Vellum: New Mac OS X Tool for Ebook Production

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I'm going to try this over the holidays.

But it's a free tool. You pay when you are ready to publish the book.

WYSIWYG production

Vellum said:
Vellum is a free Mac app that allows you to import your projects from your writing platform of choice like Microsoft Word. It then lets authors tweak and edit their books, taking advantage of the full suite of tools. Once it’s time to publish, a single book export runs $49.99, with unlimited re-export privileges for any platform on that book. You can also buy bundles of 3 books for $99 or 5 books for $149."

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Alice Xavier

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Techcrunch wrote about a very similar app not too long ago. Pricing was ludicrous on that one - and they justified the ludicrous pricing on sorely outdated and/or incorrect info. I run in some startup circles, and the thing to do these days is solve some problem with an app, even if the problem is already solved (just solve it again except more prettily!) or is not as horrible as TC and/or the founder who's totally disrupting everything makes it out to be.

Ebook creation is an awful experience. The Kindle process is especially poor, with dozens of interlocking parts that must be juggled in order to convert, format, tweak and publish a book. And even then, authors are largely taking a stab in the dark as to how their books will look when they’re live on the store.

Have these guys actually even published a book on KDP? It's not nearly as horrible as they/TC make it out to be. Amazon has made it very accessible to people without fancy document design and conversion software, and have a previewer available during the upload process so you can view your file as it would appear on all their devices. Nookpress has a similar deal.

I make good-looking files in Word just fine (takes some doing to get the paragraph styles right, but once you do that and make some templates it's all dandy). And it's not like I have low standards or no eye for aesthetics - I'm a formally educated designer so the appearance of my books is very important and something I care about (for print, I go all out in InDesign).

As much as I'd love to fine-tune the look of my ebooks and have fancy drop caps and everything and not have to wrangle with Word, I can't justify paying $30-50 per book when I publish a new one every few weeks/month/couple months. I kinda miss the old days of paying for a perpetual software license and then using the software however and for whatever. I'd happily drop a decent chunk of change on a dedicated ebook formatting application (because Word blows for formatting) if I could just have it to use and not have to fork over cash whenever I wanted to export something. These weird-ass free-but-not-free revenue models just kill it for me. Also the fact that it's a Mac-only thing. Ugh.
 

ZachJPayne

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I kinda miss the old days of paying for a perpetual software license and then using the software however and for whatever. I'd happily drop a decent chunk of change on a dedicated ebook formatting application (because Word blows for formatting) if I could just have it to use and not have to fork over cash whenever I wanted to export something. These weird-ass free-but-not-free revenue models just kill it for me. Also the fact that it's a Mac-only thing. Ugh.

My sentiments exactly.

It's too bad -- I want to like this. I've attempted formatting ebooks in Word and in InDesign, but a program that's specially dedicated to it? That would be awesome. Especially since I self-pub my poetry, and it would be nice to make it look good.
 

Deleted member 42

This is an interesting concept since you can create multiple file formats, but the current version doesn't support images, even in chapter headers, and it can't handle footnotes.

And yes, I'd rather pay a software license fee and be done with it.
 

WriterBN

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For $50, you might as well buy Scrivener, and get a lot more for your money. It's nice that it's available for OS X, though.
 

FionnJameson

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For $50, you might as well buy Scrivener, and get a lot more for your money.

This. I use Scrivener from start to finish and the compile function is awesome. I don't format my books anymore any other way and my books look great (read great is a completely different thing though, haaa).
 

Deleted member 42

For $50, you might as well buy Scrivener, and get a lot more for your money. It's nice that it's available for OS X, though.

No, this app gives you a level of fine-grained control that Scrivener doesn't.

I'm not going to jump out and buy it—but it isn't really fair to compare it to Scrivener.
 

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I like the pre-made styles. Those look nice and I kind of covet them. Since I don't have a Mac though..
 

FionnJameson

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No, this app gives you a level of fine-grained control that Scrivener doesn't.

Can you elaborate on exactly what sort of control you can get from this app? I'm genuinely curious.
 
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Deleted member 42

Can you elaborate on exactly what sort of control you can get from this app? I'm genuinely curious.

It makes things like drop-caps as simple as they are in a word processor; you don't have to hand-edit the in-line CSS, for instance.

Keep in mind that many of the books I work on are not novels; they're non-fiction, so there's often more formatting to deal with.

I'm picky enough that I hand-code the CSS and HTML/XML, and while I'm going to continue making books that way, and am a little o_O at the pricing scheme for Vellum, I think it does show some promise for some people.

That said, I haven't spent as much time with it as I will over the holidays.
 

FionnJameson

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Thanks for the info, I really did want to know exactly what this service provided, considering the formatting seems kind of pricey...o_O indeed!
 

WriterBN

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It makes things like drop-caps as simple as they are in a word processor; you don't have to hand-edit the in-line CSS, for instance.

Ah, I see now. So its strengths are primarily in its WYSIWYG features.

I admit that Scrivener doesn't generate perfect ePubs, but I tend to hand-edit the HTML and create my own CSS anyway. I still love the app for other reasons, though.
 

J. Tanner

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No image support is a significant concern for a high-end product.

That means no custom flourishes or chapter headings. If the product gets popular, then you'll likely see their (granted, lovely) templates repeatedly and that sort of dulls the individual flavor that comes with high-end design.

I also wonder what they're getting at with talk of custom fonts. Leave font choice to the reader, right? And they show decorative small-caps which, at least in everything I've read, aren't handled properly across most ebook readers and earn the scorn of professional typographers when created through scaling. So it seems like kind of a mixed message at least on the surface level.
 

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I also wonder what they're getting at with talk of custom fonts. Leave font choice to the reader, right?

Not everyone is using ebook tools for fiction.

I need to use custom fonts to describe UI elements when I'm working on books about certain technical topics, or when I'm working on engineering or mathematics texts, or when I'm working on an ebook about music.

I can handle the overhead for custom embeds and style sheets, but not everyone can, especially since the various file formats are very different in terms of what and how.

Again, this is still a first release of Vellum; I'm planning on watching them closely.

We've come a long way since I first started making ebooks in the 1990s with HyperCard . . .
 
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bswest

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I can handle the overhead for custom embeds and style sheets, but not everyone can, especially since the various file formats are very different in terms of what and how.

Hi Lisa,

Brad from 180g here. I'm one of the creators of Vellum.

You said it. While we understand that some authors like yourself can write their own XHTML and CSS — prefer it even — we feel there are many others who lack that skill set.

We created Vellum with those authors in mind, authors who might want something richer than plain text for their books but are unable to achieve it with just Word and KDP conversion for tools. And even authors that are a bit more technically savvy might prefer to spend more time writing and less time worrying about things like building a proper table of contents, or the varying requirements of iBooks, Kindle, and Nook.

We realize that our pricing model is a bit non-standard for desktop software. Fee-based formatting services might be a better frame of reference. But unlike those services, we give you the chance to make as informed of a decision as possible. It's completely free to download Vellum, import a book, play with styles, and preview it on various ereaders. Only when you decide that the eBooks Vellum will create are worth it are you required to pay anything.

We look forward to you giving Vellum a try. I'll say now that, as a 1.0 product, Vellum may not have everything you need for non-fiction. If that's the case, contact us through the app and let us know what's missing: it helps us prioritize future development of Vellum.

Thanks for your interest!
Brad
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Deleted member 42

ibooks author is much the same as vellum. Works on the mac.
http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

Actually, it's not the same at all; I've used both.

iBooks Author books can only be used on iOS and the Mac; that's it.

They can only be sold via Apple. You can make some fabulous books, but iBooks Author is designed to produce media rich books for a specific retailer.

Vellum produces books suitable for the iBooks, Amazon's Kindle and B & N's Nook; that's a much broader platform.

It's meant to produce attractive but fairly conventional text-emphasizing ebooks, not interactive multimedia-rich books. You will have a fairly hefty price to pay when you're ready to "export" your book for— 49.99 for one book, with unlimited re-export privileges for any supported platform/OS/format on that book. You can also buy bundles of 3 books for $99 or 5 books for $149.



It's a different kind of tool for a different purpose.
 
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Dave.C.Robinson

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I think it's a great idea, but the pricing model's a real turn off.

Part of it's my inner cheapskate saying that it's just too expensive to pay by the book like that, but I'm notoriously tight so take that with a mine of salt. The bigger issue is that it reminds me too much of the "we'll find your problems for free but charge you to fix them" anti-malware programs you find on the net.

Those anti-malware programs always feel a little too close to ransomware to me, and so any other software with a similar pricing model has to get past the problems I already have with the model before I can start to judge it.

It makes it real hard for me to judge the software fairly.
 

Carradee

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I just use Scrivener. Bought it once, and I can write and format whatever I want.

I have compile export templates I made that work for all vendors, including the Smashwords DOC.
 

Deleted member 42

It makes it real hard for me to judge the software fairly.

Since you don't have to pay until you publish, you can try the software and decide whether it's for you or not.

It's not really fair to compare an ebook made with Vellum to one exported from Scrivener—and I say this as someone who loves Scrivener and has made many ebooks.

The difference is that Vellum makes it exceedingly easy to engage in CSS typesetting without having to know CSS at all.

There's nothing Vellum I can't do on my own via hand-coding, but for someone who wants a well-designed book and doesn't know CSS, it's an option.

The closest tools that come to mind are Pages using Apple's special epub template—but that does epub only—or InDesign, which has a non-trivial price point and learning curve.

It depends on the book, and what the publisher wants, as with all things in terms of ebooks and tools.
 

Dave.C.Robinson

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Since you don't have to pay until you publish, you can try the software and decide whether it's for you or not.

It's not really fair to compare an ebook made with Vellum to one exported from Scrivener—and I say this as someone who loves Scrivener and has made many ebooks.

The difference is that Vellum makes it exceedingly easy to engage in CSS typesetting without having to know CSS at all.

There's nothing Vellum I can't do on my own via hand-coding, but for someone who wants a well-designed book and doesn't know CSS, it's an option.

The closest tools that come to mind are Pages using Apple's special epub template—but that does epub only—or InDesign, which has a non-trivial price point and learning curve.

It depends on the book, and what the publisher wants, as with all things in terms of ebooks and tools.

I think your response makes more sense in relation to what Carradee posted.

I can see that the program could be much more useful than Scrivener, my own problem is that if I did download it to try, I'd still have to overcome my distaste for the pricing model, which is an emotional issue on my part, and has nothing to do with the quality or capabilities of the software.
 

Carradee

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No, this app gives you a level of fine-grained control that Scrivener doesn't.

I'm not going to jump out and buy it—but it isn't really fair to compare it to Scrivener.

How is it not fair? OP commented that the pricing model wasn't ideal, and Scrivener has a pricing model that sounds as if it'll suit the OP better.

If you want to talk the level of control… Scrivener actually allows a lot more than people tend to realize—in the Mac version, at least. I understand that the Windows version isn't quite as capable.
 
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