In a previous article I discussed how I use the markup language Markdown in my publishing workflow. Using plain-text files formatted using Markdown, and then exported to DOCX or PDF files using Pandoc, enables me to work with the text of books in a format that is—and will remain—accessible in a wide array of text editors and word processors.
This relative simplicity of working with the text itself comes to an end, however, when it’s time to lay out the manuscript as a fully-formatted document and finally publish it as a digital book—this is much easier, as I noted in the previous article, when the final publication is an article on a WordPress or other website (this article, for example, was written in Ulysses and then copy-and-pasted into this self-hosted WordPress site). To simplify the process I therefore use Vellum to create digital books for my digital-focused publishing house, but I will also briefly mention other free and/or open-source publishing apps for non-Mac users and people starting in independent publishing.
Other Methods for Creating Digital Books
I should note at the outset that my publishing method involves creating digital books which can be distributed independent of the main online retailers. While Amazon has a Kindle Direct Publishing program for creating books specifically for their store (as do Barnes & Noble and Kobo, among many others), I am focused on creating digital books for which I have complete control over distribution (including through the major retailers should I so choose (but at this point have not chosen)).
The Vellum app, while simultaneously being both sophisticated and easy-to-use, has two potential drawbacks: it is Mac-only, and it is relatively expensive for people not seriously dedicated to creating digital books ($200 for the ability to create only ebooks; $250 for the added ability to create print-ready PDFs). Many people therefore use writing apps with EPUB exporting abilities such as the Apple-only Pages (free) or Ulysses ($6 per month / $40 per year), or a more full-featured writing and publishing app like Scrivener ($60 for Windows and Mac, $30 for iOS). Users looking for a free option (and Linux users) frequently use the open-source Sigil or Calibre ebook programs.
I have used several of these programs over the years (and, as mentioned before, continue to use Ulysses for writing although, differing from my previous article, I’ve switched back to using the Mellel word processor for writing scholarly works due to its superb interoperability with the Bookends reference manager). Sigil and Calibre are very capable free ebook creators and managers, and Scrivener is an excellent writing app with the ability to export to a wide array of formats, but they have the drawbacks of being extremely complicated to master and their ebook formatting abilities are limited.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Vellum
I have used Adobe inDesign for years to create publications (mostly for print) with unique and complex layouts, and continue to use it when designing publications for clients who require a custom design. The digital books I create for my publishing house present a challenge that nonetheless makes using inDesign less-than-preferable for most projects: I need the ability to create attractive books in multiple formats that simultaneously, because many of these books are given away for free, require minimal time to format and export.
The Vellum app is almost ideal for this purpose. In Vellum I can import a DOCX file (created using the open-source Pandoc, which itself can generate simple EPUB books), apply a design style, easily create front matter and automatically generate a table of contents, make any needed formatting changes, and export ebooks in Kindle, Nook, Apple, Kobo, Google, generic EPUB and PDF formats—and I can do all this in only slightly more time than it takes me to do the basic setup of an inDesign document, and with far less aggravation than I experienced when creating ebooks with Sigil.
While the savings in time and effort make Vellum the obvious choice for projects for which I do not expect to receive money, this does not mean the app is perfect. For example, the limited number of design styles means the interior of your book will resemble the interior of many other Vellum-created books (this is why I still use inDesign in work for clients and other high-level, complex projects). Furthermore, because the app’s primary user base are novelists, some of its styling is inadequate for more complex textual formatting (I groan at every first line-indented citation and endnote). Even with such limitations, though, I benefit greatly from the app’s overall ease-of-use.
Conclusion
I am a fervent advocate for indie publishing—and, for that matter, self-publishing—and am delighted with the technological advances that make such publishing much easier than when I began almost three decades ago (even if such advances are also resulting in a flood of textual garbage). The growth of paid-and-free options for creating digital books will greatly expand opportunities for diverse, unrestricted publications that can potentially reach a growing array of both mainstream and marginalized readers.
Image: Ereader with a sample book (Source).
