Marq vs. Vellum

For self-publishers, Marq is the best option, in my opinion. I have recommended it to others and they have been also amazed at how beautiful their end product looks and how easy it is to export and get the printers. A win win for everyone involved in the process of creating magazines and marketing materials.

Incentivized

Vellum is perfect for novels, novellas, short fiction anthologies, and any lightly illustrated fiction. It’s excellent for most non-fiction. It’s great for e-Books and Paperbacks. I haven’t tried using the file for hardcover but it is likely good for that as well. Vellum wouldn’t be the right tool for coffee-table art books, picture books or children’s illustrated books.

Incentivized

• User management
• Easy to create and edit templates
• Able to install an approval layer to govern use

Incentivized

• Professional, Tasteful Formatting
• Table of Contents management
• File Management
• Ease of switching elements (i.e. Chapter, Acknowledgement, About the Author etc.)
• Beautiful Style Sheets
• Generating uploadable files quickly and painlessly
• Previewing for a variety of formats and devices

Incentivized

• Automated page numbering would be amazing
• Scroll button should be darker to find it easier
• More template options

Incentivized

• Could improve ability to change the look of a design element like Ornamental Break.
• Doesn’t currently output in Smashwords .doc format (but does EPUB).
• Spell Check is rudimentary but accurate - still, it’s much better to use Word or Grammarly.
• If style uses initial drop cap, it doesn’t handle one-letter words well (I, A, O) - repeats letter in sentence. This may be standard practice, not sure.
• There are a couple dozen styles. I would gladly pay for a “Style Pack” to add on additional styles.

Incentivized

I think if we had found Canva first we would have probably chosen it as our platform. We had already invested a lot of time and energy into developing multiple templates and branding standards in LucidPress

Incentivized

Up until purchasing Vellum, I’ve used Smashwords Meat Grinder template and Kindle’s PC-Only software. I had to buy a PC just to publish to Kindle - very expensive investment with modest return. Vellum is only for Mac. In fact, it would have been cool if it worked with a PC. But Mac is my ecosystem for writing, and the PC is a pain. I ultimately chose Vellum because it works with my MacBook.

Incentivized

• I am able to save over $10K per issue by doing the design and layout myself.
• I am able to save at least 2-3 weeks per issue by doing the design and layout myself.
• I don't need to employ a team to compile each issue, I do it all myself.

Incentivized

• Less time publishing means more time writing
• Beautiful books sell better than Times New Roman dreck
• I’ve stayed away from Google Books but will move into that market now

Incentivized