Vellum Blew Me Away!
January 19, 2023
Vellum Blew Me Away!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Vellum
Publishing eBooks and Paperbacks can be a tricky business. Amazon has their own format, as do Apple, Barnes and Noble, and other e-Tailers. Paperbacks in non-standard sizes require a manual template. Vellum creates beautiful eBooks and Paperbacks. It’s so quick and easy to use, the formatting tasks I used to dread have become a pleasure.
I’ve published dozens of books using the old and the new method. I was able to publish three books in less than a day with Vellum. Formatting is no longer the beast it used to be. Drag and drop chapters; switch formats at the click of a button. Changing an element from a Chapter to another format is a right click away. If I hadn’t found Vellum, I might have given up publishing altogether.
You can use the same Vellum document to generate files at the touch of a button for:
I’ve published dozens of books using the old and the new method. I was able to publish three books in less than a day with Vellum. Formatting is no longer the beast it used to be. Drag and drop chapters; switch formats at the click of a button. Changing an element from a Chapter to another format is a right click away. If I hadn’t found Vellum, I might have given up publishing altogether.
You can use the same Vellum document to generate files at the touch of a button for:
- EPUB
- Kindle
- Apple
- Nook
- Kobo
- Google Play
- a Paperback in a variety of sizes (if you get the Press version for 50 bucks extra)
- 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
- 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.
- Ease of use
- Beautiful styles
- E-book and Paperback files generated at click of a button
- Return on Investment
- Best tool for Mac
- 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
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.
Do you think Vellum delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Vellum's feature set?
Yes
Did Vellum live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Vellum go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Vellum again?
Yes
Evaluating Vellum and Competitors
Yes - Vellum has replaced:
- The tedious Smashwords MeatGrinder, which requires you save your Word file as a 97 .doc file. That format is now 25 years obsolete.
- The buggy PC-only Amazon-only Kindle Create. I was okay with Kindle Create because it made it easy to move between Kindle and Paperback. It didn’t generate EPUB or other files because, of course, Amazon wouldn’t want you doing that! Vellum is Mac-Only, but it’s far more versatile and less buggy than Kindle Create.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
The usability is superb. The Smashwords template was painful, and couldn’t be imported into Kindle Create, so I had to create two different files to get the most out of my books. Smashwords accounts for 33% of my sales, so it was important enough to make an effort. Now I can just drop off an EPUB there and I see lots of sales. It would be even better if Vellum created a Smashwords file.
I was able to use Vellum to create a book - it just wouldn’t let me generate file unless I bought the license. It was so easy to use, I was sold immediately. I couldn’t believe how simple it was to create NY Times Bestseller-quality eBooks and Paperbacks! Of course I spent the money. It was no problem. I don’t think it gets better in terms of trial usage. I was impressed.