As PG hinted in his prior post, he was using a new tool to help prepare Mrs. PG’s next book for publication.
The tool is Atticus.
On the plus side, Atticus makes it easy to format good-looking ebooks and paperbacks. PG will show an example at the bottom of this post.
PG thinks Atticus can do a better job of formatting a good-looking ebook or POD paperback or hard cover than most indie authors could do without outsourcing the job to an outside designer.
Atticus also provides a word processor function so an author can write using the software as well. It’s not in the same class as MS Word, but includes features like a total word count and due date function with the ability to select which days you plan to write. Another writing feature captures the word count per day on your writing days.
PG doesn’t think that someone who is a power-user with a word processor will be inclined to dump it for Atticus, but, if all you need to do is write books, it includes all the basics that you may be using with your present word processor.
The real strength of Atticus (at least in PG’s eyes) is the ability to produce good-looking ebooks and print books. The program includes nine attractive book themes for both ebook and print purposes. You can also customize the themes or build your own. Page numbers, footers and headers plus various page layouts are a click of a mouse key away.
PG’s first thought was that Atticus is what KDP should have built in place of its long-standing boring and inflexible ebook templates.
The price is a flat $147 with no ongoing subscription payments. This is a nice change from all the $XX per month online services that combine to balloon your monthly credit card payment if you sign up for too many of them.
Whether Atticus can do a better job for an indie author than a professional book designer is a judgment call. PG suspects that most indie authors will cover the cost of Atticus with their first book compared with using a professional designer.
For those who use KDP templates, Atticus is a giant step up. Whether your readers (or readers you don’t have) will respond positively to better-looking books is a judgement call, but PG thinks most people will enjoy a better Look Inside impression than KDP templates provide.
Here’s a link to Atticus
PG screen-grabbed a PDF of the first page of Mrs. PG’s next book so you can see it below with the bottom cut off:
