Like many people, I'd been on the fence about Atticus for a long time. Compared to Vellum, it's cheaper, and promises more features that you can use on any platform. Given I don't own a Mac (I love my Apple products, but my PC has to be Windows or I'll combust!), Vellum has always been a no-go for me, so I've handled formats with InDesign, Word, and this year, Kindle Create.
Atticus is like the new, trendy tech bro on the block. Everything about the website is sleek and reminiscent of every start-up I've seen ever, but the promises are outstanding. Recently, I decided to give it a try - they say you can get your money back if you don't like it, so I figured it was worth a test run, at least.
My First Experience with Atticus
When I paid, I immediately set about playing with it. Given I have been publishing my own books for over a decade, and have been doing my own formats for that entire time, I went in half-expecting to be able to use it with no problems whatsoever. Thankfully, I was almost correct - Atticus was, for me, simple enough to understand, and close enough to something like Kindle Create that I didn't run into any major issues right away.
I decided to test Atticus with one of my novelettes. People online mentioned that Atticus struggled with a lot of lag, and they were right - even on absolutely fine internet and a PC that should be completely overkill for something like Atticus, the website slowed to a complete halt several times, namely whenever I tried to change something. This project was around 11,000 words, so I don't understand why the website struggled - and I'm certainly not excited to test out one of my longer works with it.
Aside from the lag, I didn't run into any issues with my first project, at least not yet. I was able to set up a custom theme template for one of my pennames, that I assume I can just reuse for all projects I import that are under that name. It was quick and easy to set up fonts and chapter dividers/scene breaks, and it came with templates I could use for my copyright page, too. I set all that up, and exported as PDF and ePub. Then, I got the grand idea to add full-page images - and that's when I started to encounter some problems.
Setting up an image that spans two pages in Atticus is not as simple as it first appears. I'm used to splitting up images, and working with InDesign, but it still stumped me that Atticus didn't have an easy one-click solution to this. I wound up cutting my image in half, and I was able to get it to work. I don't use BookBrush, but Atticus really, really wants you to use it, so I assume BookBrush has presets to make this process simpler. I went back to Photoshop and made some tweaks, and that was good enough for me.
Another issue that I noticed was that my scene breaks didn't carry over. Not a problem with something that's not even 15,000 words long, but it'll certainly become problematic on longer works.
The entire process, start to finish, didn't take too long. I spent a lot of time creating new graphics for the project, as I hadn't bothered with dividers or full page art before. I didn't feel like I had to learn much, though, and if you aren't well versed in similar software, it may take you a longer time to get a feel for Atticus - I'd recommend learning it at least a few weeks before you hit publish.
Online Only
Something that I wasn't exactly expecting was that Atticus is completely online. Others have said that Atticus works best with Chrome, but I use Firefox and only encountered issues with lag that were bearable, if a little annoying.
Personally, I can't stand software that's online only. My internet connection is fine, but like everyone, I sometimes deal with downtime which means Atticus might not be the ideal replacement for something like InDesign, or even Kindle Create. Another app I use often, ProWritingAid, is also online-only, which I found out by accident when I went to use the desktop app during an internet outage... and was met with a screen that told me I couldn't.
Above all else, I value efficiency. Kindle Create allows me to create an eBook in a matter of minutes (my last project took two minutes flat to format), but given the lag with Atticus, I think Kindle Create wins in the speed department. Kindle Create is also available offline, so it wins there, too, even if the vast majority of people don't use Create.
Price
Atticus is available for $147USD, excluding tax, which is considerably cheaper than Vellum, but far more expensive than Kindle Create, which is free. Over time, it's less expensive than an InDesign subscription (three months of an Adobe Creative Cloud Pro subscription at the standard price costs more than Atticus), and cheaper than hiring someone else to handle the formatting process for you. A lot of people also use Word, and, like with Adobe, Atticus will pay for itself if you're currently paying for a Word subscription exclusively for formatting.
Another part of Atticus is that you can use it for writing. It has collaboration features, so could, in theory, be a more luxury replacement of something like Word 365 or Google Docs. Given the lag, though, I wouldn't be inclined to try the writing functionality - even making minor changes to a document resulted in delays.
I think the price is a little steep for it being online only, but overall, I also think it's fair for the amount of customisation, and ease of use. Compared to other, similar apps, the price is affordable - but there are free options that may work for you if you don't want all the fancy bells and whistles that Atticus offers.
Is Atticus Worth It?
I'd say yes, depending on what you're looking for.
If you want something fast and easy, but still want more premium features like built-in chapter/scene breaks and full page art, then Atticus is a great option if Vellum is out of your budget, or you're working on Windows. Atticus also seems to have more choices than Vellum, so it's definitely flexible. Given Atticus's price, though, I'd suggest newer authors use something more affordable. If you already use Word for writing, then you can use Word to format, too, it just isn't quite as simple. Of course, if you have an Adobe subscription, then InDesign is also an option, but the flexibility comes with a steep learning curve.
If you're looking for something fast, free, and available offline, then Kindle Create is a fabulous choice - but it is highly limited. You can still add chapter breaks and dividers, but you'll need to do this manually.
Overall, I found Atticus to be worth what I paid in my case. I publish a lot of books every year, so it's nice to be able to set up a penname theme and have it ready to go without manually adding in dividers. Unfortunately, the lag, and the fact that scene breaks didn't import properly, makes Atticus slower than Kindle Create for me, but still, it's prettier than what I was making with Create.
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