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Vellum: the official thread

338K views 2K replies 332 participants last post by  MJR Media Productions 
#1 · (Edited)
Update 6/21/22: Since the site overhaul, we no longer receive reliable notifications about this thread. Because of that, and with the site not as active as it once was, we no longer check this thread regularly.

If you have a question about Vellum, the best way to reach us is via our Contact Page, where we typically respond the very next business day. Thanks!


Hi there,

We've noticed a few threads in the Writer's Cafe that mentioned Vellum, and we wanted to start an official thread where we can post updates, answer questions, and get your feedback.

Vellum is software for your Mac that allows you to create beautiful ebooks and paperbacks. Import your manuscript from Word or write completely in Vellum's simple, elegant editor. Once you're done, choose from dozens of style options and view your book instantly in the live Preview. After you've purchased, you can generate ebooks for uploading to any online retailer, and print interiors for uploading to print-on-demand services.

Learn more on our website: Vellum. Create beautiful books.

Do you have any questions for us? Fire away! Or, if you'd prefer, contact us directly.
 
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#129 ·
Forgive me if this has been raised before: I used Vellum to format my book with beautiful chapter headings and drop caps. I uploaded to Amazon and they took the beauty right back out again - no fancy headings or drop caps. Is that just Amazon, or did I miss doing something I should have done?
 
#133 ·
thesmallprint said:
Ahh, good question - I just checked the Look Inside sample...would it not appear there?
The reason you don't see the drop caps and other design elements there is that Amazon's "Look Inside" feature (as well as other places, like the Kindle Cloud Reader, as Speaker-To-Animals mentioned) uses its older "mobi7" format, which can only display very basic formatting. You can learn more about the difference here:
http://help.180g.co/vellum/kindleformats/

Readers who purchase your book, even if they just download a sample, will see the full formatting, however.

Hope that helps!
 
#137 ·
D. Zollicoffer said:
Went ahead and bought Vellum, couldn't stop thinking about it :)

This question has probably already been answered (no time to look through the thread), but is there anyway to save a template? Or a way to make it remember my settings by default?
Thanks for your purchase!

We have had heard the suggestion to be able to define a template for new books. We think that's a great idea, but it's not something in Vellum right now.

One tip, though, is that you can drag and drop chapters (and other elements) to copy them from one book to another. This can be particularly handy if you've set up an Also By page with links to your other books:



Hope that helps.
 
#139 ·
KaiW said:
Any update on the box set formatting? Had one of mine rejected by ibooks because I had so many chapters labelled as untitled in the tOC cos I can't alter the chapter sequence in subsequent books after book one :(
This is just off the top of my head…

Try renaming the chapters to reflect the book they are in:

Book 1-Chapter 1
Book 2-Chapter 2
etc....

You can replace "Book #" with whatever title the given book has.

Okay, it isn't very elegant (e.g. It's labor intensive), but it will allow you to delineate the different books.

I can think of another way to do this, but I haven't actually tried it-I'm talking off the top of my head here:

Reorganize the books in your word processor. Set the books' title pages as "TITLE" in your word processing document and set the chapters as "Headings". This will have the result of treating the book titles as chapters in the ebook and the chapters of each book will become a sub-section to that. You will have to make sure there is a page break between each chapter. But without trying this myself, I'm not sure how Vellum will treat this. In theory, it should allow the Table of Contents to be generated.

I might just mess around with this to see what happens, now that my curiosity has been piqued.
 
#141 ·
Hi KaiW,

There are certainly ways to accomplish what you'd like in the current version of Vellum. However, as WDR points out, they involve some manual labor that is not ideal.

Our next release makes creating box sets much easier and should be available within a week. Does that work with your timeframe? If not, please get in touch with us directly.
 
#142 ·
Brad West said:
Thanks for your purchase!

We have had heard the suggestion to be able to define a template for new books. We think that's a great idea, but it's not something in Vellum right now.

One tip, though, is that you can drag and drop chapters (and other elements) to copy them from one book to another. This can be particularly handy if you've set up an Also By page with links to your other books:



Hope that helps.
Thanks, it does. I'll just have a few default pages saved on my desktop, no biggie :)

Programs like this remind me why I use Macs. So simple and easy to use.
 
#143 ·
While we have you here to harass you. :)

Any comments on the new layout engine and the KFX standard? I notice the two books I have that are done in Vellum haven't been updated and all of my other books have. I'm not necessarily complaining btw. I like Bookerly, but really dislike the overhyphenation. There are also reports that they're reformatting and defeating choices people have made in their books, which I'm not thrilled with.
 
#144 ·
Brad Andalman said:
Hi KaiW,

There are certainly ways to accomplish what you'd like in the current version of Vellum. However, as WDR points out, they involve some manual labor that is not ideal.

Our next release makes creating box sets much easier and should be available within a week. Does that work with your timeframe? If not, please get in touch with us directly at vellum@180g.co.
Brilliant to hear thank you, can certainly wait till then. Cheers Brad 😃
 
#145 ·
Speaker-To-Animals said:
Any comments on the new layout engine and the KFX standard? I notice the two books I have that are done in Vellum haven't been updated and all of my other books have. I'm not necessarily complaining btw. I like Bookerly, but really dislike the overhyphenation. There are also reports that they're reformatting and defeating choices people have made in their books, which I'm not thrilled with.
Unfortunately, Amazon has released very few specifics about KFX beyond their initial press release. In fact, even the name KFX is something that was only determined after some intrepid readers unpacked the contents of some of the enhanced mobi files.

We're hoping that will change, and should they release any technical information, we'll definitely look into how that might affect the eBooks we generate.
 
#146 ·
The price drops by $50 a few days after I buy it? Come on, no fair!!

Ha-ha, I'm kidding! Love the program -- worth every penny -- and thanks for the update! You don't know how happy I am, the ability to change the text size in the editor is a game changer for me! Now I can set it to '36' and save my eyes :D
 
#147 ·
I checked out Vellum a little while back and was really impressed. Here is my issue:

One of the reasons I bought Scrivener was precisely because it has the compile feature and I can use it to format for different uses. I have been writing my WIP in Scrivener. The drawback of Scrivern is that they don't make the output beautiful like Vellum.

So now what? If I want to use Vellum when I finish, do I compile in Scrivener to a Word format and then upload the Word to Vellum? I don't even know if the Word file would look right/ready to covert to Vellum when it is being generated by Scrivener. I created my WIP so far based on Scrivener's Book with Parts. It all just seem so confusing. I'm not techy as it is.

I also don't know what happens when Scrivener converts to Word. Another reason I use Scrivener is to avoid pesky Word formating that might mess up the ebook version when uploading to Amazon. All I know is Amazon does not accept files with formattings, especially some embedded in Word. So what happens if Scrivener compiles to a Word format? Will I now create all the formatting issues I tried to avoid in the first place? Will those issues go away when I upload it to Vellum?

Anyway, these are the reasons I haven't looked back at Vellum. The transfer out of Scrivener to Word then transfer into Vellum scares me as to the technical side, and feels like extra work on the multiple transfer/retransfer.

If there is an easy explanation/ resolution I would reconsider.
 
#148 ·
AlexaKang said:
I checked out Vellum a little while back and was really impressed. Here is my issue:

One of the reasons I bought Scrivener was precisely because it has the compile feature and I can use it to format for different uses. I have been writing my WIP in Scrivener. The drawback of Scrivern is that they don't make the output beautiful like Vellum.

So now what? If I want to use Vellum when I finish, do I compile in Scrivener to a Word format and then upload the Word to Vellum? I don't even know if the Word file would look right/ready to covert to Vellum when it is being generated by Scrivener. I created my WIP so far based on Scrivener's Book with Parts. It all just seem so confusing. I'm not techy as it is.

I also don't know what happens when Scrivener converts to Word. Another reason I use Scrivener is to avoid pesky Word formating that might mess up the ebook version when uploading to Amazon. All I know is Amazon does not accept files with formattings, especially some embedded in Word. So what happens if Scrivener compiles to a Word format? Will I now create all the formatting issues I tried to avoid in the first place? Will those issues go away when I upload it to Vellum?

Anyway, these are the reasons I haven't looked back at Vellum. The transfer out of Scrivener to Word then transfer into Vellum scares me as to the technical side, and feels like extra work on the multiple transfer/retransfer.

If there is an easy explanation/ resolution I would reconsider.
I'd really like to know the answer to this too - I have used Vellum and love it. I'm thinking about transferring to Scrivener for its extra features (not formatting) but wouldn't want to screw up the Vellum bliss.
 
#149 ·
AlexaKang said:
I checked out Vellum a little while back and was really impressed. Here is my issue:

One of the reasons I bought Scrivener was precisely because it has the compile feature and I can use it to format for different uses. I have been writing my WIP in Scrivener. The drawback of Scrivern is that they don't make the output beautiful like Vellum.

So now what? If I want to use Vellum when I finish, do I compile in Scrivener to a Word format and then upload the Word to Vellum? I don't even know if the Word file would look right/ready to covert to Vellum when it is being generated by Scrivener. I created my WIP so far based on Scrivener's Book with Parts. It all just seem so confusing. I'm not techy as it is.

I also don't know what happens when Scrivener converts to Word. Another reason I use Scrivener is to avoid pesky Word formating that might mess up the ebook version when uploading to Amazon. All I know is Amazon does not accept files with formattings, especially some embedded in Word. So what happens if Scrivener compiles to a Word format? Will I now create all the formatting issues I tried to avoid in the first place? Will those issues go away when I upload it to Vellum?

Anyway, these are the reasons I haven't looked back at Vellum. The transfer out of Scrivener to Word then transfer into Vellum scares me as to the technical side, and feels like extra work on the multiple transfer/retransfer.

If there is an easy explanation/ resolution I would reconsider.
It's easy in Vellum to import a docx file. I simply drag my file onto the icon, and there I go. So far, I haven't noticed any formatting issues doing it that way. The question really is how well scrivener generates a word file.

Vellum is completely worth it, though. Beautiful output.
 
#151 ·
I would like to make a request: love the box set ability, BUT, it would be nice to pick what to generate. I write serials and would LOVE if I could write them in one file, in parts, but publish them one by one, before finally putting them all together in one set. the update is great, btw!
 
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