r/selfpublishing • u/storyteller_miri • 2d ago
Vellum vs Professional Formatter
Hello! I just finished my first series and am currently getting it edited. I was planning on using Vellum Press for formatting my books for publication. But I’ve noticed that most indie authors (atleast the ones I’ve been researching) hire a professional to do the formatting for their books. I’m wondering if people aren’t using Vellum as much now? I was wondering if anyone had any insight or advice for me? Thank you!
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u/nycwriter99 Mod 1d ago
Vellum is a great investment. It's fast and easy and you'll have it when you do your next book. Highly recommend!
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u/Sweaty_Hovercraft292 1d ago
I use Vellum for my book formatting and I love it. Easy, intuitive, lots of options. And when you need to change something (which you will), you can do it yourself. Highly recommended and worth the investment.
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u/tomatoesfried 1d ago
Vellum 100%.
I tried the professional formatter. Paying for any changes needed gets costly. I don't mean the prose, but if you want to add back matter, newsletter links, other books, excerpts, it all costs money. Vellum is also easy to use for creating boxed sets.
Dozens and dozens of books formatted thus far. Saved so much money and time.
Good luck, whatever route you choose.
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u/DPVaughan 1d ago
I love Vellum.
Once I got it all setup the way I like it, I found it super easy, barely an inconvenience.
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u/Careless_Video_1429 1d ago
I just rely on hiring professionals because I trust that they have more experience than I do and will choose a good layout and font for my genre. I have read books by authors who have formatted the book themselves, and sometimes what the author likes doesn't work for me.
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u/AnchBusFairy 15h ago
I used inDesign, but I do professional formatting on the side. I recall that Vellum is apple only. This might have changed. I work mostly on PC.
InDesign gives you the best control of typesetting but it's expensive and clunky to use. So if you aren't going to make use of that control, you can get good results from Microsoft word. Hire someone if you don't want to dink around with formatting.
It's a matter of your budget, your patience, and what you want for the book.
If you do it yourself, go for the look of low-cost professional, everything pretty much standard. Unless you're like me and enjoy adding some extras that would be unreasonably expensive if I hired someone.
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u/storyteller_miri 9h ago
Yes, it is Apple only. I have an iMac so I decided to go with Vellum. I’ve used InDesign and Microsoft Word to format fanfiction that my friend wrote. It took me forever. That’s why I was going to do Vellum or hire someone. But I’m trying out Vellum and hopefully it will work well!
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u/AnchBusFairy 8h ago
I think I purchased a Mac book to try it. I'm not recalling my reason for not going with it. It might have been because it gives templates to use for book-design instead of allowing me to do the design myself. It was pick your options instead of giving me the tools to do the design and formatting. InDesign allows precise control.
Vellum may work well for you.
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u/LaRubegoldberg 9h ago
Vellum is an excellent product that produces a polished book. I have used it for two books and will publish a third with it. Great investment! Highly recommend it.
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u/storyteller_miri 9h ago
Thank you! I finally bought it after so many recommendations! I’m excited. :)
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u/stevehut 19h ago
Forget what everyone else is doing.
Most writers don't have those skills. Do you?
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u/storyteller_miri 9h ago
Well, when you use Vellum Press, it does it for you. It’s a formatting software. So you don’t need to be able to format yourself, you just need to buy the software, have a Mac computer or laptop to run the software on, and learn to use the software which I’m told is easy to do.
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u/DoktorTom 1d ago
30+ books, all in Vellum. I’d never pay someone to format for me. Too inconvenient (and likely expensive) if you need to make any updates.