you off - but that's for upkeep.
Hello Dave, Hope you're doing great. I have just come across Atticus, call me a late bloomer. But, better late than never. 😅 I have three books completed but formatting them has been a challenge for me. Can you tell me if I can create KPF files ready to be uploaded on Kindle and also Amazon Paperbacks with Atticus? Are there any other formats supported on Kindle and Amazon Paperbacks that can be created by Atticus? Please help so I can make my books see the light of day. I'll be extremely grateful. 🙏🏼✅ Looking forward to hearing from you. 🎉
You can. There is a button to click that gives a snapshot of the book and that is saved on your computer. If however, you want to revert back, you'll need to contact support, send them that file and they can restore back to teh snapshot. Not the most efficient way, but we have plans to make that even easier/better.
That depends on the trim size you're looking to use. It has all the normal and regularly used Trim Sizes, and also has special Children's Book trim sizes such as 8.5x8.5, 8x10, 8.5x11.
Would Atticus be good for publishers as well as authors? I'm starting a publishing company, and I was thinking of buying Atticus instead of paying the monthly subscription for InDesign from Adobe. I'll need to import documents (from client), edit (I will have editing services), format (e-pub or print version), design, and export books to print and e-book files.
Potentially yes. It would be a good financial investment and save you a lot of money in the long run. However, it isn't 'as' powerful as InDesign - but when it comes t crafting books, it can do a WHOLE lot. Plus because Atticus was designed with Books only in mind, you will find that there are features that will make making books that much faster, as you work with more and more of them. Furthermore, we're constantly adding more features and capabilities - which are all free upgrades for current owners.
Yes, you can. You can create a book completely out of full page images, if you had all the artwork and the text was embedded into the graphics. Atticus does allow for full bleed, but not currently as a spread. To create a spread, you'll have to have 2 separate images, but that can also be done. We have an Image Sizing reference page here: www.atticus.io/image-sizing-for-print-and-ebooks/
It technically works now - I even have a app icon on my phone. HOWEVER, I need me team to just go in and move things around so it will be easier and better to use. So, I'd say, not yet...or not yet a great experience. But it most definitely will be :)
I don't think so at this stage, but I'll add that to our testing (because it might actually - considering how we handle font) and if it isn't, that will be something we'll work to do. I want Atticus to be universal.
I am really interested in purchasing Atticus but I have a question. My books are set in the late 1800's and I like to imitate the Chapter Headings of that period. So my Chapters are labelled 'Chapter IV' etc with Roman numerals. Looking at Atticus I do not see anywhere to modify the Chapter Headings from ordinary numbers. Is there a solution? Thanks Mike
I will watch later, but it all comes down to how it compares with Jutoh 3.12! Also how well it removes any unwanted hidden formatting if you import from Word documents.
Sounds good - I personally used to use Jutoh, and I know what you mean. I'd say on the ease of use, it knocks it out of the park. I think we do a swell job at stripping unwanted formatting but I'm sure there are cases our things that pop up from time to time.
@@Kindlepreneur I was about to make a purchase but it seems you cannot save your completed book locally and have to use the cloud? I avoid all cloud functions unless absolutely necessary due to security and independence. For example, can I complete my manuscript using the software from start to finish and save it locally without using the cloud?
Love that this has so many more features! Question, can I upload my Pages file? I don’t have or use Word, which is one thing I don’t like about my vellum. If I can upload my Pages file then I’m moving over!
I'm curious why you have to be on-line to export a finished layout document. Is the formatting part of the software exclusively server-side or is it shared client & server?
I was looking for something cheaper and had the custom features and were you could do print ebooks and searchable toc and this looks like it checks the boxes so I will search for it and you have my money is it liftime like Vellum or yearly I hope it is lifetime. Great job guys .
I want to cry and I'm only at 20 seconds. I have been needing to figure out on how to upload what document on kindle after the preorder period just so I can get the review url and the main url. Until I can afford your software how do I upload what file to kindle? Thank you
Sounds very promising. Don't have a Mac and can't use Vellum therefore. Can I test is for a week? Because I need to make page breaks within a chapter and Reedsy didn't allow me to do that. Not sure if I can do that in atticus
Not yes with the click of a button but since you can see the actual pages now you can move text to the next page manually. We do have this on our future features list too.
Yup. PDF is for print. As for Amazon, yes it accepts ePub as it’s recommended ebook file format and no longer accepts Mobi (they just recently made that change)
Just a heads up on custom section breaks. I uploaded my new book from atticus to KDP. The Look Inside the Book section, for some weird reason, doesn't keep the correct aspect ratio. The section break image is humongous in the sample on the Amazon site. However, in the actual book on my Kindle, the section break image is the correct size. Something gets lost in translation in the Look Inside the Book.
Dave, I haven't checked comments to see if anyone else asked, but do we have to purchase a new copy or license when we buy a new computer, which I will be doing soon? (Oh, the same question goes for KDPRocket, too.) Thanks!
