Writing a book is hard. I've written 15 books and at some point during each one I had the idea, "There has to be a tool, a piece of book writing software, that would go far easier to accomplish my writing goals."
Bad news/good news: writing a book will always be hard, and the all-time piece of writing software in the world won't write your book for you. But the proficient news is there is book writing software that can brand the process a little easier.
In this mail, nosotros will comprehend the ten all-time pieces of software for writing a book and await at the pros and cons of each.
Click the links beneath to become our review on the best writing software.
Worst Pieces of Software for Writing a Volume
Before we discuss writing software that will help your writing, it's important to empathise (and eliminate) what will injure your writing progress.
At least while you're writing a book:
- Video Games. Especially World of Warcraft (always e'er always!) but also Solitaire, Sudoku, Angry Birds, and, for me right now, Star Wars Milky way of Heroes.
- Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Software. Do I really need to say more? Fortunately there'south a piece of volume writing software for avoiding this very distracting software (see Freedom below).
- Other Productive Software Not Directly Associated With Your Writing. Yes, it's skilful to reconcile your banking concern business relationship on Quickbooks or brand sure y'all're up to date on your agenda app, but responsible, well-meaning work tin can hands be an excuse for a quick distraction that turns into a major distraction from writing your book.
Set aside fourth dimension for your writing every day and then stay focused!
If you demand a game, make writing your daily word count your game.
If you desire more "likes" on social media, imagine how great getting five-star reviews on your book will be.
If you need to cheque your bank balance several times a day, think about what your depository financial institution balance will be when yous stop checking it constantly, stop your book, and become a successful writer.
The 10 Best Pieces of Book Writing Software
No slice of writing software will write your book for you, just these 10 volition help. Let's look at the pros and cons of each.
i. Scrivener (Word Processor)
Scrivener is the premier book writing app made by writers for writers.
Scrivener'south "binder" view allows yous to break upward your book into capacity and sections and easily reorganize it with elevate and driblet interface.
You can too go a high-level view of your volume using the corkboard and outliner modes, assuasive you to view chapters, sections, or individual scenes as alphabetize cards.
Project targets let you lot create give-and-take count goals so runway your progress daily. Its composition way can help you stay focused by removing all the clutter.
Scrivener has formatting features for publishing (eastward.thou. on Amazon or Barnes & Noble), as well every bit features for distraction-free writing, and has templates for novels, nonfiction books, screenplays, and more.
You tin read our full Scrivener review hither.
To be off-white, Scrivener as well has its weaknesses.
Formatting is more complicated than it needs to be and collaborating isn't easy, meaning it loses its effectiveness as soon as you lot bring on an editor (we recommend Google Docs for collaborating).
You can sync with your iPhone/iPad, but only through Dropbox, making it not as piece of cake as it should exist. It also has something of a learning curve, peculiarly for its advanced features. Just it more than makes up for that past being so helpful in the early on stages of the writing process.
Once more, hither are the pros and cons for Scrivener.
Pros of Scrivener:
- Hands manage a big book writing project (or screenplay) in the binder view
- Become a high-level view of your volume'south structure using corkboard and outliner views
- Manage your writing productivity with project targets and deadlines
- iPhone and iPad app
Cons of Scrivener:
- Formatting can be overly complicated
- Learning curve
- Syncing with Dropbox isn't always easy
- No Android app
We believe in Scrivener then much, we published a book about how creative writers tin can write more than faster using it. It'south chosen Scrivener Superpowers.If you lot're using Scrivener or want a tutorial to save yourself time as yous learn how to use it for your creative writing, you can become Scrivener Superpowers here.
You lot can also learn more near how to utilise the software with 1 of these resources:
- Scrivener Superpowers by M.G. Herron
- 3 Reasons I Love Scrivener
- Microsoft Discussion vs. Scrivener
Toll: $49 for Mac and Windows
ii. Google Docs (Word Processing)
While Scrivener is the best bookwriting software, once you get to editing and getting feedback, it begins to fall short.
That's why Google Docs has get my second go-to piece of volume writing software. Information technology's free, very piece of cake to use, and requires no backups since everything is in the deject.
Best of all are its collaboration abilities, which permit yous to invite your editor to the document then watch as they make changes, which are tracked in suggestion fashion, and leave comments on your story (see screenshot below).
Pros of Google Docs:
- Real-time collaboration with editors, beta readers, or other writers
- Proffer manner
- Free!
Cons of Google Docs:
- No large-document organization features
- No productivity features
- Offline style withstanding, usually requires an internet connection
Cost: Complimentary!
3. Google Sheets OR Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet)
If you'd told me when I was starting time trying to become a author that one of my most-used tools in my book writing software toolkit would be a spreadsheet, I would have told you I didn't major in English to accept to apply a spreadsheet.
Only now, every bit I'm finishing my fifteenth book, I realize that I utilize spreadsheets nearly daily.
Spreadsheets allow you to get a sense of the elements of your book at a glance, and when you're working on a 300-folio certificate, distilling information technology down to useable data becomes very necessary.
You might utilize spreadsheets for:
- Graphic symbol tracking
- Scene lists
- Outlines
- A Foolscap/Beat sheet
Google Sheets is perfect for this because it's free and you lot can apace share your documents with your writing partners, editors, or beta readers to go feedback. Microsoft Excel is another corking option, but is a scrap behind in the collaboration functions.
Pros of Google Sheets:
- Real-fourth dimension collaboration with editors, beta readers, or other writers
- Fast
- Gratuitous!
Cons of Google Sheets:
- Managing spreadsheets from other sources (e.g. Excel) can be clunky and time-consuming
- Offline fashion notwithstanding, usually requires an internet connection
Cost for Google Sheets: Gratuitous!
If y'all have Excel already and dear it, great.
Cost for Microsoft Give-and-take: $69 / twelvemonth (includes Discussion, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft software)
4. Vellum (Book Formatting/Word Processing)
If you want to plow your volume into an eBook, it's not that hard. Scrivener, Give-and-take, Pages, they all tin can format eBooks and print books. Just that doesn't mean they'll look good.
In fact, it takes a lot of skill and try to format a printed book that looks skilful on any of those word processors. That's why I love Vellum so much.
Vellum makes beautiful books.
Vellum picks up where Scrivener, Discussion, and Pages get out off, giving you a tool to make great looking eBooks and print books, usually in under an hour.
The most important part of this is the previewer (see the epitome below), which lets y'all come across how each formatting change or book edit you make will appear on Kindle, Fire, iPhone, Nook, and other eReaders.
It also has stripped-down, option-based formatting, which is perfect for designing both eBooks and print books.
I really love this writing app!
Pros of Vellum:
- Piece of cake and intuitive
- Format a manuscript for print and ebook in less than an hour
- Beautiful styling
Cons of Vellum:
- Limited styles
- Relatively expensive
Price: $199 for eBook generation; $249 for paperback formatting
5. ProWritingAid (Grammer/Spell Check)
Tin can a grammer checker replace an editor?
Definitely non. But if you lot ask Alice Sudlow, our in-house editor, she'll tell you, "If you don't have access to an editor (or if y'all do, only you lot don't want to hire them to edit your emails or Facebook posts), grammer checking software like ProWritingAid is an accessible, affordable alternative."
If you struggle with grammar, sentence construction, spelling, or even writing style, ProWritingAid tin help. Information technology goes far across your built-in spellcheck.
You lot should nonetheless learn grammar skills, only ProWritingAid can assist you showtime to see the patterns and grow every bit a writer.
In that location'due south a free version that's very good. It can even exist installed into your browser or Word processor, and so yous tin can check your grammar wherever y'all write. The paid version, just $60 a year (less than half of what Grammarly costs), gives you additional support on sentence structure, style, and vocabulary.
Learn more about how writers can become the well-nigh out of ProWritingAid here.
Pros of ProWritingAid:
- Rapidly copyedit your book
- Better suggestions for artistic writers than other grammar checkers
- Less expensive than some grammar checkers
Cons of ProWritingAid:
- Sometimes gives suggestions that are incorrect or out of context
- Interface is slightly less intuitive
Toll: Free! (Premium version is $60 / year)
6. Publisher Rocket (Book Marketing App)
How do you know if your book will sell? Wouldn't it exist nice to know if there is a marketplace for your book beforeyou start writing? How do you notice the near readers on Amazon for your published book?
For all of these questions, Publisher Rocket has an answer.
Read our full Publisher Rocket review here.
Publisher Rocket a volume marketing research tool that helps you understand what readers actually want and how to connect with them with your books. Hither are some things you can detect in Publisher Rocket:
- What phrases Amazon buyers are actually searching for.
- The psychology of how readers choose to buy books.
- How much coin readers are spending on certain niches and topics.
- How much money specific books are making per month (for example, books that might be competing with yours).
I've personally used Publisher Rocket to take mid-list books to #1 bestseller condition on Amazon. It's an amazing tool, perfect for anyone working on a book.
Pros of Publisher Rocket:
- Find out how much other books in your genre make
- Go metrics on how to become a #one Bestseller
- Excellent learning resources and support
Cons of Publisher Rocket:
- Learning bend
- Limited to book marketing
Cost: $99
seven. Evernote OR Ulysses OR Deport (Note Taking)
When I'm writing for a long time, I like to get upwardly and go for a walk. Sometimes, I wish I could continue writing while I walk. Other times, I find myself brainstorming ideas while I'm non at my reckoner, typing it upwardly on my phone, and then wanting to easily move what I wrote to my laptop without having to go through the hassle of emailing information technology back and forth to myself.
That's where note taking apps like Ulysses and Evernote come up in.
Ulysses, Evernote, and Bear are notation taking apps that let you to sync betwixt all your devices, so you have what yous demand wherever you are, ideal for jotting down ideas or thinking through your volume while you're out and well-nigh.
While Scrivener recently released an iOS app which allows you to sync betwixt devices, their process is clunky and requires you lot to purchase both the mobile and desktop apps. These annotation taking apps brand the process much more seamless.
Like Scrivener, they all have a folder-like sidebar that allows you to move documents around. None of them are designed specifically for books, so they may have a little configuring to make it work for you, but once y'all accept one set the way you lot want, it'due south very intuitive.
And while I hate Markdown, a markup linguistic communication that allows you to format your text, I actually like the paired-downwards formatting options Ulysses and Deport give, especially for brainstorming. Overall, I wouldn't convert from Scrivener to whatever of these apps, but as supplements, they work great.
Pros of Evernote:
- Sync notes betwixt devices
- Write equally you get
- Capture ideas
Cons of Evernote:
- Complimentary plan is limited
- Becomes clunky as yous get more notes
- Better for note taking than managing a large writing projection
Evernote Toll: Gratis with Paid options
Ulysses Cost: $45
Notation: Ulysses is only available for Mac, either in the App Store or from their website.
Deport Cost: $i.49 monthly / $fourteen.99 yearly
Notation:Comport is likewise merely available for Mac, either in the App Store or from their website.
8. Freedom (Productivity App)
One question writers always ask me is, "How can I stay focused enough to terminate what I write?"
I have too many thoughts on that for this article, merely as far as using writing software to encourage focus goes, I recommend Liberty.
Freedom allows you to enter focus mode, blocking your biggest distractions, including both websites and mobile apps, for a set catamenia of time. Then when you lot mindlessly escape your book to scroll through Facebook, you'll notice the site won't load.
You can also schedule recurring sessions, so that at a scheduled time (e.yard. Mondays from 6 am to 10 am), you won't be able to access the sites on your blocklist, even if you try.
There are other apps like this that we've written nigh before, notably Self-Control for Mac and StayFocused for Windows. But Liberty goes further, allowing you lot to block sites on both your computer andyour phone, and enabling recurring sessions.
You tin learn more nigh how writers tin get the most out of Liberty on our review here.
Pros of Freedom:
- Focus on your writing without distraction
- Schedule focus mode in advance
Cons of Liberty:
- Getting it working with mobile devices tin can exist difficult
- You lot tin can figure out means around its blockers if you try hard
Cost: $29 / year for Pro version, which I apply and recommend (there'southward also a free trial available)
9. Microsoft Give-and-take (Word Processor)
Again: no piece of book writing software is going to write your book for you. If you're looking for the next "shiny new toy" to aid you write your book, information technology might exist an excuse to avert doing the hard work of writing.
About of us learned how to use computers by using Microsoft Word, or a program like information technology. Discussion gets the job done. Certain, Scrivener is a petty better for books, only I wrote my outset book on Give-and-take and information technology's fine.
I wrote a long review of the pros and cons of using Word to write books—the main problem is that as your certificate grows, it becomes more and more difficult to piece of work with, whereas with Scrivener, it becomes easier—but the indicate is, if Give-and-take is what yous have, don't let that stop yous from finishing your book.
As Jeff Elkins said in his review of Word, "If yous aren't already putting in the hard work to be the kind of author you lot want to exist, it doesn't matter what new writing software y'all invest in. It is not going to assist."
Pros of Word:
- Ubiquitous: most people are familiar/own with Word
- Universal file types
Cons of Word:
- Not designed to organize and manage large writing projects, like books
- Tin get slow to load every bit volume grows
- No real-time collaboration similar Google Docs
Cost: $69 / year from Amazon (includes Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft software)
Note: Another word processor nosotros tin't recommend is yWriter, which while it has a cult following and was designed by a young man novelist, seems to exist out of evolution and has no back up for Mac/OSX.
10. Hemingway App (Style Checker)
Most writers think their sentences are easier to read than they are. You think you're coming across clearly, that your writing makes sense, simply then someone reads it and comes away with something totally different.
Hemingway App helps with that.
Hemingway App is a free website that checks readability. Y'all can copy and paste your writing into the website's input box. Then it will class your writing based on your used of adverbs, passive vocalization, and sentences as units.
Hemingway App is useful, merely fifty-fifty the best volume writing software can't replace a expert editor.
Pros of Hemingway:
- Fast, piece of cake style advice
- Free!
Cons of Hemingway:
- Somewhat arbitrary communication
- Hemingway himself would fail
Toll: Free!
BONUS: Google Drive OR Dropbox (Cloud Backup)
There'due south nothing worse that finishing a great writing session and going to salve your work, so your calculator crashes and yous find you've lost your best writing.
It's enough to send any writer into the throes of grief and depression.
There's a simple solution, though: salvage a copy of ALL your writing to the deject using Google Drive, Dropbox, or BOTH.
Hither'due south my process: I have all my Scrivener book files saved on a folder on Google Drive on my calculator. Then, Scrivener automatically backs up every few minutes to a Dropbox folder. That way, I know I will e'er have the document I need, no matter what happens.
Best of all, both of these apps take costless plans, making it extremely foolish NOT to utilize them.
Pros of Drive:
- Universal cloud backup
- Automatically syncs
- Free or inexpensive
Cons of Drive:
- Setup is a flake tricky the first fourth dimension
- Maybe you WANT to lose your writing when your computer crashes
Cost: Free with Paid options
All the Book Writing Software
The 30+ Tools Every Writer Needs
Every professional has a set of tools at their disposal that not only makes their job possible, but makes them improve at doing it. Writing is no different, and while the right software is of import, it'due south simply one of the many tools you need equally a writer.
That'due south why we published a list of all of our favorite tools for everything related to existence a writer.
You can download our tools for writers guide for free here. Savor!
The Most Essential Volume Writing Software
Imagine it's iii thou years ago. You're sitting effectually a campfire with some of your family and friends, tired from the day's work. You brainstorm to tell a story. It's one you've told before, told a hundred times. Y'all can see faces effectually the fire, the children with their eyes broad, the men and women who have heard the story before but still enjoy it because it brings pregnant to their lives.
Storytellers—writers—have existed since the beginning of humanity. They didn't always accept book writing software. They didn't have the press press or the internet. They didn't always fifty-fifty accept the alphabet to write their stories downwardly.
Instead, storytellers had their imaginations, their voices, and a rapt audition.
You don't demand book writing software to write a groovy story. Volume writing software can brand the process a little faster or easier, but the truth is great stories will e'er be, no matter what kind of software we have.
The only iii things essential to writing a great book:
- Your imagination
- Your words
- A desire to tell your story
That's all you need. Exercise you want to write your volume? If y'all practise, so practise it. Write it. Nothing is stopping you except you.And then get get writing.
What pieces of volume writing software exercise you employ? Let us know in the comments.
Exercise
The world is full of powerful software to aid you write your book. In the cease, though, all these tools are merely that—tools. The stories you lot imagine and your discipline to put the words on the folio are far more important.
And so for this practise, gear up aside all the fancy software. Eliminate all the bells and whistles and open up up your estimator's native text editor (TextEdit for Mac or Notepad for Windows). Have fifteen minutes to write without whatsoever distractions. Continue your piece of work in progress, or outset a new story based on this prompt:
A student discovers one of their teachers is not what they appear to be.
When you're done, share your writing practice in the comments. And if you share, be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers!
Joe Bunting
Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Exercise community. He is too the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris, a existent life take chances story set in French republic. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).
Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe hither.
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