Adventures in Vellum for PC Users

To format my fiction book, I chose to use Vellum.

What is Vellum? It’s a program that allows you to create print and ebooks, but only if you own a MAC—which I don’t.

If you don’t own a MAC, you can create an account with MacinCloud. The site offers pay-as-you-go or monthly plans you can cancel at any time.

You will also have to purchase Vellum to generate your books, and the cost is $199.99 for ebooks only or $249.99 for ebooks and print.

Now that I’ve been through the process, here are a few tips and tricks:

It’s easiest to log in by:
Go to MacinCloud.com
Log in to your account
Click on your server on the top left.
Above will be either PAYG or Managed, depending on your plan choice.
Below that is a cloud with your server name.
Click on the server name
Go to actions, connect now, and log in with the provided user name and password.

You will have to email yourself your doc or have it on a storage website (Google Docs, Dropbox, etc.) to download it onto the mac server from Safari. The same holds if you have images, a book cover, or other items you want to use in your book.

Once you purchase Vellum, be sure and authorize the Vellum program as a paid user.
If you choose to switch plans from pay-as-you-go to a monthly service, save your work by emailing it to yourself through a zip file. If you don’t, your work will disappear. (It doesn’t hurt to save your progress daily via email if you’re concerned it will disappear.)
Once you have generated your docs, you will need to upload them to Dropbox, Google Docs, or another similar program to save to your PC.

If there is a software update, you will need to reach out to Macincloud support and ask them to update it, as you won’t have administrative authority unless you’re in one of the costlier plans.

To all indie-published authors, I wish you the best of luck in your formatting adventures.