Kindle Create, Atticus or Vellum: Picking Your Formatter

The Quick Answer

Pick Kindle Create if you are publishing a simple, text-only book on Amazon only and want to spend nothing. Pick Atticus if you want one tool for ebook and print on any computer, at a modest one-time price. Pick Vellum if you work on a Mac and want the most polished result for the least effort.

The real dividing line is not price but where your book will be sold. Kindle Create's files only work on Amazon, while Atticus and Vellum produce files you can upload anywhere.

The Three Tools Compared

Kindle Create: Free, but Built for Amazon

Kindle Create is Amazon's free desktop app for formatting books before publishing on KDP. You import a Word or RTF file, it detects your chapters, and you apply a theme. It builds a linked table of contents, and for paperbacks it sets the margins automatically from your trim size and page count.

Its strengths are price and simplicity. For a novel or a straightforward nonfiction book, a first-timer can get a clean Kindle ebook without learning much.

The limits show up quickly on anything more complex:

• Amazon-only files. Kindle Create saves a KPF file that you upload to KDP. You cannot send that file to Apple Books, Kobo, IngramSpark or a printer.
• Little design control. You choose from a small set of themes, with limited options for fonts and spacing.
• Weak with complex content. Tables, lists, footnotes and image-heavy layouts are hard to manage inside the app.

Atticus: The Cross-Platform Middle Ground

Atticus costs $147 once and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, as well as in a browser. It combines a writing editor with formatting, so you can draft and format in the same place, or import a finished manuscript.

It ships with 17 templates and a custom theme builder, which gives far more control than Kindle Create. It exports EPUB, PDF and DOCX, so the same project produces files for Amazon, every other store and any print-on-demand service. A 30-day money-back guarantee lets you test it on a real book.

For most authors who want more than Kindle Create but do not use a Mac, Atticus is the natural step up.

Vellum: The Polished Mac Option

Vellum is known for interiors that look professionally typeset with almost no effort. You import your manuscript, choose a style, and drop caps, headings and ornaments all change together. It creates ebooks tailored to Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books and other stores, and Vellum Press adds print layouts with automatic margins, headers and page numbers.

Two things hold it back for some authors. It only runs on a Mac with macOS 13 or newer, and print requires the $249.99 Vellum Press license. You can download it and build, style and preview your book for free, paying only when you export.

If you are torn between the two paid tools, our detailed comparison of Atticus and Vellum covers price, design control and output side by side.

The Question Most Authors Skip: Where Will You Sell?

Before comparing features, decide your distribution plan. It narrows the choice immediately.

• Amazon only, ebook and paperback: all three work, and Kindle Create costs nothing.
• Amazon plus other ebook stores: you need EPUB files, so Atticus or Vellum.
• Bookstores and libraries through IngramSpark: you need a print-ready PDF that meets IngramSpark's specifications, so Atticus or Vellum Press.
• Direct sales from your own website: you need standard EPUB and PDF files, so Atticus or Vellum.

Many authors start Amazon-only and go wide a year later. If that might be you, paying for a tool that exports standard files saves you from formatting the same book twice.

What Each Tool Costs Per Book

Because Atticus and Vellum are one-time purchases with no per-book fees, their real cost falls with every book you publish. Here is the price spread across a five-book series:

Spread over a series, both paid tools cost less per book than a single round of professional formatting for most manuscripts. That is why authors who plan several books usually buy a formatter early.

Your Time Matters Too

Price is only half of the comparison. A tool you find frustrating will cost you evenings, and a tool that limits your design may push you to reformat later. If you write one book a year and dislike software, the cheapest option can turn out to be paying someone else. If you publish often and enjoy control, the learning curve of a paid tool is quickly repaid.

Match the Tool to Your Situation

When None of the Three Is Right

Cookbooks, workbooks, children's picture books and heavily illustrated nonfiction often push past what any of these tools does comfortably. Those books usually need full layout software or a professional formatter, because every page is designed around its images and boxes.

Moving From One Tool to Another

Switching tools is easier when you keep a clean source manuscript. Each formatter adds its own layout data, so the safest route is always to start from your edited Word or Google Docs file rather than from an export.

1. Keep a master manuscript with simple heading styles and no manual spacing.
2. Make text corrections in that master first, then in whichever tool you use.
3. When you switch, import the master into the new tool and rebuild the design.
4. Check front and back matter carefully, since links and page references rarely carry over.
5. Order a new printed proof before you replace an existing paperback file.

Tips That Apply to All Three

• Edit before you format. Every change after layout can shift pages and break your table of contents.
• Choose a trim size that fits your genre. It sets your margins, page count and spine width.
• Preview on several devices. A phone, a tablet and an e-reader all show different problems.
• Order a printed proof. Paper shows margin and page-break issues that screens hide.
• Keep your project files. Updating a back matter link or a price later is easy if you still have the source.

Frequently Asked Questions