Inkbound
Oct 22

This is the new Inkbound.

Write your book, design it and publish it, all in one calm app for Mac.

See pricing How it works

macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon · $1 first week, then $14.99/mo

Inkbound V3Thursday, October 2210:00 AM Eastern

Downloads open at launch. Already have Inkbound? It updates itself.

Inkbound's Cover lab showing the novel The Salt Door as a 3D hardcover book, with its print specs along the top: 6 by 9 inches, 312 pages, cream paper, an estimated 0.937 inch spine and a full cover of 14.757 by 10.02 inches.
Cover lab. The book you wrote, as a real 3D object.Hardcover · 6 × 9 in · cream paper · gloss

One app instead of three.

Many authors draft in one app, format in another and make the cover in a third. In Inkbound you write and publish a book in one app. It is one project, so the page count, the spine and the files all agree.

  • Coming from Vellum?

    Vellum lays out your interior, and its print cover is a separate file you make elsewhere. Inkbound builds the full cover wrap from the same book. See why it is a Vellum alternative for Mac.

  • Coming from Atticus?

    Atticus writes and formats, and the print cover wrap is made outside it. In Inkbound, the cover lives in the same project as the pages. Read Inkbound vs Atticus.

  • Coming from Scrivener?

    Compile your project to a Word file, import it and keep going: Story Bible, interior, cover wrap and export. Read Inkbound vs Scrivener.

Your whole writing team. One chat.

Inkbound's AI writing assistant for novelists is a staff of six. Press ⌘J anywhere in your book and ask. The right person on your staff answers, and every change they suggest arrives as a card. They suggest. You decide.

  • Co-WriterGets you unstuck on a scene, a line of dialogue or what comes next.
  • Developmental EditorStructure, pacing, character arcs and continuity.
  • Line EditorSentences, grammar and word choice.
  • Publishing CoachKDP, pricing, categories and keywords.
  • Blurb WriterBack-cover copy and your Amazon description.
  • Book DesignerFonts, trim, chapter openers and the pages around your story.

Type / to call someone by name. Apply a change with one click, and undo it if you change your mind. The staff runs on pay-as-you-go AI credits, bought in the app. Every new account includes 50 to try it.

The Ask the staff chat over a blurred manuscript. The Book Designer explains its thinking, then offers two change cards, a new heading font with roman chapter numbers and a little more line spacing, each with an Apply button.
Ask the staff. Six specialists, one conversation.

A quiet page. Day or night.

A centered writing column, your chapters beside it and nothing else in the way. Switch to dark and the whole studio follows.

The Write screen in dark mode: a chapter list on the left and the chapter The Tide Book set in a centered serif column.
The same Write screen in light mode.
DarkLight

  • Find and replace

    Search and replace across the whole book, not only the chapter you are in.

  • Passage fonts

    Set a letter, a note or an epigraph in its own typeface, carried all the way into the print PDF.

  • Tools when you want them

    Scene breaks, images and passage fonts sit in one slim toolbar. Chapter options open only when you ask.

  • Saved as you type

    Every word autosaves to your Mac.

  • Bring your draft

    Import a manuscript from Word and pick up where you left off.

  • Yours to keep

    Your manuscripts stay on your own Mac, and you can export them whenever you want.

A Story Bible your staff reads.

Keep your cast and your world in one place. Every member of your AI staff reads it, so a line edit never hands someone the wrong eye color.

Characters view with cards for Briar Cross and Tomas Rhee showing their look, wants and fears, chapters and ties, beside a summary of the cast.

  • Characters

    Looks, voice, wants and fears, backstory and the people they are tied to.

  • Cast map

    See who is tied to whom. Drag from one person to another to connect them.

  • World map

    Pin your places on a map made for this book, then draw the roads, rivers, sea routes and secret ways between them.

  • Found by name

    Inkbound finds the chapters where each character and place appears, so a missing name stands out.

Starting from a finished draft? Let the AI fill the Story Bible from your manuscript, then tick what to keep. It uses AI credits, and you see the estimate first.

A real cover. The whole wrap in one go.

Describe the cover you imagine. Inkbound paints the back, spine and front as one image in the exact shape of your book's full cover, then sets your title, back copy and spine text on top. A KDP book cover maker, sized to your page count.

Cover lab in dark mode: The Salt Door as a 3D hardcover with a gloss finish, turned to show its spine, with Front, Angle, Spine and Back views, a Matte or Gloss switch and the Create panel beside it.
The Create panel: a written cover brief, a choice of Draft or Print quality, and a Generate full cover button that shows its cost of 36 credits before you press it.
The cost shows on the button, before you paint.

  • A real 3D book

    Turn it in your hands at its true thickness, in matte or gloss, before anything goes to print.

  • Every trim and binding

    Paperback, hardcover and eBook on KDP's trim sizes, with custom sizes for paperback.

  • Print-ready PDF

    One file at the full cover size, with the bleed and spine built in, ready to upload.

  • Versions to go back to

    The last 12 covers you generate, change or import are kept, so you can return to one you liked.

  • Your Mood board, read

    The colors and notes you pin join the brief for the cover painter.

  • Or bring your own

    Import finished art, or set a clean typographic cover with no AI at all.

Paperback300 pages×0.0025 in cream=0.750 in spine

The spine comes from your page count and paper, and the wrap is painted to fit it. If the page count moves a little, the spine is refitted. If it moves a lot, Inkbound tells you to repaint. Every number is in our guide to KDP book cover size.

Interior preview in Spread view showing the title page and the dedication page, beside a box to tell the Book Designer the feel you want and a grid of 13 Looks.
Interior. Facing pages, as they will print.

Typeset like a real book.

Pick one of 13 Looks and the whole book follows: fonts, chapter openers and scene breaks. Or tell the Book Designer the feel you want and apply the changes you like. See how book formatting for KDP works.

  • KDP trim sizes

    From 5 × 8 in to 8.5 × 11 in, or a custom paperback size from 4 × 6 in.

  • The pages around the story

    Title, copyright, dedication, contents and about the author, laid out in Book Pages.

  • Single page or spread

    Check every chapter opener and page number before you export.

Know what is left before you publish.

Publish checks the whole book, from manuscript to listing. Every open item links to the screen that fixes it. Then export what each edition needs: EPUB 3 and print-ready PDF for KDP.

Publish launch screen: 2 things left before you publish, 12 of 15 done, with readiness checks for Manuscript, Book Pages, Interior, Cover and Listing, each linking to the screen that fixes it.

See it the way readers will.

Preview your book as it reads on a Kindle Paperwhite, the Kindle phone app, a Kobo Clara and an iPad with Apple Books, with each device's text sizes and themes.

Paperback
Interior PDF and print cover PDF
Hardcover
Interior PDF and hardcover cover PDF
eBook
EPUB 3 with its cover
Word
A .docx of the whole book
Listing
Description, keywords and categories, counted against KDP's limits of 4,000 characters, 7 keywords and 3 categories

Finished-file downloads (print PDFs, EPUB, eBook cover, audiobook) unlock with your first $14.99 month, or right away when you choose Start my month now. Lifetime includes them.

Reader preview showing the book's cover on an iPad in Apple Books, with device choices for Kindle, the Kindle app, Kobo and iPad, and reader settings for theme, text size and font.

Every book on one shelf.

Your books stand on a shelf at their real size. Hover to pull one out. Click to open its page, with the 3D book, its numbers and what is left to publish.

Library in dark mode: five books standing spine out on a 3D shelf between two bookends, with Import Word, New book and Quick Book buttons above.
The book page for The Salt Door: a 3D hardcover you can turn, the book's chapters, words, estimated pages, reading time, trim and binding, and the road to publishing checklist.

  • The book page

    Chapters, words, estimated pages, trim and binding, all read from the book itself.

  • The road to publishing

    The same checklist as Publish, with each open item one click from its fix.

  • Shelf or grid

    Prefer a grid? Switch views and see real cover thumbnails.

A dollar for the first week. Then keep it, or own it.

One plan opens the whole studio. Your books stay yours, and you can export them whenever you want.

Monthly Available in the US

first week$1

then $14.99 a month

Everything in Inkbound. Finished-file downloads (print PDFs, EPUB, eBook cover, audiobook) unlock with your first $14.99 month, or right away when you choose Start my month now.

Renews at $14.99 a month until you cancel.

Opens October 22

Lifetime Available in the US

$129

once

Pay once, with every future version included, for as long as we offer Inkbound. AI credits are sold separately. Already own an Inkbound license? You keep lifetime access.

AI credits

from$9.99

a pack · pay as you go

Bought inside the app, only when you want them. Credits sit outside your plan, so you never pre-pay for AI you do not use. Every new account includes 50 AI credits to try the AI staff.

Refer a friend

Bring a friend, get a month.

When a friend uses your code and pays for their $1 week, you get one free month after a 7-day hold (400 AI credits if you own Lifetime). Up to 12 free months a year.

Your referral code lives in the app once you have a plan. Referral terms

Try it first

Your first week is $1.

The $1 week is the way to try Inkbound before you pay full price. Cancel during it and you are not charged $14.99.

Payments are non-refundable, except where the law requires. You can cancel anytime, and billing mistakes and duplicate charges are always fixed. Questions: hello@inkbound.design.

An account and a plan are required. There is no free tier. Your books are saved on your Mac. You can write and edit without internet for up to 7 days at a time, and AI features need a connection. A Windows version is on the way.

See full pricing

Learn self-publishing. In plain English.

Short guides to Amazon KDP: how to publish, how to format and what it costs.

All guides

Questions, answered.

What is Inkbound?
Inkbound is a Mac app that takes a book from blank page to publish-ready files: writing with an AI staff, a Story Bible, print-ready interior formatting, a cover lab built on KDP's print specs with a real 3D book, and EPUB, print PDF and Word export, all in one app.
Is Inkbound book writing software or book formatting software?
Both, in one Mac app. You write with an AI staff and a Story Bible beside your manuscript, then typeset the interior, design the full cover wrap and export EPUB 3 and print-ready PDFs for Amazon KDP. Your book stays in one project from first draft to upload.
Can I write and format my book in the same app?
Yes. Your manuscript, interior and cover share one project. The page count and paper set the spine width, and the cover wrap is fitted to it. If the page count moves a little, the spine is refitted. If it moves a lot, Inkbound tells you to repaint the cover.
What is new in this version of Inkbound?
The new Inkbound brings one chat for your whole AI staff, a Story Bible with characters, a cast map and a world map, a rebuilt Cover lab with a real 3D book and full-wrap painting, a Publish screen with a readiness check and device previews, and a 3D bookshelf Library, all in a calmer new design.
How much does Inkbound cost?
Monthly is $1 for your first 7 days, then $14.99/month until you cancel. It renews automatically, and you can cancel anytime. Lifetime is $129, paid once, with every future version included, for as long as we offer Inkbound. AI credits are separate from your plan: pay as you go, bought in the app, from $9.99 a pack. Every new account includes 50 AI credits to try the AI staff. There is no free tier. If you already own an Inkbound license, you keep lifetime access. Each friend who pays for their own $1 week earns you one free month, or 400 AI credits if you own Lifetime. The $1 first week is the way to try Inkbound before paying full price. Payments are non-refundable, except where the law requires, and you can cancel anytime.
Do I need an account?
Yes. Inkbound needs an account and a plan. Your manuscripts stay on your own Mac, and you can export them any time.
Is Inkbound available for Mac and Windows?
Inkbound's Mac app (Apple Silicon, macOS 12 or later) launches Thursday, October 22, and a Windows version is on the way.
Does Inkbound run on Intel Macs or Windows?
No. Inkbound is a Mac app for Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 12 or later. It does not run on Intel Macs, iPad or in a browser. A Windows version is on the way, and it is not available yet.
Does Inkbound work offline?
Your books are saved on your Mac. You can write and edit without internet for up to 7 days at a time, and AI features need a connection.
Is Inkbound built for Amazon KDP self-publishing?
Yes. Inkbound is built around Kindle Direct Publishing's requirements, from trim sizes and cover spine math to EPUB 3, print-ready PDF and the limits on your KDP listing.
Do I need Kindle Create to publish on KDP?
No. Kindle Create is one way to make a file for KDP, not a requirement. KDP accepts EPUB files for eBooks and PDF files for print interiors and covers. Inkbound exports the EPUB 3, eBook cover, interior PDF and print cover PDF for you to upload to KDP. Finished-file downloads unlock with your first $14.99 month, or right away when you choose Start my month now. Lifetime includes them.
Is Inkbound a Vellum alternative for Mac?
Yes. Vellum lays out your interior, and its print cover is a separate file you make elsewhere. Inkbound keeps the writing, a Story Bible, the interior and the full KDP cover wrap in one Mac app. Read the full comparison: Inkbound vs Vellum.

Start your book on October 22. Finish it in the same app.

Opens October 22

macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon · $1 first week, then $14.99/mo