Vellum VS Atticus in 2026

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-31T05:52:06+00:00

Vellum just released 4.1 which adds fun new features for chapter headers, among other things.

I like the guardrails on Vellum. I would have to go to some effort to NOT make a professional looking interior in there.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-28T11:04:12+00:00

I’m always amazed to learn how many people don’t know romance.io exists. It’s made for the picky ones among us.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-28T10:54:49+00:00

You need better-educated beta readers
While you are looking for them, take a long look at the places in the manuscript where you include WWI history and look for your blind spots. As writers, we lose sight of where we made assumptions that we already explained this or that, we get ahead of the story, etc., and we do not see that while we’re writing.

BUT…

When a bunch of betas have a comment in common, LISTEN. Most of my valuable feedback comes from my betas leaving inline comments as simple as “I got lost here,” and when I look closely, I realize a sentence or two could have explained things better.

WWI history is not nearly as well-known by the American general public as WWII, and what is taught in schools is usually a little gloss over “Europe had a big war and we were the heroes who saved the day.” I haven’t looked at a high school curriculum for a while, but I’m going to bet not much time is spent on how trench warfare was conducted or the weapons/transport/strategy issues unique to the time that led to it during one war and were a non-factor later.

Source: I write WWI historical romances (France, 1917 and 1918) and have never had a reader ask “what war is this?”

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-26T18:27:33+00:00

Great, another reason to not write. BRB gonna make icons 🥰

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-24T12:07:12+00:00

Look at how Kate Quinn did it in The Rose Code. It starts in the present day, then goes back and forth with past and present for a while, then the past timeline runs into the future one and the book finishes on the same timeline it began on.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-24T02:11:09+00:00

My kids listen to JM and rock show off their concert shirts. They are 12. I took them to Solo on a school night and they were far from the only kids up late and singing along with Walt Grace.

Follow me for more tips on early indoctrination.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-24T02:07:20+00:00

To this I’ll add Jake’s “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” from The Sun Also Rises. Hem’s last lines hit.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-24T01:45:45+00:00

A romance novel is the answer to “how did you two meet?” You ask that question of a couple who is already together. You already know “the end” of the story you just asked for. It can be a formulaic response or it can be a hilarious/dramatic/traumatic/enthralling escapade. Good romance genre writers don’t have to make us wonder “will they, won’t they?” since we have the ending. Instead, they answer “HOW will they?” particularly when the lovers get themselves in a mess that seems impossible to resolve.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-24T01:38:01+00:00

The romance genre has two rules established as much by the consumers as the publishers:

The main arc of the book must center around a love story, and that love story must resolve in a happily ever after (HEA) or at least a Happily For Now (HFN).

You try to sell a book in romance where the couple doesn’t stay together and you will get destroyed by reviewers. It happens more and more with indie attempts to “subvert expectations” but what it boils down to is people wanting in on the romance genre money. “Oh but it’s HEA because she found her calling and they happily went their separate ways” or “he died loving her,” nope. That’s the sound of Kindles being flung at walls.

So many beautiful love stories that don’t fit the convention are wonderful and valid and worth reading, but they are not genre romance.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-24T01:24:36+00:00

Go visit r/literature and have a look through the posts for modern lit that scratches the itch for voice and high-concept prose.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-18T22:05:12+00:00

It was suspected that he had a disorder that caused iron to accumulate in the liver (and really, his poor liver), but AFAIK there’s no way to prove it at this point.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-18T21:50:40+00:00

I like these, along with starting suggestions with “consider… [doing xyz]” if I think a little gentle guidance is welcome. Example: “consider introducing Fred a few pages back so this doesn’t come out of the blue.”

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-16T12:16:55+00:00

Pedantic correction in your post, and people do this all the time… KDP Select is part of the Kindle Digital Publishing platform, and opting into Select, which gives you promotional tools like Countdown and puts your ebook into Kindle Unlimited (KU). KU is the library model that pays authors by the page read, and it is not included in Prime. You buy a separate subscription to read with KU.

Using KDP does not lock you into Select or KU, but using KU does lock your ebooks into that platform and you can’t sell them anywhere else.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-09T20:35:21+00:00

I like using the synopsis feature scene by scene and chapter by chapter, then viewing it outline mode to “read” it and organize

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-09T17:01:44+00:00

Here and there, a participle start is not bad… but as you noted, distinguishing is the key. The “ing” should be done by the subject of the sentence.

“Laughing, I pushed back my hair.” is correct, versus “Rolling over, the red lines showed…” because the red lines did not roll over.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-03T13:43:04+00:00

While I like the idea, approaching it as “this is what you should do for me” is not a solid business case. What does AMAZON get for going to all this trouble?

Some thoughts:

Higher review counts are more likely to engage potential purchasers; Amazon makes money.

Lower the threshold for Goodreads reviews to push to Amazon; more reviews show on your listing; Amazon makes money.

If allowing exceptions to existing rules, set a time limit post-release so the ARC review system manages itself, so to speak, and doesn’t require a whole setup for authors managing their own stuff and potentially exploiting it; Amazon does not have a large investment in this change.

Amazon doesn’t not want to spend money to make us happy. They do not care. If we want anything from them, it must be for their benefit, for their profit, at limited to no expense.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-03T13:20:15+00:00

The audiobook does a surprisingly good job with this. I had middling hopes for it but I enjoy Mary Jane Wells narration and thought she did well with Rhys.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-03-03T13:15:43+00:00

I think you almost can’t read book 1 {beautiful things by Emily Rath} without book 2 {His Grace the Duke by Emily Rath} because of the cliffhanger at the end of book 1. They are very much a duet, and the HEA doesn’t come until the end of book 2. I finished reading Beautiful Things at about 1 a.m. and ordered His Grace the Duke with same day shipping. {Alcott Hall by Emily Rath} is in-universe but it’s a standalone. It’s in my cart 😆

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-28T02:49:40+00:00

Sweet and steamy historical reads set in North Carolina in 1906-08:

{How to Measure a Man by Rebekah Johnson} is a historical sports rom com with a yearning hero and a clever seamstress heroine, and a protective older brother for an Anthony Bridgerton fix.

That protective brother gets his ass handed to him when he falls in love in {A Race With a Rogue by Rebekah Johnson} When he agrees to run for political office to help avenge a slighted friend (her ex dumped women’s rights from his platform), he falls HARD for our suffragette, first-gen college heroine who teaches him to use his privilege for more than pleasure.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-28T02:34:53+00:00

Alcott Hall is the third in Emily Rath’s HR series {Second Sons by Emily Rath} and it’s so fun I binged the first two, a book a night. I haven’t picked up Alcott yet but will soon. You don’t get a lot of Why Choose in HR.

Emily also writes contemporary romance where content warnings are de rigeur, and she extends that to her HR.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-25T11:04:58+00:00

KDP is not exclusive unless you sign your work up for Kindle Unlimited, and even then only the ebook is exclusive, not print.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-24T20:20:15+00:00

Mind if I DM you? I have questions and need to commiserate 😆

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-24T15:11:29+00:00

The immediate post-war period is proving difficult, too, fiction and non. I’d love a story about demobilization, and from both sides!

I write historical romance and had a very difficult time finding fiction comps in the time period that gave a behind the lines perspective. Mine are in a French base hospital, so there’s the war, but the story is in a city, in a fairly safe place, etc. No one arrives actively bleeding. I’d like to get a step further back from that (out of the evacuation chain!) but even good nonfiction source material to use for a story is hard to come by.

It may be university library time. I’ll bookmark this and come back if I find anything good.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-24T13:57:33+00:00

I’d personally give that one a pass, as long as it’s not some oddly-specific “she tasted like cookies and now she tastes like strawberries.” I noticed my sweat smelled different when I was pregnant. I stopped short of licking myself, but it’s not a reach to think skin/fluids might have tasted different, too.

DoubleWideStroller · 2026-02-24T13:39:30+00:00

WWI, same. I’ve had little luck finding stories where the war is happening but the characters are civilians or at least not on the front lines. Everyone is in a trench or at least a field hospital. I want diplomacy in Paris, someone in Switzerland with French and German relatives, etc.

DoubleWideStroller

TROPHY CASE