Atticus - Book Formatting Made Easy
This is a rough draft chapter from my upcoming book Dam the Amazon: How to Self-Publish Your Book and Generate Demand for Your Business Using the Largest Bookstore in the World which is available for pre-order
When your manuscript is complete, you have to take the words you've typed and turn it into a book.
This process is called formatting. Formatting can be intricate and complicated. It can also be quick and painless.
The way you approach formatting drastically changes how difficult or easy it is for you.
Atticus
I'm going to walk you through formatting using a software that makes the process easy.
The software is called Atticus. There are other softwares like Vellum that help you format but it is far too complicated for my taste. You can also use Google Docs or Microsoft Word, but to me they are clumsy, difficult to use, and the end product is not professional looking without a ton of work.
I'll walk you through how to use Atticus to not only format but also as a word processor so you can write your book in it and not have anything to do to format.
Writing in Atticus
You use Atticus just like you would Word or Google Sheets.
Atticus is browser based so you don't have to download anything. You type in your words, and it creates a manuscript. To create a new chapter click "+Add new Chapter" in the lower left-hand corner.
To rearrange chapters you simply drag and drop them in the left hand panel.
Above the chapters are all the different book information you can either fill out or is generated for you based on the content you've created in the "Body" section where your chapter lives.
Inside the actual word processor screen there are all the things you'd expect to need when you write a format your book.
Bold
Italics
Underline
StrikethroughHeadings
Alignment and Bullets
Scene Break
Page Break
Link (for insert links into texts and images)
Image
Callout Boxes
Text messages
Footnotes
Profile Callout
Blockquote
Verse
Indent Options
Split Chapter
Undo
Redo
Formatting Your Book in Atticus
This is where Atticus is worth it's weight in gold.
It can take your typed manuscript either from your typing in Atticus or as an import from Microsoft Word/Google Sheets and turn it into a formatted book in minutes. Once you have your manuscript loaded into Atticus and your chapters set up you are ready for formatting.
Atticus auto generates much of the more annoying parts of a book like Copyright etc, but you still need to put specifics.
Book Details
Head to your Title and Copyright pages and make sure your information is correct.
If anything is wrong on your title page head to the "Edit Book Details" button in the top bar.
Inside the Book Details pages you can change your title, subtitle, author, etc. There is also the option to click on the Publisher Details and add Publisher information for your company if you have on set up.
Copyright Page
Now that your book details are correct head to the Copyright page.
At the Copyright page you'll need to update at least the year of the publication and the author name that owns the copyright.
Setting Up Chapters
If you wrote your book in Atticus you likely already have your chapters set up.
If you imported in from Microsoft Word or Google Sheets and you didn't create the proper headings and chapters in the document you'll need to go through your manuscript and divide it up in the appropriate chapters. This isn't hard to do in Atticus. You just scroll to where you want to create a new chapter, put your cursor where you want the break and click "Split Chapter"
This will move any text after your cursor into a new chapter directly beneath your original chapter and add the "(SPLIT)" after the chapter title.
Rename the chapter correctly and go through your entire manuscript separating chapters and you'll be set up to professionally format your book in a few clicks.
Choosing a Theme in Atticus
Here comes the magic.
Choosing a theme in Atticus overhauls your manuscript with the click of a button. It takes it from straight text and turns it into a book, magically. There are endless options you can explore but I find that their pre-made themes are adequate and I only adjust a few settings.
To choose a theme, click on the "Formatting" tab at the top of Atticus.
I use the theme "Finch" and make a few changes. You'll see your selection displayed on the right hand side of the Formatting page.
You can edit which preview you are doing by clicking the dropdown menu.
If you want to further refine your formatting you can click the 3 dots next to the theme name and click edit.
This will open up all the theme formatting options. You can tweak this to your hearts content to get exactly what you want or roll with the presets.
Once you are happy with the look of your book (for me it usually takes 5 minutes or less) you are ready to export your book and upload it to Amazon.
You can find more on uploading to Amazon in my 3 part series by clicking HERE.