Vellum vs. Kindle Create: Paid Polish or Amazon's Free Tool?

This guide compares them on price, platforms, design, output, print formatting and reach, using each company's own pages, and suggests which suits different authors.

At a glance

Vellum

Vellum is a Mac app for formatting finished manuscripts. You import a Word file, and Vellum divides it into chapters and recognises scene breaks. You choose a book style, and every chapter opening, drop cap and ornament updates at once, producing interiors that look like a traditionally published book with very little adjustment. Vellum Ebooks ($199.99) creates unlimited ebooks; Vellum Press ($249.99) adds unlimited paperbacks. You can download it and try it on your book, but you need to buy it to generate files for publishing.

Its files are made for the major stores, so the same book can go to Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, BooksOasis and any printer.

Kindle Create

Kindle Create is Amazon's free app for Windows and Mac. It helps turn a finished manuscript into a Kindle ebook and a KDP paperback: it detects chapters, applies a theme, and handles paperback layout, calculating margins automatically and adding page numbers; Amazon says books prepared this way can be published at any KDP trim size. It supports reflowable books, print replica books for fixed layouts, and comics with Guided View. Its preferred output is Kindle Package Format (KPF), used by KDP for Kindle ebooks and paperbacks, and it can also export EPUB.

Design quality

This is where Vellum stands out. Its styles are carefully designed, with balanced chapter openings, attractive drop caps and ornamental scene breaks, and many authors choose it for that polish alone. Kindle Create's themes are clean and readable, but simpler, with fewer options. For a genre where readers notice interior design, such as literary fiction, romance or fantasy, Vellum's look can be part of your book's appeal.

Publishing beyond Amazon

Kindle Create is built around KDP. Its KPF files are for Amazon; if you want to sell elsewhere, you'll need to export EPUB and check it carefully, and you'll need a print-ready PDF for printers other than KDP. Vellum is store-neutral: its files work everywhere. If you publish wide, or might in future, that difference matters more than price.

Print books

Both can prepare print books. Kindle Create formats KDP paperbacks with automatic margins and page numbers. Vellum Press produces print-ready PDFs for any printer, in standard trim sizes, with the same polished styles as the ebook. With either, build your cover last, from your printer's template, because the spine width depends on the final page count.

Platforms

Vellum runs only on macOS. Kindle Create runs on Windows and Mac. If you use Windows or a Chromebook, Vellum isn't an option without a Mac; Kindle Create is, and so are cross-platform tools like LiberScript (browser) and Atticus (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook).

Cost in context

Kindle Create costs nothing. Vellum Press costs $249.99 once, covering unlimited books. For an author publishing one book on Amazon, free is hard to argue with. For an author publishing several books across many stores, Vellum's cost spread over those books is modest, and its polish and portability can pay back through a more professional product and wider sales.

A formatting session in each

In Kindle Create, you install the app, open your Word manuscript, confirm chapters, choose a theme, add elements such as a title page, preview on simulated Kindle devices and paperback pages, and save a KPF file for KDP.

In Vellum, you import your manuscript, confirm chapters, choose a book style, add front and back matter elements, choose a trim size, preview on simulated devices and pages, and generate ebook and print files for every store you use.

Series and updates

Series authors benefit from tools that make every book look the same. In Vellum, choose the same book style, trim size and elements for each volume, and every book in the series matches with no extra work. In Kindle Create, reapply the same theme and options for each book. When you revise a book later, for a typo or updated back matter, re-export and upload to each store. Vellum's single set of files serves every store at once; with Kindle Create, you'll update the KPF on Amazon and any EPUB or PDF you use elsewhere separately. Keep the final files with each manuscript either way.

When Vellum fits better

• You're on a Mac and publish several books.
• You sell on stores beyond Amazon, or plan to.
• You want a polished interior with minimal effort.

When Kindle Create fits better

• You publish only on Amazon and want a free tool.
• You use Windows.
• You're making a print replica book or a comic for Kindle.

Other options

If neither fits, LiberScript runs in any browser and combines writing, an AI-assisted critique and a design studio, exporting print-ready PDF, EPUB and DOCX on plans from $3.99 a day. Atticus costs $147 once and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook. Reedsy Studio is free, with three templates and four trim sizes. See the best book formatting tools.

Three authors, three choices

A thriller author on Windows selling only on Amazon formats in Kindle Create for free and uploads the KPF to KDP.

A romance author on a Mac releasing a book every two months across several stores chooses Vellum Press for polished, portable files.

A non-fiction author on a Chromebook who sells widely chooses LiberScript, since Vellum doesn't run there and Kindle Create's files are built for Amazon.

Checks before you upload

Open the ebook on a phone and a tablet and click through the table of contents. Check the print PDF at actual size, especially the inside margin on long books; see book print margins. Order a printed proof if you can.

Publishing the files on BooksOasis

BooksOasis takes an EPUB for the ebook and an interior PDF plus a full-wrap cover PDF for each print edition. Vellum's files work directly. From Kindle Create, export EPUB for the ebook; for print, use a print-ready PDF. After you upload the interior, BooksOasis quotes the printing cost, shows the exact cover size and spine width with a template, and runs an automatic print-readiness check before review.

In short

Vellum gives Mac users polished, store-neutral books for a one-time price. Kindle Create gives everyone a free way to prepare Kindle ebooks and KDP paperbacks. Choose Vellum if you're on a Mac and sell widely, Kindle Create if you publish only on Amazon and want to spend nothing, and a cross-platform tool if neither fits your computer.

Curious how readers find books? Browse our reading guides on the BooksOasis store.