Can I Sell a Book Made With Vellu? Yes — Here's How to Sell It Yourself

Yes. A book made with Vellu is yours: under the terms of service you keep all rights to your recordings, the text and the finished book, and nothing stops you from selling it. The simplest way to sell is to order a batch of printed copies from Vellu — up to 25 copies per order, with 20% off from five copies up — and sell them yourself at events, to the members of your club, at a family reunion or through a local shop. For a larger run, get in touch for a quote once the book is finished.

The question usually reaches us when the book is nearly done. A club's history committee notices that members want their own copy and would happily pay for it. The author of a local-history book hears from the village shop that people have been asking. A memoirist realises the story interests more than just the family. That's when the thought arrives: "Am I even allowed to sell this?" You are. This article covers what selling involves in practice and which route is easiest. If the book isn't written yet, start with our main guide on writing a book about your life.

Who owns a book made with Vellu?

You do. Under Vellu's terms of service you keep all rights to the content you create or generate in the service: the audio recordings, the text made from your speech, the chapters the AI assembles and the finished book. Vellu only receives a limited licence to process your content in order to provide the service, and nothing more. Your content is not used to train AI models either. You need no permission from Vellu to sell, and Vellu takes no share of the sale.

In practice this means you can do everything an author normally does with a book: print it, give it away, sell it, lend it to a library, put your own name and your own price on it. The current wording is always in the app's terms of service.

Can you sell a book made with the help of AI?

Yes. No law forbids selling a book that was made with AI assistance, and a book made with Vellu is your story: you spoke it, the AI turned the speech into text and organised it into chapters, and you edited the result. Two things are worth knowing before you start selling, though.

The first is copyright. Being allowed to sell a book is not the same as being able to stop others from copying it. Copyright protection grows with your own creative contribution — your own wording, structure and editing. Text produced purely by AI, which you have barely touched, may not qualify for protection at all. In practice this is settled by the same work that makes a book good anyway: read the text through and make it your own. There's a dedicated guide on the subject: copyright of an AI-written book.

The second is transparency. The back of the title page of every book made with Vellu carries a short note saying the book was created with AI assistance. It cannot be removed, and that's deliberate: the note is honest towards the reader and safe for you. If you ever offer the book through an outside sales channel, many of them ask about AI use. You answer truthfully, and the note in the book backs you up. Responsibility for checking the content — names, dates, events — always rests with the author before publication, so read the AI-assembled text carefully before a single copy goes on sale.

How do I sell my own book myself?

By ordering a batch of printed copies from Vellu and selling them yourself. This is currently the most straightforward route, and it fits exactly the situations where the question tends to come up: a club's anniversary history for its members, a local-history book for a village event, a family book for a reunion, or a memoir for readers beyond your immediate circle.

Here's how it goes:

Order one copy first and check it. A book bundle (The Keepsake or The Legacy Edition) includes one printed copy, which doubles as a proof. Read the printed book through before ordering a batch: a mistake is cheaper to fix in one copy than in 25.
Collect pre-orders. Ask members, relatives or neighbours how many want a copy before you order. Then you know the number, and no books are left in a box.
Order the batch from the app. A single order can be up to 25 copies, and from five copies up the price is 20% lower. Standard delivery across the EU/EEA is free. You see the final itemised price before paying.
Set a price and sell. The book is yours, so the selling price is your decision. Sell at celebrations, meetings and events, through your own website or a community group, or agree with a local shop or bookshop to carry the book on consignment.

What does a batch cost? The base price for a black-and-white book of up to 150 pages is €49.95 as a softcover and €69.95 as a hardcover (VAT included). In a batch of five or more, the per-copy price after the discount is about €40 (softcover) or €56 (hardcover). A full batch of 25 softcovers therefore costs €999 and 25 hardcovers €1,399. Longer books add €1 per 10 pages. Set your selling price so that it covers the per-copy price plus your own work and event costs. Printed books are paid in euros and are separate from Vellu's credits, which are spent on making the book in the app; we've broken down the whole project's cost in how much does it cost to make your own book.

What if I need more than 25 copies?

Get in touch once the book is finished. An order in the app takes at most 25 copies at a time, but larger runs — say 50 or 100 copies of a club history — are priced by quote. Email moi@vellu.ai with the book's page count, the binding (softcover or hardcover), the quantity you need and the delivery address, and you'll get a price. If your schedule allows, you can also place several 25-copy orders from the app one after another.

Do I need an ISBN, or have to send legal deposit copies?

You don't need an ISBN to sell the book yourself. An ISBN is the number required when a book is sold through bookshop ordering systems or catalogued by libraries. Books ordered from Vellu don't carry an ISBN, and you don't need one to sell directly to readers at events, to members or through a local outlet. If you ever want the book in bookshops, your national ISBN agency issues the numbers; in many countries, Finland included, they are free.

Legal deposit is a separate matter. Once a book is sold to the public it counts as published, and many countries then require copies to be sent to the national library for preservation. A book handed out to family or club members usually doesn't count as publishing in this sense. If you sell more widely, check your national library's guidance. And a purely practical point: income from sales is income to declare to the tax authority. When in doubt, ask them or your club's bookkeeper.

Can the book be sold in bookshops or as an e-book?

It can, but that currently sits outside Vellu. Bookshop distribution usually runs through a self-publishing service that obtains the ISBN, handles the layout and feeds the book into the shops' ordering systems. Vellu gives you the manuscript for that purpose as a Word or EPUB file. E-book sales have their own self-publishing channels, which take the book as an EPUB file.

These routes are a different-sized project from selling your own batch, which is why we recommend starting with the batch: most memoirs, family books and club histories sell out to their own audience, with no bookshop involved. If Vellu's own sales channels expand, we'll update this article.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Vellu's permission to sell my book?

No. Under the terms of service you keep all rights to the content you make in Vellu — the recordings, the text and the finished book. Vellu only has a limited licence to process your content in order to provide the service. You can print, give away and sell your book without any separate permission.

No. You only pay for what you use: credits for making the book, and the printed copies you order. You set the selling price yourself, and the sales income is entirely yours or your club's.

Can a club sell its anniversary history to members?

Yes. This is one of the most common ways books made with Vellu are sold: the club orders a batch of printed histories and sells them to members at a celebration or meeting. A batch of up to 25 copies is ordered straight from the app with 20% off; a larger run is quoted by email.

Can I remove the note about AI from the book?

No. The back of the title page of every book made with Vellu carries a short, permanent note saying the book was created with AI assistance. It's deliberate: the note is honest towards the reader and backs you up if a sales channel asks about AI use.

What does a batch of 25 printed books cost?

For a black-and-white book of up to 150 pages, €999 as softcovers and €1,399 as hardcovers, with the 20% quantity discount included. Prices include VAT and free standard delivery across the EU/EEA. Longer books add €1 per 10 pages, and you always see the final total in the app before paying.

Do I need an ISBN to sell my book?

Not if you sell it yourself, directly to readers. An ISBN is only needed when a book is sold through bookshop ordering systems or catalogued by libraries. Your national ISBN agency issues them, often free of charge, but books ordered from Vellu don't carry one and don't need one.