Atticus is about to get a lot more flexible. I asked Dave Chesson, Atticus’s co-founder, what’s behind the short “In the Queue” list on the Atticus site, and he filled in every item. Then he mentioned one more that isn’t on the list at all.
Here’s what’s coming. None of it has shipped yet, and only the first feature has a date.
A block where you can put text anywhere (in about two weeks)
This is the big one. The queue calls it “Secret New Genre Formatting,” and it turns out to be a new formatting block you drop onto a page that lets you lay text out however you want. Dave says it’s “coming out in a couple of weeks” and calls it “huge.”
If you write poetry, you already see why. Atticus, like most formatters, thinks in paragraphs. Poems don’t. Line breaks, indents and words placed on purpose across the page are the whole point, and until now the choice was fighting the tool or flattening the poem into an image. The same block should help with song lyrics, letters and diary entries inside a novel, epigraphs, and anything else that doesn’t sit in a tidy paragraph.
Dave’s phrase for it is a block that will “allow them to do just about anything.” I’ll put that to the test on a Kindle and a phone as soon as it’s out.
Real tables
Atticus can’t do tables today. Most authors work around it with a screenshot pasted in as an image, which a screen reader can’t read and which tends to look awful on a small Kindle.
That’s going away. Tables will come in automatically when you upload your Word file, and you’ll be able to design them inside Atticus too. You won’t have to go back to Word to fix a column, and you won’t have to paste in a picture of a spreadsheet. Nonfiction authors get the most out of this, though sci-fi and fantasy writers with a crew roster or a timeline in the back matter will be pleased too.
A table of contents you design yourself
Right now the TOC is built from your chapter titles. The queue promises “a TOC that they’ve created,” and Dave describes “special capabilities to specialize and customize your Table of Contents.” He didn’t go into specifics, but if you’ve ever wanted to hide a page from the contents or show parts without listing every chapter under them, this is aimed at you.
Folders, versions and boxsets
The queue entry for this one reads “for all you massive writers out there…you know who you are,”, which tells you who it’s for. It’s a file and folder system for your books. You’ll be able to keep different versions of a book and group a series or boxset in one place, so you’re not scrolling through a flat list of every title under every pen name to find the one you need.
One thing before you get excited about boxsets specifically. Kindle Unlimited pays a maximum of 3,000 KENP per title per reader, so a reader who borrows your three-book bundle and finishes it can earn you less than one who borrows the three books separately. Easier boxsets in Atticus don’t change that, so check your page counts first.
Accessibility beyond the basics
Atticus already supports large print. The next step, in Dave’s words, is “going above and beyond the typical,” and they’re working with an outside company to make books work better for readers with sight and hearing problems. He didn’t name the company or list features yet. Native tables help here as well, since assistive technology can read a real table and can’t read a picture of one.
The surprise: a full children’s book creator
This wasn’t on the list. Dave told me they’re building “a full Children’s book creator system” meant to make kids’ books “super awesome and easy,” and he thinks it will be “the BEST way to do this.”
That’s a big claim, and picture-book authors have a real reason to want it. Atticus already handles full-bleed and two-page images, which picture books depend on. A dedicated builder on top of that could make Atticus a real option for a category that mostly gets pushed toward design software. No timeline yet.
Worth waiting for?
If you write poetry or anything with unusual layout and you’re about to pay someone to format it, hold off a couple of weeks. Everything else on this list makes Atticus better at things it already does, and you don’t need to wait for any of it to format your next novel.
Atticus is a one-time $147 purchase, and the price includes ongoing updates, so existing owners should get these without paying again.
If you want to try it, here’s my link: https://marpil--atticus.thrivecart.com/atticus/
I’m an Atticus affiliate, so if you buy through it I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.