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Adding a Teaser

If you are publishing a series, you may want to include an teaser for Book 2 at the end of Book 1. This guide explains how to add an excerpt from one book to the end of the another. By reusing elements, you can be sure that any corrections you make in the original book are reflected in your teaser.

Chapters from a book reused as a teaser

Incorporating Teaser Chapters

To get started, open your Vellum file for Book 1, where you’ll be adding the teaser.

Book 1 in the series, as seen in Vellum's Navigator

Choosing the Teaser Source

To add a teaser to the end of Book 1, use File ▸ Reuse Elements From. Choose your second book as the source of chapters for your teaser:

The Reuse Elements From menu item in the File menu: The Vellum file for a book is selected

✨ This feature was added in Vellum 3.6. Make sure you are up-to-date.

Selecting Chapters for the Teaser

The Reuse Elements prompt will show Front & Back Matter to start. Change this popup to instead show Body Matter, then select the chapters from the book you want to include in the teaser:

Make sure Group in Volume remains checked, as this will help keep the chapters of the sample separate from the main chapters in the book. Once you’ve selected the Chapters, press Reuse Selected to create the teaser.

The Teaser Volume

By default, teaser chapters will be added within a Volume:

Chapters from a book reused as a sample in another

By grouping the teaser within a Volume:

To start, the Volume created by Vellum will use the title of the excerpted book. If you prefer, you can rename the Volume — or just add a Subtitle — to let readers know this is a “Sneak Peek.”

Edition-Specific Teaser

Want to limit the teaser to your ebook, and keep it out of print? You can do so using Include In:

Include In menu can be used to make element ebook or print-specific

When you change Include In for your teaser Volume, all content inside will only be included in the edition you choose.

All of teaser marked as ebook-only

Updating with Changes

Since the Chapters in the teaser are reused, they maintain a connection to the chapters in the original book.

Decide to change a character’s name in Book 2, or just fix a typo? When you make the change there, you’ll be alerted in Book 1:

Vellum Navigator with indication that source has changed

Press the Bell icon indicator to see a summary of what’s changed:

The Reuse Summary, listing chapters that have changed and can be update

Press Update All and the changes you made in Book 2 will be automatically incorporated into your teaser!