[GirlWriter]

IngramSpark has a sale right now and they are waiving the fee:

http://www.ingramspark.com/lp/indie-fringe-2017?hsCtaTracking=34d7037d-525e-4e63-bf97-cbd89501731f%7Cbb321021-e2e3-4ca8-89d6-1ebadf12657e

 

[GirlWriter]

I have a support request in to Vellum, but wondered if anyone else has had the problem of their Vellum file refusing to save after pasting in some text. I copy the plain text, paste it into the Vellum file, and then when I go to save, it says the file doesn't exist. It has happened on two different Vellum files now, so I'm really feeling stuck. Anyone else see this with Vellum?

I never had this problem in Vellum, but had it in other programs. When it happens, I paste the text to a plain TXT doc and the copy again from there and it works. Sometimes I had to save it first to strip whatever hidden code was attached to the text. Maybe give it a try.

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.

 

[Used To Be BH]

Hi, would you guys have any idea why "reimport word file" would be grayed out as a Edit selection?
I want to update a book, but it's not letting me. I can wipe it and drag and drop, so it's not a tragedy, but I'd like to know what's wrong. (If I use "import" Vellum creates an entirely new file, so that's not an option.)

If I recall correctly, reimport was disabled in one of the updates. Make sure you have version 2.0.3 or higher, and you should be able to reimport.

 

[It's A Mystery]

I'm not sure if feature requests are acceptable here, but I'd love the ability to export to word for sending to an editor

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[Steve Voelker]

I'm not sure if feature requests are acceptable here, but I'd love the ability to export to word for sending to an editor

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

It already exports to .RTF, which you can then save in just about any word processing program.
It adds an extra click, but it is probably the best solution, since it keeps the output universal.

 

[It's A Mystery]

It already exports to .RTF, which you can then save in just about any word processing program.
It adds an extra click, but it is probably the best solution, since it keeps the output universal.

Whoa! Thanks, I had totally missed that!

 

[Brad West]

Hi, would you guys have any idea why "reimport word file" would be grayed out as a Edit selection?
I want to update a book, but it's not letting me. I can wipe it and drag and drop, so it's not a tragedy, but I'd like to know what's wrong. (If I use "import" Vellum creates an entirely new file, so that's not an option.)

Hi Rickie,

In the current version of Vellum, Reimport will only replace the items that were originally imported, leaving in place items like front and back matter that you add in Vellum.

For this to work properly, you'll need to have initially created the Vellum document using Import Word File (or by using Open on a docx). If you create a Vellum document using New and then add content to it (via copy and paste or via drag and drop), Reimport won't be available. If that's the case, your workaround of using drag and drop is probably the best option.

Hope that explains things.

 

[MBA]

In Vellum, my heading images look centered, but when I preview them at Kindlepreview.amazon.com during uploading of a new book to KDP, the heading images appear off-center, like this:

Do you know why it does this and/or how I can fix it?

I'm uncertain if the heading images look off center on readers' devices but have polled them on my blog.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Hi Rickie,

In the current version of Vellum, Reimport will only replace the items that were originally imported, leaving in place items like front and back matter that you add in Vellum.

For this to work properly, you'll need to have initially created the Vellum document using Import Word File (or by using Open on a docx). If you create a Vellum document using New and then add content to it (via copy and paste or via drag and drop), Reimport won't be available. If that's the case, your workaround of using drag and drop is probably the best option.

Hope that explains things.

Thanks for the explanation, Brad. Actually, that's pretty cool because it means I can use reimport on future files and still keep the backmatter, etc. the same.

@Bill Hiatt, thanks for your input, good idea always to check. I'm using 2.0.5.

 

[Brad West]

In Vellum, my heading images look centered, but when I preview them at Kindlepreview.amazon.com during uploading of a new book to KDP, the heading images appear off-center, like this:

...

Do you know why it does this and/or how I can fix it?

Hi MBA,

We just tried to reproduce this problem with an example heading image and found that it was still centered as expected at KDP. We might recommend double-checking that there isn't any unexpected whitespace in the image you're using. If that's not it, we can take a closer look at your Vellum file to see what the problem might be. The best way to send us your file is with the Attach a File option on our contact page:
https://help.vellum.pub/contact/

 

[LyraParish]

Is there a way to make it where there aren't blank pages at the end matter of a print book in Vellum? For example, we have About the Author then when we turn the page, we want social media links on the left hand side and also by the author on the right hand side. Is this possible? I've been racking my brain trying to get this to work! Any help is appreciated.

 

[GirlWriter]

For those using header images or other images in Vellum (excluding cover), what image resolution size are you using?

Trying to figure what's the lowest resolution I can use--to save on file size--and still have a good final product. Thank you.

 

[Brad Andalman]

Is there a way to make it where there aren't blank pages at the end matter of a print book in Vellum? For example, we have About the Author then when we turn the page, we want social media links on the left hand side and also by the author on the right hand side. Is this possible? I've been racking my brain trying to get this to work! Any help is appreciated.

Hi Lyra,

Vellum will automatically place end matter elements, like the About the Author and Also By, so that they begin on the right hand side of a page spread. Unfortunately, there is no way to change this behavior.

However, if your About the Author is two pages long (or, really, any even number of pages), then there won't be a blank page between your About the Author and Also By elements. So, if you were to pad out the text in the About the Author page, you could force your social links to the next (left hand) page, and then your Also By would begin on the right.

Hope that helps!

 

[LyraParish]

We actually found a work around to force this to happen for our print. 

 

[Cherise]

For those using header images or other images in Vellum (excluding cover), what image resolution size are you using?

Trying to figure what's the lowest resolution I can use--to save on file size--and still have a good final product. Thank you.

I think Vellum adjusts the image file size down to the minimum for ebooks, but I hope Brad will comment, as this is my question, too. I know Vellum converts color photos to black and white automatically, for print.

 

[Brad West]

I think Vellum adjusts the image file size down to the minimum for ebooks, but I hope Brad will comment, as this is my question, too. I know Vellum converts color photos to black and white automatically, for print.

Vellum does provide recommendations about what size an image should be to ensure a quality result in print and on high resolution devices like an iPad or a Kindle Fire HD. You'll see this in places like the popover for inline images, shown here:
https://help.vellum.pub/inline-images/#properties

Vellum will also resize an image if it's larger than it needs to be. A page of text in the Kindle app for iPad is 1280 pixels wide, so any images larger than this will be resized for the Kindle version of your ebook.

Vellum won't make images smaller than that, however.

One thing to keep in mind for Kindle is that KindleGen, which Vellum uses to produce a mobi file, performs its own image optimization to produce the mobi7 version of your book. Because it is this version that is used to compute delivery costs, you can often include high resolution images in your book and only be charged for the lower resolution versions. More about file size and delivery costs can be found here:
https://help.vellum.pub/file-size/

There are, however, scenarios where you can make changes to your images that make for a better optimization than what KindleGen will do. If you have a simple black and white graphic, for example, saving it in the GIF format can give you a small file size even with a high resolution image.

It can take some experimentation based on your particular images to find the right balance on Kindle. As discussed in the page above, though, you'll want to base your decisions on the delivery cost reported by KDP, and not the size of the mobi file generated by KindleGen.

I know that's a long-winded answer, but hope that helps.

 

[Cherise]

I was hoping for a long-winded answer, Brad. Thank you.

Vellum does provide recommendations about what size an image should be to ensure a quality result in print and on high resolution devices like an iPad or a Kindle Fire HD. You'll see this in places like the popover for inline images, shown here:
https://help.vellum.pub/inline-images/#properties

Vellum will also resize an image if it's larger than it needs to be. A page of text in the Kindle app for iPad is 1280 pixels wide, so any images larger than this will be resized for the Kindle version of your ebook.

Vellum won't make images smaller than that, however.

One thing to keep in mind for Kindle is that KindleGen, which Vellum uses to produce a mobi file, performs its own image optimization to produce the mobi7 version of your book. Because it is this version that is used to compute delivery costs, you can often include high resolution images in your book and only be charged for the lower resolution versions. More about file size and delivery costs can be found here:
https://help.vellum.pub/file-size/

There are, however, scenarios where you can make changes to your images that make for a better optimization than what KindleGen will do. If you have a simple black and white graphic, for example, saving it in the GIF format can give you a small file size even with a high resolution image.

It can take some experimentation based on your particular images to find the right balance on Kindle. As discussed in the page above, though, you'll want to base your decisions on the delivery cost reported by KDP, and not the size of the mobi file generated by KindleGen.

I know that's a long-winded answer, but hope that helps.

 

[Sarah Barbour]

Apologies if this has been asked before (I looked, but … long thread).

I'm trying to create a table of contents for a print book. Each chapter has three distinct elements: the chapter; one page of prompts; and a blank page to write notes. Because the notes and prompts are separate elements from the chapter, the TOC looks like this:

Chapter 1....p. x

Prompts ....p. y
Notes .......p. z


Is there anyway to incorporate the Prompts and the Notes in the chapter, at least as far as the TOC is concerned? I'd like it to read:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
etc.

Thank you!

 

[Guest]

I have a tiny suggestion... for the "about the author" page, would it be possible to add the links for Instagram and Pinterest? At the moment it only allows FB and Twitter (and shows the icons) but I am more active on Instagram and Pinterest but have to add the full link, which doesn't look as tidy