This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Vellum is a downloadable program for Mac that gives you the tools to create a professional layout for your book interior. The software is free to download but once you’re happy with your layout you will have to pay to export your files. When you pay the one time fee you will have unlimited exports.

Pricing
  • $249.99—unlimited ebooks & paperbacks
  • $199.99—unlimited ebooks

These are the only two sales packages Vellum offers, so if you’re looking to format a single book you might try elsewhere (Scrivner, Apple Pages, Kindle Create or the Reedsy book editor). While it may seem like a steep fee, it’s still very reasonable when you consider that hiring a traditional formatting designer can cost you hundreds of dollars for a single book. If you’re planning on publishing multiple books, this is a tool you may want to consider investing in.

How It Works

In order to start laying out your book interior you first need to download the vellum software. Once you open the program you can directly upload your Word document. Vellum will analyse your chapter headings and other settings within your document and convert it into an editable file formatted for use in Vellum. Remember to style your chapter titles as headings in Word so they are imported directly into Vellum as seen below.

Once you’re happy with your layout you can preview the layout on a variety of e-readers and also see how the book will look printed.

Features

Once you have imported your book you can start making stylistic choices. This is where the fun begins! Navigate to the “styles” tab and you will have a series of options for your headers, chapter breaks, ornaments etc. You can also import your own imagery if you’d like to use artwork for chapter titles, ornaments or include images in your body copy.

Exporting

After you’ve finalised your book layout and have checked to ensure that everything looks as it should across e-readers, you are ready to export! Vellum will export your interior in various formats which is extremely useful given that different distribution platforms require different formats. Vellum will give you various formats in one sweep. They also offer different book dimensions for print, so don’t fret! They’ve got you covered.

Don’t forget this is a paid service so while you may have the perfect layout in front of your eyes, you do still need to pay Vellum for the export.

Your Turn

Do you have experience using Vellum? If so, please take a minute to leave your own quick review below to help others with their decision.