Click the image above to watch the training video on Scrivener. When it comes to choosing the best book writing software, authors have several choices. You may be asking yourself: Do I stick with Microsoft Word?

Is Scrivener the best investment with its robust features and user-friendly tools? How about Google Docs for so I can easily share and co-edit my book with an editor? We could try and tell you which one to pick, but everyone has different tastes and needs. Let’s take a look and compare the three writing “giants” to make the choice of book writing software clearer. Which is the Best Book Writing Software for YOU? The purpose of this post isn’t to sell you on any particular book writing software. We’ll share with you the Good, the Bad and the Average so you can weigh the options for yourself.

Novel writing free download. Get Healthy With the 9 Best Fitness Tracker Apps The 5 Best Weather Apps with. Book writing software, novel writing software. When it comes to choosing the best book writing software. Book Writing Software: Which Is Best? The free-standing pc version was free and can.

Who knows—you may even want to switch to a different writing software that works better than anything you’ve tried before. If you like what you see from Scrivener, you can buy it here: Google Docs for Writing Books We’ve looked at the appealing simplicity of Word and the power of Scrivener, but another writing software loved by many is Google Docs. These are all great writing tools; what it comes down to in most cases is the process you use for writing. And are best used for team-sharing your content, files, and docs. It doesn’t require any installation and can be accessed anywhere via your browser (or an app on your phone).

One of the best features is: everything is saved on the server frequently, so you never have to fret about losing a version or draft of your work. (Anyone who has ever lost a draft of a book understands how valuable this feature is!) Plus you can access your work when you move from one location or another—no carrying a laptop or thumb drive around with you. When you share a book draft with others, like test readers or your, they can comment directly on the draft using the built-in comment functionality. Remember to backup your work when using a server-based platform, though.

A simple click of a button could delete your work if you aren’t careful and when things are hosted online, they aren’t automatically saved to your hard drive. Alternative Writing Software + Pricing If you are not sold on Word, Scrivener or Google Docs, there are other software programs and apps that authors and bloggers are using to get their work done. One of these is, which functions much better as a productivity tool than a word processor, with only limited functionality when it comes to writing a book. Some of its functions are: uploading pics, docs and voice recorder. I have written many blogs and sections of books using the Evernote platform. Is a great alternative to Word if you use a Mac computer.

It has a variety of beautiful templates to choose from, has a simple design and syncs with all devices from within. I personally love the ease of Pages and it works great for creating ebooks or manuscripts with a variety of tools you can get creative with. Is a nice little platform with lots of tools.

You can also use it for distributing your ebook. It is free to start writing with, but they offer paid services. Is another software for writers that is intended to eliminate distractions to help you get your book written quicker. It is a li ghtweight basic text writer that was designed to to be completely free of the distractions. In its fullscreen mode, there are no toolbars or additional windows, just a background and your text so that you can concentrate solely on writing your draft.

Pricing: How Much Does Book Writing Software Cost? • costs about $45.00 • costs $79.99 US.

• is totally free but you have the option to pay for more storage in. • is free but there is a cool upgrade for $5 a month that gets you. • costs about $28.00 for Mac. • FocusWriter is.

Take some time to check out each of these tools if you aren’t already using them. Stay focused on crafting your next book and stick with the book writing software that gives you the best results in terms of saving you money, time and frustration. Keep writing. Keep it simple. Best of all, enjoy the creative process! Now that you have these awesome tools at your disposal, what is your favorite writing tool? What best suits your needs as an author?

Can you speed up the writing process with any particular tool? Like what you read and want to learn more? We’re holding a FREE online workshop where Chandler is revealing the exact tactics and strategies he used to write and publish 6 bestselling books in a row and how he used them to build a 7-figure business in less than 2 years. Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in June of 2016 and has been updated for accuracy. Most of my stuff comes off of OpenOffice. If you buy your ‘puters, new, they might have MS Word on them, but if you don’t, you might not want to fork over the cash for a copy. Then you go OpenOffice.

Before PDF got to be the go-to format for publications, I used Adobe PageMaker, which used to be the standard for professional publishing. I still use it for self-printed works. Unfortunately, PageMaker was created by Aldus, and instead of modifying PageMaker to better handle PDF’s (the PDF exporter in the final ver. 7.2 is not only prone to crashing the whole program, but irretrievably corrupting the file to be converted), they abandoned it and replaced it with their home-grown InDesign–which, to my reckoning, has two fatal flaws: it’s only available by subscription, and it’s Could based (speaking as someone whose writing time is 90% OFF-LINE) There’s also Scribus, with I have on my computer but haven’t really played around with much. So you say that checking out an app that someone suggests, finding out it’s inapplicable to your system, and informing other people of that limitation is “hostile and negative in tone”? Warning people that there’s a HUGE FLAW in depending on Could-based applications is “negative and hostile in tone”? Telling people that there’s a COMPLETELY FREE alternative to a product that the people who don’t have the money to buy new computers (which would likely have MS Word pre-installed) all the time (and therefore, probably don’t have the money to buy a non-OEM copy) is “negative and hostile in tone”?

I’ll tell you what’s “negative and hostile in tone”! It’s reading a comment that’s pointing out that a product is Apple only, ignoring the follow-up comment EXPLAINING that the comment was referring to the premium prices Apple puts on its hardware, and somehow STILL taking my words OUT OF CONTEXT–concluding that the comment was meant to say that it was an Apple product and ACCUSING ME OF SAYING that I don’t believe people should be paid for their work. I NEVER SAID OR EVEN SLIGHTLY IMPLIED THAT, AND YOU ARE NEGATIVE AND HOSTILE IN CLAIMING THAT I DID. (For the record, OF COURSE I believe in paying people for their work. What I don’t believe in is paying a premium for a brand when I don’t see any quality/reliability advantage over comparable products, especially a brand that emphasizes “the look” over functionality.) And being that this is a writing blog, you should understand the English language better than that. (Yes, THIS is a hostile comment. It comes out of me when people somehow get the idea I said/typed “turn left” when my exact words were “go straight.” How can someone POSSIBLY twist a meaning that much, and how can you POSSIBLY make your words twist-proof?) •.

Wow, you’ve really got some serious issues! Maybe an anger management course needs to be in your xmas stocking. Along with a reading comprehension course. Take a chill pill, dude. You’re claiming i accused you of stuff that i didn’t so you’re now just getting ridiculous. People are going to have different ideas and opinions from you. No need to go ballistic.

Anyway, i’m not going to argue with you. I’ve read your unpleasant disqus comment history, and you’re just not worth my time so i’m just going to put you on ignore. Plus also, it’s not fair to other people here to have to read me responding to your nonsense. Hope 2017 goes well for you. Thanks for the terrific link to your instructions for the Book writing template using Word. I started my first two books – way back in the Dark Ages of Indie-Publishing in 2009 – using Derek J Canyon’s HTML template; Word was a No-No back then; thank heavens it’s changed now.

For my next couple I started with the assault course that is Scrivener. I love it, but I teach young writers, and for many of them it’s a technical and financial bridge too far. Just as I was about to publish my latest (which has a section on how to publish) I discovered the Reedsy Book Editor. Free, easy, fast – and it produces well-formatted files for both ePub/Kindle and Pdf for print. Free Translation Software Download For Pc. But abandon all hope those that haven’t got easy online access, as it only works there.

It’s also not (yet) for complex books – they’re working on it. And, no, I don’t have shares •. I just have to say that while so many people use Word (shudder) there IS an alternative not mentioned. Rarely is, except by those who love it.

Word Perfect has so many more robust features (Reveal Codes!!) than Word could ever dream of, I simply don’t understand why it is never mentioned. Word Perfect was the first word processing program where you could simply sit down and type. Word finally caught on. Yes, I come from a legal background, but there IS an alternative to anything mentioned here. Just had to say this. Remember, Reveal Codes. And easier formatting.

Firstly, most of what Scrivener is so lauded for, like drag-drop sections/scenes/chapters, etc., originated in Word. Most people don’t know how to do it because they don’t bother to learn to use the tools of their trade. Secondly, you’ve completely ignored YWriter, one of the BEST writing tools out there, and either FREE or the creator requests a whopping $25 donation, which I’ve gladly given. The creator (and author himself), Simon Haynes, is a terrific guy, and although his software isn’t “pretty” like the typical Mac product, it’s amazingly powerful. You want drag-drop scene and chapter manipulation? Piece of cake.

YWriter tracks characters, locations, times, props–you name it. (By props I mean things like murder weapons, cars, anything you can think of.) One of its absolutely fabulous features is that if you provide times and characters for your scenes, it will construct timelines for you, which almost none of the others do. I can highly recommend it for the creation of your book. There are also programs like Power Structure (excellent), Truby’s Blockbuster (eh.I have it, but it’s clunky as HELL, and refuses to run on my Win8.1 laptop), and others.

I love PowerStructure. If you are an outlining fool, Power Structure is for you. I like to use it to outline, and then use YWriter to write. WONDERFUL, both of them. I’ve got a Mac. I’ve got Word and despite what it says above, it doesn’t crash on me.

I’ve also got Pages and Scrivener. I’ve also got a pen and a pad of paper. I like Pages, but it is a bit short on formatting ability. I like Scrivener for certain things, especially non-fiction, but all the things it can do can become cumbersome if you let it. So I’m torn between Word and Scrivener. That said, I think Scrivener has the edge for original writing. I then export to word for final layout of the whole.

So, for a start, as well as Scrivener, you can try Plume and YWriter. They both have a collection of tools for writers. Second, there is more than Word. The obvious is LibreOffice, for many the successor to Open Office.

In some ways, it’s better. It’s been recoded recently.

It has a ton of plug-ins. If you don’t want to use that, there are dozens of alternative word processors you can use. Some of them, like Jarte and Write Monkey, concentrate on distraction-free writing. Or you can go for a fully-functional word processor like Softmaker’s Textmaker, or WP Office.

None of them cost as much as Word, and all can create doc or docx documents for you. I haven’t found anything yet in Scrivener that I can’t do for myself in Word, using simple folder organization. It is the opposite to intuitive. If you have the patience to learn it, or if you don’t need to collaborate, or if you need to be organized, then pick it up. It’s worth it. And apart from the poor handling of Track Changes, the word processor in it is perfectly adequate.

Pity Scrivener doesn’t have a cloud-friendly solution. I love Scrivener’s features, but I need access to my docs from my PC, my Mac, and my Android phone. I need the docs to be sync’ed reliably. If Scrivener’s makers, Literature & Latte, are listening: embrace the cloud! I’d happily pay more for Scrivener rather than use any other tool. But as it’s currently engineered, Scrivener would be fighting against me.

FYI to people about to say that they use Google Drive, Dropbox, or some other cloud service for their Scrivener files: Literature & Latte specifically warns against doing this as it can lead to complete and unrecoverable loss of your work. If it’s cloud-friendly you want, I recommend you check out the Ulysses App. I find it to be the most intuitive, simple, and user-friendly writing App available. You will never lose anything you write, because they store everything on the cloud. One of its (several) exporting options is Docx. The only draw-back is that it only works on apple products.

But, on the bright side, it works cross-platform, so whatever you write on your Ipad will automatically appear on your Mac or Iphone, so you don’t need to “search” the cloud for it. If i have a thought I want to record while I’m out-and-about, I can insert it into a paragraph on my IPhone, but for long writing spells, i prefer typing on a keyboard. The neatest feature (which i love to use) is customizing your writing environment (page). My personal favorite is white text on a black page.

It helps preserve my night-vision by drastically reducing blue-light. It also keeps me more harmonized with my melatonin/ serotonin balance. Check it out.

I use yWriter5 (upgrading to yWriter6) It is free. Mainly for Windows, but I use it quite well in Linux. It does a lot of what Scrivener does, I use it with my work files on Dropbox, so I can continue from many devices. YWriter6 is being developed for Android, Fire, IOS, and other platforms.

Still in Beta for those. Scrivener released a slightly older edition for Linux. No longer supported, but seems to work pretty well and is also free.

I’ve worked with it a little. I like Celtx for writing plays. The free-standing pc version was free and can still be found I think, although they have been moving everything over to their cloud service for a fee. I also use Celtx with Dropbox.

I love Evernote for quick notes. Again, free and cross-platform. It is awesome to be able to access the work from laptop, tablet or smart phone!

I have used Word, and before that really loved Wordperfect. It was a case of having to pay to upgrade WP or use the Word that was free on the pc I had at the time. I’m also a cheapskate! My first computer was the Radio Shack Color Computer (Pre Tandy I think.) Back when you had to store programs and work on audio casettes. It was incredible when I upgraded to floppy disk! The word processing program to use there was called Telewriter-64.

You had to type in the special codes to get a lot of formatting and characters. Even with all that it was still pretty productive.

I wrote several plays on that system back in the early ’80’s.