The Best Book Writing Software To Write Your Book

Have you decided to start writing your book? Do you need book writing software?

Creative writing and the publishing process have changed forever. It doesn’t matter if you plan to take the route with a traditional publisher or if you want to self-publish your book.

Digital publishing, sometimes called e-publishing, is where everything starts and stops now for publishing books.

If you are ready to write your book, make sure you have the best writing software and tools to do the job.

Writing a book today

A pen and paper are great tools for note-taking, and a typewriter is romantic and nostalgic.

But today, you use electronic files from the beginning to the end of the writing and publishing process.

If you check your app store for free book writing software, you will find hundreds for Mac, PC, Android, and iPhone. iPad apps for writing are very popular now.

The only part of the process that has remained the same is that you need to have the time to write.

Indie authors are having success and competing with traditional publishing companies. Some are achieving bestselling author status.

You only need to take a quick look at the bestselling books on Amazon. Many self-published authors are in the top 10 for some genres. In particular, for ebooks and Kindle Unlimited readers.

If you are ready to start your book project, there are a lot of ways you can publish.

But before you start, make sure you have all the tools you will need to do the job.

Choosing the right writing software is the best way to write a book. They will help you stay organized and focused and help you to write a better book.

Quality writing counts

A lot of people have a great book idea.

Writing and publishing a book with today’s technology is easy. All you need is a great idea and the writing time to finish your book.

The reality of writing fiction books or nonfiction books is that only good writing and outstanding books stand a chance of selling.

If you are new to writing and electronic self-publishing, it is a good idea to practice your writing before you start your book project.

Successful authors today do not need to be professional writers. But writing good books requires competent grammar and writing skills.

There are a lot of resources and tools available now for a new book writer to help you learn and improve your writing skills.

It might seem odd today to recommend that you read a book. But On Writing by Stephen King is still a great place to start for all new writers.

Writing your book

It starts with a few chapter titles. Then, once you’ve written between forty and eighty thousand words, you can say, “I wrote a book!”

Then, the process of carefully preparing your manuscript for publishing begins. For most writers, this means finding an editor and a competent proofreader. It might also require the services of a book formatter.

All that is for later, though, because first, you have to write your book.

No one writes a book on the kitchen table with a pen and paper anymore. And the days of sitting down at a typewriter are long gone.

The tools that an author needs today are electronic and digital. Most are very easy to use. But as with anything new, you might have a short learning curve at first.

The two essentials for a book writer are a word processor or a writing program designed specifically for writing a book or novel.

You also need a first-class spelling, grammar, and writing checker.

The best book writing software and programs

Word processors like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or Google Docs are excellent for writing letters, articles, and essays. But writing a book is a long and complicated process.

When you write a book, you need to work on individual parts of your story.

You will need to have notes or perhaps mind maps about your characters, events, and story timeline. This is much more than simple word processing can do.

At times, you might need to reorder scenes or even chapters or make changes to your plot.

Scrolling back and forward through one long text editor or word processor document is a painful process.

With a good tool, you can easily drag and drop your chapters or scenes into a different order.

The best and most productive way to write a book and stay focused is to use software designed specifically for authors.

Here are some of the best book writing software and program suggestions for you.

All of them will help you in the writing process and, later, in publishing a quality book.

Scrivener

Scrivener is one of the most popular premium creative and book writing tools. For many authors, it is the best program for writing a book.

It is feature-rich with all the writing tools an author needs. It is tailor-made for very long writing projects.

Scrivener has everything you need to write a book.

It has an outliner, corkboard, side-by-side viewing, word count targets, and a full-screen editor for distraction-free writing, along with print, export, and publishing tools.

It has all the tools a writer could ever need. The only things missing are writing prompts and instant cures for writer’s block.

Scrivener offers a 30-day free trial period. However, only the days you use the software are counted. If you use the software every second day, your free trial period will run for 60 days.

Scrivener is available for download for Windows and Mac. There is also an iOS app if you want to write your book on your iPad.

Shaxpir

Shaxpir is an online book writing program.

It comes with all the features you need to write a book.

But it has one significant advantage. You can use the program for free to get started.

There is a premium version available on a monthly subscription. Your choice will depend on your needs.

Here is a quick look at the differences between the two choices.

You can find out more about Shaxpir in this quick one-minute video tour.

Other choices:

• • Ulysses (Mac only)
  • The Novel Factory (PC only)

Writing checkers and editing

When you finish writing a book, you are going to need grammar software programs and editing tools. These will help you to improve your writing.

Your intense editing and proofreading will start after you finish. But you still want to make sure that what you write is as perfect as possible after each writing session.

The best way to do this is to use a premium writing checker to help you find ways to polish your writing style, grammar, and consistency.

There are many free online grammar checkers, such as the Hemingway Editor. However, most are not suitable for working on a long document.

There are only two I use and would recommend for working on a manuscript. These are ProWritingAid and Grammarly.

ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid calls itself a personal writing coach, style editor, and writing mentor.

From my experience with using it, I can certainly say that it is not an exaggeration.

Most grammar checkers can find passive voice sentences, incorrect prepositions, and plurals.

But ProWritingAid goes so much deeper into analyzing long-form writing with no word count limitations.

There are twenty different in-depth reports that will give you so many suggestions for improving your text. It will tell you where you are succeeding and where you can improve your writing.

It also has the very big advantage of being compatible with Scrivener.

There are many free and premium grammar checkers, but ProWritingAid is the only one that has all the essential tools for authors.

There is a free version available for you to try.

But if you are serious about learning how to write a book, you will probably choose the reasonably priced premium version of ProWritingAid with all the tools you need.

Grammarly

Grammarly is, by far, the most popular online grammar checker.

It’s my second choice for authors, but you won’t go wrong. It is, though, better at helping correct online writing, such as for blog posts or social media entries.

I use it a lot. But only for short-form writing such as short stories and checking that what I write and post online is as accurate as possible.

It works exceptionally well with the WordPress editor when you use the Chrome extension. For bloggers, it is almost always the best choice.

You don’t have a lot of time when you have a deadline to publish an article or blog post. So it’s always reassuring to have it on hand to help make sure that your text is error-free.

Again there are free and premium versions available.

Start writing your book

Yes, there is a lot of writing software available for free online now to help you with many time-consuming tasks.

If you are serious about writing your book well, a small investment in the best book writing programs you can find is a small price to pay.

If you decide to use Scrivener and ProWritingAid together, you will have the best two tools available for the long and enjoyable task ahead of you.

All you need now is your brilliant book idea and the passion and energy to turn it into a fantastic story.

Related reading: You’ll Be A Better Writer When You Learn To Do This One Thing