Every route from manuscript to uploadable files costs money and time.
| Route | Money | Your time | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| A freelance formatter | $50–$400 | a week of waiting | This book, this version only |
| Vellum (macOS only) | $199.99 / $249.99 | about an hour | Unlimited books. The higher price adds print. |
| Atticus | $147 | an evening | Unlimited books, one purchase |
| Torcul | $29 | minutes | One book, one payment; every book the same |
The costs nobody lists
Proof copies
A printed proof costs a few dollars plus shipping, and often more than one is needed. Every option above needs proofs; budget for two or three.
The re-upload
A rejected file costs no money but delays the launch, and a changed interior can make the cover wrong too. Spine width follows the page count, so an interior that gains two pages makes the artwork the wrong size. The free PDF checker helps avoid this, whatever tool you format with.
The second book
A freelancer charges for every book and every round of corrections. A one-time licence is dear for one book and cheaper with each one after. Here every book is $29, so five come to $145, still under the cheapest licence in the table. A typo costs nothing to fix in a tool you use yourself, and a round trip with someone you hired.
What we charge and why
$29 for one book, paid once. There is no subscription.
Every book costs the same, with no tiers or discounts. The comparison that matters is the person you would otherwise hire, who does the same two files for $50 to $400.
That gap is not a claim about quality. A formatter lays the book out by hand and charges again for corrections. Torcul lays it out in minutes, shows every measurement taken from the finished file, and sets the same book again at no cost whenever you change it.
The free tools — the PDF checker, margins and spine — stay free, need no account and run in your browser. They work with any tool on this page.