Atticus Book Formatting: The 2026 Walkthrough for Coaches

Quick Answer: Atticus book formatting is the process of applying professional interior design to a finished manuscript using Atticus's built-in themes, heading hierarchy, callout boxes, and export engine. The tool is browser-based, costs $147 as a one-time purchase, and runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook. For a 40,000 to 60,000-word coaching book, a first-time user completes the full formatting pass in four to eight hours and exports KDP-ready print PDF and EPUB files at the end.

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In 2025, an executive coach in Toronto finished her manuscript on a Sunday afternoon. She had 52,000 words: ten years of client work distilled into a methodology she had refined through more than 400 coaching engagements. The manuscript was in Google Docs, organized with proper headings, and clean. The writing was done.

What happened next took three months.

Her designer was busy. A freelance formatter quoted $380 and a two-week turnaround. She tried Vellum, which her colleague recommended, and discovered it required a Mac she didn't own. She spent a weekend fighting with Microsoft Word's mail-merge-era layout tools before giving up. She posted in a Facebook group for coaches and the first substantive reply mentioned Atticus.

She formatted the book in a single Saturday. She uploaded the PDF and EPUB to Amazon KDP the following Monday. The book went live that Thursday.

The reason that story keeps repeating in coaching communities isn't that Atticus is magic. It's that the formatting problem coaches face has a specific shape, and Atticus was designed to match it exactly. This guide covers what Atticus book formatting actually involves, how to execute it well from any source document (including Apple Pages), which themes work for coaching books and why, how to handle nonfiction's specific structural requirements, and how to move from finished manuscript to files ready to upload to KDP.

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What Atticus Book Formatting Actually Involves

Book formatting is the production step that converts a raw manuscript into a print-ready interior. It covers every visual and structural decision in the book: the body font and size, the heading hierarchy, the margins and gutters, the treatment of special elements like callout boxes and footnotes, the table of contents generation, and the final file format for upload to a distributor.

Atticus handles all of this through a formatting engine that combines themes (which set typographic defaults across the entire book) with per-chapter element markup (where you apply heading levels, callout boxes, and figures). The result is a book that looks designed rather than assembled.

This is distinct from copy editing, developmental editing, and cover design. Atticus formats the interior; it doesn't check your grammar, improve your argument structure, or produce your cover image. Knowing what the tool does and doesn't do prevents the common mismatch where a coach buys a formatting tool expecting it to do something the formatter doesn't offer.

The four layers of book formatting:

Typography. The choice of body font, size, line spacing, and paragraph indent or space determines how easy your book is to read at sustained length. Small margins, tight line spacing, and a dense body font signal amateur production before the reader processes a single word. Professional interior formatting uses tried and tested configurations: a legible serif at 10 to 12 points for body text, generous margins, and line spacing around 130 to 145 percent.

Structure. Your chapter organization, heading levels, and the table of contents make the book navigable. A coaching book built around a named methodology needs at least two heading levels below the chapter title to show the framework's phases and steps. The table of contents needs accurate page numbers for print and clickable links for the ebook.

Nonfiction elements. These are the visual breaks that make coaching books work: callout boxes for key principles and coaching questions, numbered lists for step-by-step processes, figures for framework diagrams, and footnotes for cited research. A coach's book without these elements looks like a long blog post printed on paper.

File compliance. The exported files need to pass KDP's technical requirements: embedded fonts in the PDF, semantic heading tags in the EPUB, correct trim size and page count, and margins that clear KDP's minimum gutter requirements for the interior's page count.

Atticus addresses all four layers. The formatting workflow is the sequence of decisions that moves you through them in the right order.

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Before You Format: The Manuscript Preparation Checklist

Formatting a poorly prepared manuscript takes three times as long and produces half the quality of formatting a clean one. The 45 minutes spent on preparation before opening Atticus pay back many times over. This applies whether your draft lives in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Apple Pages.

Apply proper heading styles in your source document

This is the single most important preparation step. Heading 1 for chapter titles, Heading 2 for major sections within each chapter, Heading 3 for sub-sections. Use the document's built-in style system (Format > Paragraph Styles in Docs, the Styles pane in Word, Format > Paragraph Style in Pages). Do not manually bold text to make it look like a heading. Manually bolded text imports to Atticus as bold body text with no structural tag; you'll be assigning heading levels by hand in every chapter, which on a 12-chapter book is a two-hour slog that shouldn't exist.

Strip formatting that won't carry over

Colored text, highlighted passages, custom fonts, and font sizes other than the document default don't survive import cleanly and don't belong in the finished book. Remove them before you import. Keep bold for key terms and italics for book titles and emphasis. Those transfer correctly.

Identify your callout box candidates

Scan the manuscript for passages worth pulling out visually: a core principle from your methodology, a coaching question that should prompt the reader to pause and reflect, a common mistake worth flagging, an action step. Mark each with a comment or a bracket in the source document. You'll apply the callout element in Atticus as you import each chapter, instead of hunting through familiar prose for passages you're no longer noticing.

Check image resolution

For print, images need to be at least 300 DPI at the size they'll appear in the final book. A framework diagram that looks sharp on screen at 96 DPI will print muddy in a 6x9 paperback. Export diagrams from PowerPoint, Keynote, or Canva at the highest available resolution before importing them to Atticus. Atticus embeds images at the resolution you provide and does not upscale.

One additional note for Apple Pages users

Pages is a common drafting environment for coaches on Mac. Atticus imports DOCX files, not Pages files. Before importing, go to File > Export To > Word in Pages, and choose Word format. The DOCX export preserves your heading styles, bold, and italics correctly. If your Pages document used the built-in heading styles rather than custom formatting, the chapter structure transfers to Atticus with minimal cleanup.

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Choosing the Right Atticus Theme for Your Coaching Book

A theme in Atticus is a complete typographic specification applied to the entire book at once. It sets body font and size, the heading fonts and sizes for each level, line spacing, margins, chapter break treatment, and drop cap settings. Change the theme and every page updates immediately. This non-destructive switching is one of Atticus's practical strengths: you can try three themes in ten minutes and see which one fits the book's tone before committing.
Atticus ships with 17 professionally designed themes and a custom theme builder that the company says supports more than 1,200 unique combinations from a library of over 1,500 fonts. For coaches, the relevant subset is smaller.

What to look for in a coaching book theme

Coaching books are informational nonfiction. The design criteria are different from literary fiction: maximum readability for extended periods, clear visual hierarchy that helps the reader navigate the framework, and a professional appearance that signals credibility without looking overproduced.

Practically, this means:

• A legible serif font for body text. Serif fonts reduce eye strain in long-form reading. Garamond, Palatino, and Georgia-based faces are industry standards.
• A contrasting sans-serif or display font for chapter titles and major headings. The contrast signals structure; the heading font pulls the reader's eye to entry points.
• Body size between 10 and 12 points at 6x9 trim. Below 10 feels compressed; above 12 feels like large print.
• Line spacing at 130 to 145 percent. This is the distance between baselines. Tight spacing (under 120 percent) increases reading fatigue on informational text.
• Margins that give breathing room. KDP's minimums are conservative; add 3 to 5mm on all sides for a more professional result.

The nonfiction themes in Atticus's library

Atticus's 17 themes are: Delta, Elinor, Clairmont, Hughes, Intratech, Minerva, Atreides, Watts, Penelope, Delphini, Aether, Bonkers Books, Minax, Finch, Scarlett, Seraphina, and Titus. You don't need to evaluate all 17 before starting; apply one and use the previewer to judge it against your actual content.

The themes calibrated for nonfiction and business books use clean serif body text, structured heading hierarchy, and neutral chapter break treatment. They're the safest starting point for most coaching books. Minerva, Hughes, and Clairmont, for example, follow the typographic conventions of published business books: readable serif body text, contrasting headings, and restrained chapter breaks.

The fiction-forward themes prioritize decorative chapter breaks and display fonts that suit storytelling but can look incongruous on a book structured around a seven-step methodology. The exception: if your coaching book is memoir-led (Scarlett is designed for this format), or if you're writing in a personal development genre that overlaps with narrative nonfiction, a crossover theme can work. For structured nonfiction, start in the cleaner range and customize from there.

The custom theme builder

If your coaching brand has specific typography, the custom theme builder exposes every parameter. Set your body font and size, heading fonts at each of six levels, line spacing, margins, header and footer treatment, and drop cap settings. Build the theme once and name it; every subsequent book in your series applies it in two clicks. A coach publishing a series of frameworks books gets visual consistency from book two onward at no additional effort.

A practical trap: coaches who spend more than an hour in the theme builder are usually procrastinating on the content review that needs to happen before formatting. Lock a theme that looks professional and move to the content passes. You can always switch later; the formatting doesn't break.

Testing the theme against your actual content

Apply the theme before your content is final. Writing or reading inside the formatted view reveals problems that a raw Google Doc conceals. A paragraph that reads comfortably in Docs can feel like an unbroken wall of text at 12pt in a 6x9 layout. Discovering that during a drafting session costs five minutes to fix. Discovering it after export costs hours.

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The FORM Method: Four Passes to Format a Coaching Book in Atticus

The most common formatting failure isn't technical. It's sequence. Coaches who try to format and edit simultaneously, or who apply themes before the content is structurally complete, or who audit the previewer before all images are in, create rework that can consume more time than the original formatting would have taken.

The FORM method is four passes in fixed order. Each pass is complete before the next begins.

Pass 1: Foundation

Lock the container before any content enters. Set your trim size (6x9 is the standard for business nonfiction on KDP), paper color (cream for reading-focused books, white for image-heavy formats), and the project's metadata: title, subtitle, author name, and publisher. Atticus generates your title page from these fields; a typo here becomes a typo on your title page.

Build the complete sidebar structure: every chapter in order, every front matter element (title page, copyright, dedication if using, table of contents), and every back matter section. For a coaching book, your back matter should include at minimum: an about-the-author page, a call-to-action page (what should the reader do next: join a program, book a discovery call, download a companion resource), and sources or references if you cite published research.

Creating this skeleton before content entry gives you two things: a progress tracker and a forcing function. You can see, at a glance, which chapters have content and which don't. The structure of the back matter forces you to decide what the book's business goal is before you finish the content. A coaching book with a weak or absent call to action isn't a publishing problem; it's a strategy problem. Catching it in the Foundation pass is far better than discovering it after the print PDF is already on KDP.

Pass 2: Order

Import each chapter and apply structural markup immediately upon import. Do not paste all chapters first and plan a separate markup pass later. The pass-by-chapter sequence is deliberate: markup applied to a chapter you just read is accurate; markup applied to familiar text you've seen dozens of times underestimates callout candidates and misses heading level inconsistencies.

For each chapter:

• Verify or correct heading levels for all section titles
• Apply callout boxes to the passages marked during manuscript preparation
• Convert action sequences to numbered lists
• Convert feature or option lists to bullet lists
• Insert footnote markers for cited claims and add the citation text
• Place any images that belong in this chapter and add captions

A practical density for callout boxes: one to three per major H2 section. Fewer and the book's visual rhythm feels monotonous; more and the callout loses its signal value (every paragraph isn't a highlight).

Pass 3: Refine

The manuscript is now in Atticus with complete structural markup. Now apply and tune the theme. Open the previewer panel and switch between your primary presets: Kindle Paperwhite (ebook), and your trim size in print.

In print view, check the heading hierarchy reads as a coherent outline. Cover the body text and read only the headings: do they narrate your framework's structure? Fix inconsistencies.

Check your callout boxes for visual consistency across chapters. A box that uses border-only styling in chapter two and color background in chapter seven signals that you applied them at different stages without a unified decision. Pick one style and apply it uniformly. For ebook display, border-only or very light gray backgrounds are more reliable across Kindle generations; colored backgrounds can render oddly on older e-ink devices.

Adjust margins if the default doesn't give enough breathing room. Check that your body text size feels appropriately legible in the print previewer at your trim size; if it's tighter than you'd like to read for an hour, go up half a point.

Pass 4: Master file

Read the entire formatted book in two previewer presets end to end. Not a skim; a read.

In ebook mode: look for orphaned headings stranded at the bottom of a screen, callout boxes that render differently than expected, images that overflow the text area, and table of contents links that don't navigate to the correct chapter. Broken TOC links are a leading cause of KDP's automated file rejections.

In print mode: look for widows (a single line stranded at the top of a page), orphans (the last line of a paragraph stranded alone at the bottom of a page), gutter margins that seem too tight near the spine edge, callout box padding consistency, and image sharpness.

Export the print PDF and the EPUB. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader in two-page view and check the first three spreads, a spread from the middle of the book, and the last three spreads. Open the EPUB in Calibre or Adobe Digital Editions and click five TOC links. These twenty minutes of file testing prevent the post-upload discoveries that require re-exporting, re-uploading, and waiting for KDP's re-processing queue.

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Formatting the Five Nonfiction Elements Coaching Books Require

Fiction formatting tools optimize for flowing prose. A novel has chapters, paragraphs, and occasional scene breaks. Coaching books have a richer structural vocabulary, and most competing tools handle this range poorly. Atticus was built for it. Here are the five elements that separate a professional coaching book interior from a plain manuscript.

Heading hierarchy

A coaching book built around a named framework needs at least two heading levels below the chapter title. H2 for the framework's major phases or sections, H3 for steps or tactics within each phase. A book with three-level frameworks (phases, steps, sub-steps) may use H4. Atticus supports H2 through H6, each styled distinctly by the theme.

This is more than visual. Atticus exports heading levels as semantic HTML heading tags in the EPUB. Kindle's navigation system, the book's auto-generated table of contents, and screen readers used by visually impaired readers all use those tags to let readers move through the book by structure. A competing tool that simulates additional heading levels with bold or enlarged text produces output that looks similar on screen but is structurally inert: navigation doesn't recognize it, assistive technology can't parse it, and KDP's file reviewers occasionally flag it.

Callout boxes

Callout boxes are visually distinct blocks that stand apart from body text. Common uses in coaching books: key principles from the methodology, coaching questions for the reader to reflect on, common mistakes or failure modes, chapter summaries, and action steps. Atticus renders them in both print and ebook with border, background, and corner styling controlled by the theme.

Two practical notes. First, save your callout style as a preset named for its use (Key Principle, Coaching Question, Action Step) and apply the matching preset consistently. Visual inconsistency in callout treatment is an immediate credibility signal to the type of reader who notices that a print-on-demand book was self-published. Second, test callout rendering in the Kindle Paperwhite preset specifically. Color backgrounds can appear as gray squares or white boxes on older e-ink devices; a border-only callout renders correctly on every device and every display mode.

Footnotes and endnotes

Coaches citing published research, professional frameworks developed by others, or external statistics need functional citations. Atticus supports both footnotes (placed at the bottom of the print page) and endnotes (placed in a back matter section). In the EPUB, both formats become linked notes that the reader can tap to view the citation. Add a footnote by placing the cursor inline and using Atticus's footnote insert; type the citation text in the footnote field and Atticus handles placement.

For a references or bibliography section (common in books citing multiple sources), add a back matter chapter called References or Further Reading and bring in your citations already formatted in the appropriate style (APA for psychology-grounded coaching; Chicago for most business nonfiction; MLA less commonly). Atticus styles the section but doesn't auto-format citations; that step belongs to your word processor or a citation manager.

Lists

Coaching books are inherently sequential and comparative. Frameworks have steps. Assessments have criteria. Resources have options. Atticus converts its native list elements to proper HTML list structures in the EPUB, which renders correctly across Kindle devices and Apple Books. A common formatting problem in books prepared in Word is that lists were formatted manually (hanging indent, bullet character inserted as a glyph) rather than using the document's list styles. Those fake lists import to Atticus as body paragraphs with a bullet character at the start, not as structured list elements. Fix them by selecting the text in Atticus and applying the correct list type from the toolbar.

Images and figures

A framework diagram, a comparison table reimagined as a visual, or an annotated screenshot adds weight to a coaching book and reduces the visual density of text-heavy sections. Full width with a caption below is the most reliable configuration for 6x9 books. Keep images within the text area; full-bleed images that extend to the page edge require trim marks and bleed settings that KDP's standard upload doesn't support for print-on-demand.

Captions are worth writing carefully. A figure without a caption forces the reader to interpret the diagram without context; a caption that just describes what's visible adds no value. The most useful caption explains what the figure means: "The five-stage pipeline with the two most common client dropout points marked" tells the reader something the image alone might not.

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Formatting from Pages, Word, and Google Docs: The Import Guide

Each source document type has specific quirks that affect how content arrives in Atticus and what cleanup it requires.

From Apple Pages

Pages is the native Mac writing environment and common among coaches already in the Apple ecosystem. Atticus does not import .pages files directly; export to Word format first via File > Export To > Word in Pages, choosing the .docx format.

Before exporting, verify your heading styles are applied correctly. Pages uses Heading, Heading 2, Heading 3 in its built-in Paragraph Style menu (top of the Format panel on the right sidebar). If your section titles were typed at the default Body style and then made larger or bold to look like headings, they will arrive in Atticus as bold body text. Fix them in Pages before exporting: select each title, and apply the correct Paragraph Style from the Format panel.

After the DOCX export, open it in Word or Docs briefly to check that heading styles transferred. Then import the DOCX into Atticus using the Book Content import option. The import handles one chapter at a time; for a multi-chapter book, either paste chapter content or import the full DOCX and then split into chapters using Atticus's chapter split function.

The question in this article's PAA list is direct: yes, you can format your book from Apple Pages in Atticus. Export to DOCX first, and the formatting workflow from that point is identical to any other source document.

From Microsoft Word

Word DOCX files import to Atticus with heading styles, bold, italics, and lists preserved. Numbered and bulleted lists transfer correctly when they were created using Word's native list tools; manually formatted lists (typed bullet points, hanging indents set with the ruler) arrive as text and need to be re-applied as list elements in Atticus.

One common Word-specific artifact: Section Break characters. Word's section breaks don't translate to chapter breaks in Atticus and can appear as blank paragraphs at unexpected positions. Delete any manual section breaks before import (Home > Show/Hide Formatting Marks in Word, then search and delete Section Break characters).

From Google Docs

Google Docs is the most common drafting environment for coaches. Docs heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 under the Normal text dropdown) transfer to Atticus correctly when the DOCX export is used. Go to File > Download > Microsoft Word (.docx) in Docs; do not use the PDF download for this step.

Tables in Docs export to DOCX with formatting, but complex merged-cell tables may simplify. Check any data tables after import and restructure them if needed.

If your Docs manuscript used Suggested Edits that haven't been accepted or rejected, accept or reject all before exporting. Suggested edits appear in the DOCX as Track Changes markup and can produce confusing duplication in Atticus's import.

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Exporting and Uploading Your Atticus-Formatted Book

The export step produces the files you upload to Amazon KDP and, optionally, IngramSpark. Understanding what each file is for and what to check before uploading prevents the delays that come from KDP's rejection queue.

Print PDF for KDP paperback

KDP requires a print PDF with embedded fonts, correct trim size and page count, and interior margins that meet their minimum gutter requirements (the gutter margin must be wider than the outer margin, and the minimum gutter width increases with page count). Atticus calculates gutter margins from your project settings and embeds fonts automatically. When you export the print PDF, Atticus generates it to those specifications.

After export, open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader (not Preview on Mac, which renders fonts differently). Switch to Two-Page View. Check the first spread, a spread from the middle, and the last spread. Common issues and their causes:

• Blurry images in the PDF preview: the source image was below 300 DPI. Re-export the source at higher resolution, re-insert into Atticus, re-export the PDF.
• Text appearing too close to the spine edge: your gutter margin is under the minimum for the page count. Increase the gutter margin in theme settings by 3 to 5mm and re-export.
• A chapter starting mid-page without a clean page break: the chapter was not set to start on a new page in Atticus's chapter settings. Set each chapter to begin on a new page (Chapter Options in the chapter's settings panel).

Upload the PDF to KDP's paperback content section. KDP runs an automated file review that typically completes within a few minutes. When it passes, use KDP's previewer to do a final check before setting the book live.

EPUB for Kindle ebook

The EPUB export from Atticus meets KDP's requirements for ebook upload: a generated table of contents with clickable chapter links, embedded images, semantic heading structure, and reflowable text. Upload it to KDP's Kindle content section. The same EPUB file works for Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes and Noble Press, and aggregators like Draft2Digital if you're distributing the ebook beyond Amazon.

If you enrolled the ebook in KDP Select (Amazon's Kindle Unlimited exclusivity program), you cannot distribute the same ebook elsewhere during each 90-day enrollment window. Most coaches publishing to build a business asset rather than maximize royalty income use KDP without Select, which allows distribution to any platform.

DOCX for your editor

Atticus also exports DOCX, the format editors working in Microsoft Word use. If you have a proofreader or copy editor reviewing after the formatting pass, export DOCX for their workflow. Import their corrected version back into Atticus for a final round of changes.

IngramSpark for bookstore distribution

IngramSpark distributes to bookstores, libraries, and corporate purchasing systems. Atticus's print PDF output meets IngramSpark's requirements for standard trim sizes and configurations. IngramSpark is stricter than KDP on file specifications and has setup fees; download IngramSpark's current technical requirements before uploading for the first time. The most common rejection cause for image-heavy books is file size; compress images at the source before inserting in Atticus and re-export.

Adding IngramSpark extends your book's reach to channels beyond Amazon, including brick-and-mortar bookstores and corporate training procurement systems. For coaching books used as a lead generation tool with a professional audience, that additional discoverability can matter. For most coaches in year one, KDP alone is sufficient; add IngramSpark when bookstore presence becomes a deliberate objective.

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When Atticus Book Formatting Is the Right Call

Atticus is the right formatting tool when most of these are true for your situation:

Your manuscript is substantially complete. Atticus is a formatting environment, not a drafting environment. It produces the most value when the manuscript is done and the production step is the remaining work. Coaches who open Atticus before a first draft exists will find themselves spending time on theme selection when the blocking constraint is actually the words. If you're still in the drafting phase, resolve that first.

You're publishing to Amazon KDP, with or without IngramSpark alongside. Atticus's export targets KDP's specific requirements: PDF margin calculations, EPUB structure, and trim size standards. The tool is built for indie publishing on these platforms, and the output reflects that.

Your book has nonfiction structural requirements. Callout boxes, multiple heading levels, footnotes, and framework diagrams. These are table stakes for coaching books and they're the area where Atticus's feature set genuinely exceeds most alternatives.

You want a one-time purchase with lifetime updates. $147, no subscription, no per-book fees, all future updates included. A 30-day money-back guarantee applies.

You're on Windows, or want device flexibility. Vellum, the most commonly cited alternative, is Mac-only. Atticus is browser-based and works on any operating system with a modern browser.

Atticus may not be the right call in a few situations. If your book is primarily visual: a heavily illustrated workbook with complex fillable forms, a photo book, or a children's picture book, you need page-level layout control from a tool like InDesign. Atticus handles text-led books with inline images well; it's not a page-layout application.

If you need real-time collaborative editing with an editor in Google Docs, Atticus's collaboration model (invite-based editing, Word export for Track Changes workflows) may not match your process.

And if you don't yet have a manuscript, the formatting tool isn't the next purchase. A coach who has been stuck in drafting for more than six months is usually blocked by a content assembly problem, not a formatting problem. Solve that first; the coach's complete guide to writing and publishing a book covers that stage.

A few practical notes before purchasing:

Atticus does not offer a free trial. The entry point is the full $147 purchase, backed by the 30-day money-back guarantee. If you want to evaluate the formatting output before buying, independent review sites post screenshots of Atticus-formatted interiors, and the Kindlepreneur review includes sample pages from multiple themes.

Atticus is primarily a cloud-based application. It works offline as a Progressive Web App after an initial login, but the offline experience is more limited than a desktop application. Coaches who frequently write without internet access (on flights, in client facilities, in locations with unreliable connections) should factor this in.

Collaboration in Atticus works via shared project access, but each collaborator (editor, co-author, developmental partner) needs their own Atticus license. If your editor works in Microsoft Word with Track Changes, the DOCX export handles that workflow without requiring them to purchase Atticus themselves.

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Key Takeaway: Atticus book formatting works when you apply it in the right order: Foundation (settings and structure), Order (content import with markup), Refine (theme and visual consistency), Master file (end-to-end previewer audit and file test). The tool handles every nonfiction element coaching books require, runs on any device for $147, and exports files that pass KDP's checks directly. The prerequisite is a complete manuscript. Show up with the words; Atticus handles the production.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Atticus book formatting?

Atticus book formatting is the process of taking a finished manuscript and applying professional interior design using Atticus's theme system, nonfiction element support, and export engine. The result is a print-ready PDF and an EPUB suitable for upload to Amazon KDP and other distributors. The tool is browser-based, costs $147 as a one-time purchase, and works on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook.

How long does formatting a book in Atticus take?

For a first-time user with a clean, heading-styled 40,000 to 60,000-word manuscript, plan four to eight hours: Foundation and structure setup (30-60 minutes), content import with markup (2-4 hours depending on manuscript size), theme refinement (30-60 minutes), previewer audit (60-90 minutes), and exported file testing (20-30 minutes). Subsequent books take under half that because your theme and structural presets already exist.

Can you format a book from Apple Pages using Atticus?

Yes. Atticus imports DOCX files. In Pages, go to File > Export To > Word to convert your manuscript to DOCX. Before exporting, make sure your section titles use Pages's built-in heading styles (Heading, Heading 2, Heading 3 from the Paragraph Style menu in the Format panel), not manually enlarged or bolded body text. After converting, the DOCX imports to Atticus with heading structure, bold, and italics intact.

How many themes does Atticus have?

Atticus ships with 17 professionally designed themes and a custom theme builder. The custom theme builder supports more than 1,200 unique combinations from a library of over 1,500 fonts, covering body font and size, heading fonts at each level, line spacing, margins, and chapter break treatment. For coaching books, the nonfiction themes are the most relevant starting point.

Does Atticus work on Windows?

Yes. Atticus is browser-based and runs on any device with a modern web browser: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, and iPad. It also functions offline as a Progressive Web App. Cross-platform access is one of its primary advantages over Vellum, which runs only on Mac.

What file formats does Atticus export?

Atticus exports three formats: EPUB for ebook distribution (Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes and Noble Press, Draft2Digital), print-ready PDF for paperback printing on KDP and IngramSpark, and DOCX for editors working in Word. Atticus does not upload files on your behalf; you upload the exported files through the KDP or IngramSpark dashboards yourself.

What trim size should I use for a coaching book on KDP?

The standard for business and coaching nonfiction on KDP is 6x9 inches. This is the trim size most readers recognize as professional nonfiction and the one most commonly used in the business book category. Books under 30,000 words sometimes work better at 5.5x8.5 or 5x8 so the physical book doesn't feel thin in the hand. Set your trim size in Atticus before importing any content; changing it after the content is in forces a full formatting review because margins and text flow shift across every page.

What body font size should I use for a coaching book?

The standard range for body text in a 6x9 coaching book is 10 to 12 points. Below 10 feels compressed and can read as cheap; above 12 starts to feel like large print. With Atticus's default line spacing, 11 points is a reliable choice for most body fonts. The right answer also depends on your chosen font; apply the theme at your draft font size and check the previewer rather than deciding in the abstract.

What does Atticus cost in 2026?

$147 as a one-time purchase with lifetime updates included. No monthly subscription and no per-book fees. A 30-day money-back guarantee applies. The license covers use on any device with a modern browser, so Mac, Windows, Linux, Chromebook, and iPad access are all included in the same purchase.

Can I import my book into Atticus if it was written in Scrivener?

Yes. Export your Scrivener project as DOCX (File > Compile in Scrivener, choose the Word format) and import the DOCX into Atticus. The import handles one manuscript file and then lets you split it into chapters within Atticus. Scrivener's compile settings for heading levels vary; review the imported headings in Atticus and correct any that arrived as body text instead of their intended heading level.

Does Atticus support footnotes?

Yes. Atticus supports both footnotes (printed at the bottom of the page in the print layout) and endnotes (placed in a back matter section). In EPUB format, both render as linked notes the reader can tap to view. Insert a footnote by placing the cursor at the point in the text where the marker should appear and using Atticus's footnote insert function, then type the citation text.

Is Atticus better than Vellum for nonfiction coaching books?

For nonfiction with callout boxes, multiple heading levels, and footnotes, Atticus has stronger feature support than Vellum. Vellum supports one subheading level below the chapter title; Atticus supports H2 through H6. Vellum's callout box support is limited; Atticus's is native. Vellum costs $199.99 to $249.99 and runs only on Mac; Atticus costs $147 and runs on any platform. For fiction or simple narrative nonfiction on a Mac, Vellum's templates have a strong visual quality. For structured coaching books on any device, Atticus is the stronger choice.

What is the best way to handle a coaching book with a lot of framework diagrams?

Prepare the diagrams before you open Atticus. Export each from PowerPoint, Keynote, or Canva at the highest available resolution (minimum 300 DPI at the size it will appear in print). Insert them in Atticus as full-width images with captions. Check them in the print previewer at your trim size to confirm they're sharp and contained within the text area. For ebooks, the same image files render in the EPUB; test in the Kindle Paperwhite preset to confirm they display at a reasonable size on small screens.

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Sources

• Atticus official site: pricing, themes, and platform details
• Amazon KDP Manuscript Formatting Guidelines
• IngramSpark file requirements for self-publishing
• Atticus Review: My Favorite Book Formatting Software (Kindlepreneur)
• How to Format a Book in Atticus (Kindlepreneur)
• Atticus Review: Is This Book Writing Software Your Writing and Formatting Solution? (The Write Practice)
• Best Book Formatting Tools for Coaches Publishing on Amazon KDP in 2026 (Built&Written)
• Atticus vs. Vellum for Coaches: Which Actually Wins in 2026? (Built&Written)