Vellum doesn’t only make beautiful books. Vellum makes dreams come true.

Yesterday I had words on a page. Today I downloaded Vellum. Now I have a book.

This must be what it’s like for a carpenter to get a new table saw. Or maybe an aspiring race car driver to finally take a corner in that … race car. The new car smell. Fresh cut wood. It’s the smell of something new, something created, something new that you created.

I’ve been around the block with publishing tools to get your book up onto Amazon and the other stores. There are some services (that will remain nameless) that have a manual so long, I had to refill my teapot and cancel soccer practice. Another used terms I couldn’t really figure out and then had options and features that I didn’t understand–nor terribly care to learn.

Then yesterday I bought Vellum. 

With an imported Word document, my book was no longer a document, it was a book.

Dear reader, for an author, no matter how experienced, jaded, old or young, seeing your own creation in a beautiful format is just something to sit back and admire.

I’m far beyond the stage where I want to know how everything works. I used to do my own taxes and the math guy in me actually enjoyed the figures and percentages. Then it was no longer fun. I hired an accountant.

While book formatting is still fun (yes, I’m still a bit of a design geek), I honestly don’t care enough to read a massive manual. Sure, I’d like to add a little icon at the top of each chapter. Ooh, a drop cap at the beginning of a paragraph? Yippee!

But I also want to be able to make it done and hit publish and share my work with the world.

1. Make it done.
2. Share with the world.

Two things many, many authors never experience. Often, one of those last steps (like, uh, editing, formatting, publishing, etc.) just bogs them down to the point where it overwhelms even the passionate writer. We don’t want that. We want writing rocketing their awesome works into the world for everyone to read … or at least so Aunt Hildegard can download it into iBooks.

What tools are holding you back from finishing your creations? What services exist that might just make that step less painful to the point where you’ll get over that last hump and Make It Done?

I just took one step closer to the dream of publication. How can you take yours?