A writing surface that gets out of the way
A clean editor built for long-form prose. Headings, scenes, block quotes, and chapters: the structure of a book, with none of the clutter of a word processor.
A calm, offline studio to write, format, and publish your book to every store and to print. No subscription, no account. Buy once, own it forever.
Chapter 1
The lighthouse had stood on the headland for ninety years, and in all that time it had never once gone dark. Mara intended to keep it that way.
She climbed the iron stair each evening at dusk, counting the hundered and one steps out of habit, and watched the lamp turns its slow circle across the water.
The sea, tonight, was the colour of pewter.
Yours, not ours
Margin keeps your book where it belongs: with you. We never hold a copy on our servers, and nothing you write is sent away to be read. Want a backup? Margin can save one to your own Google Drive, in your account and under your control. Wherever your book lives, it is yours.
Everything Margin does, it does right here.
A private backup in your own account, switched on only if you want it.
Your copy. Your account. Your control.
The exact tools, nothing more
Page-layout suites bury the few tools a book actually needs under a thousand you never will. Margin keeps the handful that matter, and makes them effortless.
A clean editor built for long-form prose. Headings, scenes, block quotes, and chapters: the structure of a book, with none of the clutter of a word processor.
Title, author, ISBN, trim size, and language live in one place. Click the title bar, fill it in once, and every export inherits it.
Drop in figures and choose how they sit on the page: inline, full width, full page, or floated. The page preview shows exactly where they land.
A real, paginated preview docks beside your text. Watch your words fall into a properly typeset book the moment you type them.
Your writing flows into the editor, the printed page, and the ebook from one place, all set in real book typography. Change something once and it updates everywhere.
Your whole book is a single file you can copy, rename, email, or tuck into a folder. No libraries to manage, nothing locked away.
Sell it anywhere
Margin hands you the two files publishing runs on: a print-ready file for paperback and a clean ebook for every reader. Upload them anywhere you like. No conversion services, no middlemen.
Draft2Digital
Smashwords
IngramSpark She climbed the hundered and one steps and watched the lamp turns its slow circle.
Checked entirely on your device
Built-in proofing
Margin underlines the mistakes that matter: misspellings, capitalization slips, doubled words, and broken grammar, with the same inline corrections you'd expect from the best checkers. The difference is that it all runs on your machine, so not a single word is sent away to be read.
How Margin compares
Atticus, Vellum, and Lacuna are capable tools. Here's where Margin is simply different: offline, on every platform, and yours from $0.
| Margin | Vellum | Atticus | Lacuna | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works fully offline | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| macOS, Windows & Linux | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Print-ready paperback file | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ebook for Kindle, Apple & Kobo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in grammar & spelling | Yes | No | No | No |
| No account needed | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| One-time price, no subscription | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Your book stays yours | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Vellum is Mac-only. Lacuna runs on Mac and Windows. Atticus is cloud-based and asks you to sign in. Margin runs offline on all three platforms, with no account at all.
One price, once
Software you buy and keep, the way it used to be. No subscription, no per-book fees, no login that can expire. Pay once, and Margin is yours.
$0 for the first 100 writers. After that, $10, once.
88 claimed · 12 left
The price is a small thank-you for the craft. It funds the time that keeps Margin sharp.
Questions
Don't see yours? Email us.
No. Margin is a one-time purchase, and the first 100 writers get it for $0. Pay once and it is yours for good, with no monthly fees, no renewals, and no seats to manage.
Yes, completely. Writing, the live page preview, the spelling and grammar checker, and every export all happen on your machine. You can write and publish an entire book with the internet switched off.
Your book belongs to you. Margin never keeps a copy on our servers, and nothing you write is sent away to be read. If you would like a backup, Margin can save one to your own Google Drive, in your account and under your control.
macOS, Windows, and Linux. The same app, the same book, the same results on every one. (Vellum is Mac-only, and Lacuna runs on Mac and Windows.)
Yes. Margin gives you a clean ebook file you upload straight to Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and the rest. For paperback, you get a print-ready file for services like Amazon and IngramSpark.
Yes. Margin sets your book in real book typography, with proper margins, page numbers, running heads, and your chosen trim size. The file is ready to send to a printer or upload to a print-on-demand service.
It catches the same kinds of mistakes, misspellings, capitalization, doubled words, and grammar slips, right as you write. The difference is that it works on your machine, so your words are never sent anywhere to be checked.
Your whole book is a single file on your computer, easy to copy, rename, back up, or move to another machine. Nothing is locked inside an account or a library you cannot get out of.
No. No sign-up, no login, no email needed to write. Download Margin, open it, and start your book.
No. Updates are included, and the app keeps itself up to date. You bought the tool, so you keep getting better versions of it.
Write to us and a real person will answer. We read every message.
Download Margin, open a blank page, and write the first line. When it's done, export it and publish. All of it on your own machine, all of it yours.