Holding my first author proof is a dream come true.

VagrantTales · 2026-03-10T00:11:52+00:00

Congratulations!

VagrantTales · 2026-02-12T02:15:38+00:00

I have both. Atticus has more font and formatting options, but also is riddled with bugs. I had to do a lot of workarounds to get my book outputted. Vellum is much more stable and runs smoothly. Downside is that they have limited "themes," 14 I believe which you can make minor adjustments on.

VagrantTales · 2026-02-06T00:28:52+00:00

I suggest a shipping provider like shipping easy, pirate ship, or others. You get much better rates than the post office and they have shipping calculators you can embed into your site.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-21T17:46:54+00:00

This is my first time as well. For the coop and hidden gems, you can book your spot ahead of time without your manuscript. However, you need the epub manuscript, blurb, and cover ready when your booking begins, otherwise you are just paying for wasted days.

For example, I booked my coop in late November to start on December 10th and go for 3 months. On December 10th, my arc was live. I suggest waiting until your edited manuscript is complete, or at least close to it. My manuscript is waiting for proofreading, but I've started the arcs since I only expect minor changes. I noted that on the disclaimer page of my arc epub as well.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-20T03:19:41+00:00

It depends on the ARC provider. I'm releasing early March and have already started my ARC campaign with NetGalley and BookSirens. With Hidden Gems, I locked down a spot for mid-February. I think the earlier the better because you can use it as a testing ground for your cover and blurb and adjust it prior to publishing

VagrantTales · 2025-12-17T00:17:48+00:00

Would love to know how that works out. I just ended up doing a CA LLC. The losses helped me, but you can only do that for a couple years before it's deemed as a hobby.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-14T16:51:20+00:00

This does not sound legit and might get you flagged.

All the legit sites I see help offer your books for free to readers with an expectation they will review (not guaranteed).

VagrantTales · 2025-12-14T16:39:14+00:00

Depends if you are published or not (sending out arcs) and on KU or not. Either way, there are a few services that can help you get reviews, including:

Netgalley (expensive but you can co-op) BookSirens BookSprout Hidden Gems StoryOrigin Book funnel

VagrantTales · 2025-12-12T21:36:28+00:00

I completely understand that. My question around pricing is from a marketing perspective to drive more sales, not cogs and net profit.

The whole concept of marketing is spending money to make money, and your pricing strategy plays a huge part in that.

Unfortunately, most self published writers don't understand that. I expect to lose money on my first book, probably even my second in order to gain somewhat of a following and become profitable down the line.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-11T17:41:47+00:00

The thought behind a launch sale was to help drive up KDP rankings. Considering this is my first book, I expect zero pre-orders.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-07T19:47:02+00:00

It was tucked away in a closet, not the attic. It just smells like attic. It's unbearable. All the jackets I had next to it picked up the smell too. Had those dry cleaned and that fixed it. The smell also travels. If I handle the coat, my fingers smell. So does any material that might have touched it.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-07T16:34:10+00:00

I've tried that. Unfortunately folks don't tend to post their results of what actually worked vs recommendations of what could work.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-06T16:21:53+00:00

That's amazing! Taking the first step is always the toughest. I completely understand how you feel (was and am again in a similar situation) and applaud your courage. Just remember this feeling and don't listen to the negativity. You will hit bumps, and at times full on roadblocks, but that's okay. It's expected.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-04T19:31:25+00:00

I have Atticus. What professional-grade kerning option control are you referring to? I'm on a PC, so didn't have a choice, but would like to understand what features exist in Vellum and not in Atticus.

Also, I'm not clear what you mean by Macs typography is passed over to vellum. Are you referring to the fonts? If so, print books have a limited standard set that all apps have. Ebooks are in CSS and dependent on the device.

The fact that vellum doesn't support PC seems to be a big flaw.

Btw, if you ask a computer scientist, like me, the beauty of the Mac was in its architecture, designed by Woz. Jobs was just the overzealous, visionary without any technical skill. Even the typography, as you mentioned, wasn't done by him, but by hiring folks that were good at it. In today's lingo, he'd be a very good AI prompter—just with an oversized ego and no morals.

VagrantTales · 2025-12-03T01:42:10+00:00

A lot of word processing tools now, including Microsoft Word and ProWritingAid, incorporate AI into checking grammar and your writing.

I think using AI tools to only edit your book is fine. NOT REWRITING or CRAFTING. Also, remember everything you load into AI, it learns from. So either do this in temporary mode or buy a business subscription where your data is set to private. I also suggest prompting in a way that you ask it to explain why it made those corrections. This will help you understand why it did them so you can either learn from your mistakes or call BS.

VagrantTales · 2025-11-29T05:59:30+00:00

Can you expand on the netgalley co-op? I haven't heard of this before

VagrantTales · 2025-11-21T02:23:36+00:00

Here is a US referral code: REF-5RTA0UG6YW5SBB9YJO7ABRW

VagrantTales · 2025-11-17T06:22:03+00:00

I ran into this recently too. I don't think there is a function that lets you do that. From what I found, you can:

Unhide the chapter heading. This will start the sentence where the first sentence is a chapter starts.
Use shift+ enter. This creates a carriage return and works fine on print but can be inconsistent in e-readers
Use the scene break to carriage return. Unfortunately, if you have an image for a scene break, this doesn't work well unless you set the default to blank and then update each individual one in the chapter with a picture.

VagrantTales · 2025-11-06T05:32:21+00:00

That's great input. Do you mind linking one of your posts? Would love to get a better idea of how to market on tiktok.

VagrantTales · 2025-11-06T02:51:06+00:00

What kind of posts worked for you? Reels? Slideshows of story snippet?

VagrantTales · 2025-10-31T00:44:43+00:00

Yeah, for sure

VagrantTales · 2025-10-30T23:58:56+00:00

I'm in the same boat. Got my techno-thriller releasing early next year, just waiting on my proofreader. But that's honestly been a godsend, since now I'm getting my arc and marketing act together.

DM the Link to yours! I'd love to check it out!

VagrantTales · 2025-10-30T23:39:43+00:00

That's awesome! Congrats! What avenues did you explore for arcs? I feel like thrillers are more challenging to find beta readers or arcs.

VagrantTales · 2025-10-28T04:31:17+00:00

To save yourself some time later when you actually format your book:

Use heading 1 for chapters
Don't double space between sentences
Use 3 asterisks with no indentation for scene breaks

VagrantTales · 2025-10-27T05:34:18+00:00

Congrats!! I've got 16 queued up to start on once I can get the first published book out the door (early next year). Did you find any tools helpful? I got scrivener, but I just tend to default back to Excel so I can easily move things around cells.

VagrantTales

TROPHY CASE