# More affordable alternative to Vellum?



## botolo (Feb 28, 2017)

The title says it all. Is there any valid and more affordable alternative to the beautiful Vellum?


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## josephdaniel (Jan 30, 2019)

If you're publishing with KU, then Kindle Create is pretty great.


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## Mike Coville (Aug 21, 2014)

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/ Affinity Publisher is in beta, and free to use at the moment, and looks to be a good alternative. Both their other programs are top-notch and only $50. I just downloaded the publisher beta and will be trying it out soon.

Also, Microsoft Word does a nice job of formatting for print and ebook.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

There are plenty of valid methods for formatting a manuscript that are cheaper than Vellum. Draft2Digital will format your manuscript for you for free, or you can use Smashwords' Meatgrinder, which only requires MS Word. But as far as I know, there is no alternative that compares to Vellum when it comes to a) ease of use, and b) time saved. Because when you use Vellum, you import your manuscript, you choose your style and set up the trim size and font settings for the print version, and then you hit a button. And about a minute later, you get separate versions of the ebook file for Amazon, Kobo, B&N, iBooks, Google Play, and a generic one for everywhere else. You also get the print PDF.

So, if you want cheaper, there are plenty of options. But if you want easy and quick, I've never found anything better.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

is the cost of getting a Mac to run Vellum part of this calculation? Because Vellum is probably the most cost-effective program I've ever used.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

For ebooks, Reedsy recently revamped their formatting software, which works a bit like Vellum. And it's free. I don't think they support print, though. 

Once you're selling a few books though, Vellum is probably worth the investment if you're producing a lot. The time saved in paperbacks alone is incredible. 

Alternatively there are some good services that produce ebook and print formated files. For example, Polgarus Studios will do it for a reasonable price, although you pay each time.


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## Bohemienne (Jan 11, 2018)

I really like using Sigil, which is a lot more of an "in the weeds" tool but it's possible to use free templates from online to generate beautiful, Vellum-quality ebooks with it.

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases

One downside is it only generates EPUB output (that I've found). So I use Calibre to convert to MOBI or else just the KDP uploader.


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## jenpen (Mar 24, 2016)

A. N. Other Author said:


> For ebooks, Reedsy recently revamped their formatting software, which works a bit like Vellum. And it's free. I don't think they support print, though.


In the past they supported print.


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## blubarry (Feb 27, 2015)

GeneDoucette said:


> is the cost of getting a Mac to run Vellum part of this calculation? Because Vellum is probably the most cost-effective program I've ever used.


Came here to say the same thing. If you publish semi-regularly, a one time purchase like Vellum rather than a subscription model is an amazing value.


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## Marseille France or Bust (Sep 25, 2012)

FYI: I actually write in Vellum instead of writing in word, then importing. I like the ability to create chapters, headings, formatting as I go. It is an investment, but one that pays for itself in less headaches and ease. They also update it on a regular basis.


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Knowing what I now know about Vellum, having used it for the past couple of years, I would gladly pay $1,250 for it. 

That's essentially the price of a 2017 Macbook Air + Vellum.


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## BGArcher (Jun 14, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> Knowing what I now know about Vellum, having used it for the past couple of years, I would gladly pay $1,250 for it.
> 
> That's essentially the price of a 2017 Macbook Air + Vellum.


Or you can get it down to around $1,000. Just get a refurbished MacBook pro 13 2015 with the same quality of screen, and the much better keyboard


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## botolo (Feb 28, 2017)

Thank you all for the helpful responses. I will consider buying this software!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

In 2016, I pulled my books off D2D and went direct with Apple. With the money I could save annually, I could buy a Mac. I did so, and now I can run Vellum, the superior version of Scrivener, synched with Scrivener for iOS and dictation via the iPhone's free capability. 

I used to format my books with InDesign. It is absolutely true that you have a lot more control, but control is overrated when it comes to the mindnumbing work of formatting.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Another vote for Vellum being the best value for what you get. 

As for additional costs, if you're not ready to buy a Mac yet, you don't have to. I've used MacInCloud to format 26 manuscripts at a cost of $60. Actually, I've still got a few credits left over. It's probably a good idea to get a real Mac eventually, but renting the cloud is cheap in the short term. The smallest Pay-as-you-go plan (30 hours for $30) should get you around a dozen average-length books formatted. Just make sure you log out after every use or you'll get charged for the extra time you stay logged in. There's a handy View Usage button on the dashboard if you want to check how many hours you've used to see whether you're about to go over and be billed more.


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

In all seriousness. Vellum is very affordable for what you get. Highly recommend. Makes my life easy.


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## Elizabeth Avery (Apr 3, 2018)

Reading all these suggestions thinking "And here's me just using MS Word for everything." lol


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Elizabeth Avery said:


> Reading all these suggestions thinking "And here's me just using MS Word for everything." lol


There's nothing wrong with using MS Word, of course. A lot of top-selling authors use it for writing and formatting.

I like Vellum because it makes formatting easy. A few KB members have suggested that formatting with MS Word is just as easy if you know what you're doing. But I dismiss those claims as hyperbole as I can literally format digital and print with three clicks.

Click, click, click... done. Time for bourbon.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> I used to format my books with InDesign. It is absolutely true that you have a lot more control, but control is overrated when it comes to the mindnumbing work of formatting.


Ditto. I used Jutoh for a while, and it created decent Epubs and MOBIs of decent quality. I also used InDesign. But Jutoh and InDesign were so expensive in time. I'm a slow enough writer as is.

That said, if you are hard up, you can use D2D to convert your Word docs to ePubs and Mobis fairly easily for free.


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## Diana Kimpton (Feb 19, 2018)

I use Serif PagePlus which is cheap and very powerful. I thoroughly recommend it and am guessing that the affinity publisher software will be even better when it comes out. 

I don't use it to create epub books though - only print.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> Click, click, click... done. Time for bourbon.


Tea and a good book!


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

C. Gockel said:


> Tea and a good book!


I can definitely get behind that.


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## &quot;Serious&quot; ... but not really (Aug 14, 2017)

botolo said:


> The title says it all. Is there any valid and more affordable alternative to the beautiful Vellum?


I have only used Kindle Create (KC) and Open Office. KC was a mess in the beginning but is much better now.

Open Office - I use to write the manuscript freely - just write. You don't have to pay attention to code to place in it.

Then port this final product to Kindle Create. Kindle Create (KC) allows you to format the book and how it appears. Plus now KC will also can make your paperback.

The e-book will only go Amazon proprietary format though - so you are stuck with Amazon - okay by me - up to you.

Paperback ... mmmm not sure how other outlets that might be available to the order of Amazon print, if you use KC to make paperbacks. Book is a book thing to me - so who cares who published the paperback?

Open Office allows you to port the finished manuscript to Word-Doc format which KC needs to import.

Open Office is free. KC is free. I like free ... and if a hard book from Amazon can be advertised and sold at other places ... cool. If the reader sees the paperback and wants the ebook they can go to Amazon ...


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## AmelieCLanglois (Sep 4, 2018)

Barring Vellum, I've tried a bunch of different formatting programs, and the only one I was really happy with was Calibre, which you can get for the low price of free. That being said, my formatting is really simple, so someone with a lot of graphics might need something more powerful.


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## time was (Sep 1, 2018)

Elizabeth Avery said:


> Reading all these suggestions thinking "And here's me just using MS Word for everything." lol


Know the feeling!


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