Have you decided to start writing your book? Creative writing and the publishing process have changed forever.
![Writing Writing](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126202464/438116661.jpg)
![Apple app writing software Apple app writing software](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126202464/689691020.jpg)
- Best Software For Writing A Book On A Mac Free
- Best Software For Writing A Book On Mac
- Best Mac For Writers
- The best writing software overall is: Scrivener Scrivener is packed with all the features a novelist needs, helping you track plot threads, store notes on characters and locations, structure your.
- Writing a book today. A pen and paper are great tools for notetaking, 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 or iPad.
- Apr 07, 2017 Best writing apps for Mac If you write on your Mac, you want one of these apps. Joseph Keller. 7 Apr 2017 6 The Mac is a great tool for writers, with a plethora of software available for any kind of writing. It doesn't matter if you're a student spending long nights on your big paper, a journalist writing up your latest scoop, or a novelist.
Scrivener is the ultimate book-organization tool. It allows you to view your notes, research, outline, and writing all in one place, and you can print your whole manuscript with the click of your mouse.
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 published books.
If you are ready to write your book, you should make sure that you have the best book writing programs and tools to do the job.
In This ArticleHideWriting a book todayQuality writing countsWriting your bookThe best programs to write a bookScrivenerShaxpirWriting checkers and editingProWritingAidGrammarlyStart writing your bookWriting a book today
A pen and paper are great tools for notetaking, 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 or iPad.
The only part of the process that hasn’t changed 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 to see that many self-published authors are in the top 10 for a variety of 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 best book writing programs will help you stay organized and focussed 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 a nonfiction book is that only good writing and outstanding books stand a chance of selling.
If you are new to writing and electronic publishing, it is a good idea to work on practicing your writing before you start your book project.
It is not that successful authors today 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, it means finding an editor and a competent proofreader. It might also require the services of a book formatter as well.
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 serious book writer are a multi-layered word processor and editor designed specifically for writing a book or novel and a first-class spelling, grammar, and writing checker.
The best programs to write a book
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 be able to work on individual parts of your story.
You will need to have notes or perhaps mind maps about your characters, events, and your 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 that is made specifically for the purpose.
Here are some of the best book writing 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 the best program to write 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.
![Writing Writing](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126202464/438116661.jpg)
It has all the tools that a writer could ever need. About all that is missing are writing prompts and instant cures for writer’s block.
Scrivener offers a 30 day free trial period. But only days that 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 both Windows and Mac. There are also iOS apps for iPhone and 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 you started.
There is a premium version available on a monthly subscription basis. Your choice will depend on what you need.
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:- Living Writer (Cloud-based)
- 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.
While intense editing and proofreading will start after you finish, 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 that will help you find ways to polish your writing style, grammar, and consistency.
There are many free online grammar checkers, such as the Hemingway Editor. But most are not suitable at all 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, grammar guru, 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.
There are twenty-five different in-depth reports that will give you so many suggestions as to how you can improve your text.
You can read about all the features in our review of ProWritingAid.
It also has a very big advantage of being compatible with Scrivener.
There are a lot of free and premium grammar checkers. But ProWritingAid is the only one that has all the tools that are essential 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 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 a blog post 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. You can read my full review of Grammarly.
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 free writing software available online now to help you with many time-consuming tasks.
But if you are serious about writing your book and writing it 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.
Writing a book is hard. I’ve written seven books and at some point during each one I had the thought, “There has to be a tool, a piece of book writing software, that would make this easier.”
Bad news/good news: writing a book will always be hard, and the best piece of writing software in the world won’t write your book for you. But the good news is there is book writing software that can make the process a little easier.
In this post, we will cover the ten best pieces of software for writing a book and look at the pros and cons of each.
FREE eBOOK: Every professional has a set of tools at their disposal that not only makes their job possible, but makes them better at doing it. Writing is no different, and while the right software is important, it’s just one of the many tools you need as a writer. That’s why we published this free 22-page eBook, 7 Tools to Help You Write a Novel. You can download it for free here. Enjoy!
Click the links below to get our review on the best writing software.
Best Writing Software: Contents
Worst Pieces of Software for Writing a Book
First, though, let’s cover software you should avoid, at least while you’re writing a book:
- Video Games. Especially World of Warcraft (always always always!) but also Solitaire, Sudoku, Angry Birds, and, for me right now, Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes.
- Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Software. Do I really need to say more? Fortunately there’s a piece of book writing software for avoiding this very distracting software (see Freedom below).
- Other Productive Software Not Directly Associated With Your Writing. Yes, it’s good to reconcile your bank account on Quickbooks or make sure you’re up to date on your calendar app, but responsible, well-meaning work can easily be an excuse for a quick distraction that turns into a major distraction from writing your book.
Set aside time for your writing every day and then stay focused!
If you need a game, make writing your daily word count your game.
If you want more “likes” on social media, imagine how great getting five-star reviews on your book will be.
If you need to check your bank balance several times a day, think about what your bank balance will be when you stop checking it constantly, finish your book, and become a successful author.
Best Software For Writing A Book On A Mac Free
The 10 Best Pieces of Book Writing Software
No piece of writing software will write your book for you, but these ten will help. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.
1. Scrivener (Word Processor)
Scrivener is the premier book writing software. It is made by writers for writers. Scrivener’s “binder” view allows you to break up your book into chapters and sections and easily reorganize it. Project targets let you create word count goals and then track your progress daily. Its composition mode can help you stay focused by removing all the clutter. Plus, it allows you to format for publishing (e.g. on Amazon or Barnes & Noble).
There are some problems with Scrivener. Formatting is more complicated than it needs to be and collaborating isn’t easy, meaning it loses its effectiveness as soon as you bring on an editor. But it more than makes up for that by being so helpful in the early stages of the writing process.
In fact, we believe in Scrivener so much, we published a book about how creative writers can write more, faster using it. It’s called Scrivener Superpowers. If you’re using Scrivener or want to save yourself time as you learn how to use it for your creative writing, you can get Scrivener Superpowers here. The next edition comes out on Tuesday!
Cost: $49 for Mac, $45 for Windows
You can get a copy of Scrivener here, or learn more about how to use the software with one of these resources:
- Scrivener Superpowers by M.G. Herron
2. Google Docs (Word Processor)
While Scrivener is the best book writing software, once you get to editing and getting feedback, it begins to fall short.
That’s why Google Docs has become my second go-to piece of book writing software. It’s free, very easy to use, and requires no backups since everything is in the cloud.
Best of all are its collaboration abilities, which allow you to invite your editor to the document and then watch as he or she makes changes, tracked in suggestion mode, and leave comments on your story (see screenshot below).
Cost: Free!
Where to find it: Get started with Google Docs here
3. Google Sheets (Spreadsheet)
If you’d told me when I was first trying to become a writer 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 have to use a spreadsheet.
But now, as I’m finishing my twelth book, I realize that I’m using spreadsheets almost 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-page document, distilling it down to useable information becomes very necessary.
![Apple app writing software Apple app writing software](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126202464/689691020.jpg)
You might use spreadsheets for:
- Character tracking
- Scene lists
- Outlines
Google Sheets is perfect for this because it’s free and you can quickly share your documents with your writing partners, editors, or beta readers to get feedback. Microsoft Excel is another great option, but for writers, I suggest Google Sheets.
Cost: Free!
Where to find it?Get started with Google Sheets here
4. Vellum (Book Formatting/Word Processor)
If you want to turn your book into an eBook, it’s not that hard. Scrivener, Word, Pages, they all can make eBooks. But that doesn’t mean they’ll look good. In fact, it takes a lot of skill and effort to make an eBook look good on any of those word processors. That’s why I love Vellum so much.
Vellum makes beautiful eBooks.
Vellum picks up where Scrivener, Word, and Pages leave off, giving you a tool to make great looking eBooks every time.
The most important part of this is the previewer (see the image below), which lets you see 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 eBooks.
I really love this app!
UPDATE: Vellum recently expanded into formatting for paperback books! I haven’t tried it yet but it looks awesome!
Cost: $199 for eBook generation, $249 for Paperback Formatting
5. Freedom (Productivity App)
One question writers always ask me is, “How can I stay focused enough to finish what I write?”
I have too many thoughts on this for this article, but as far as writing software to encourage focus, I recommend Freedom.
Freedom allows you to block your biggest distractions online, including both websites and mobile apps, for a set period of time. So when you mindlessly escape your book to scroll through Facebook, you’ll find the site won’t load.
You can also schedule recurring sessions, so that at a scheduled time (e.g. 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 about before, notably Self-Control for Mac and StayFocused for Windows. But Freedom goes further, allowing you to block sites on both your computer and your phone, and enabling recurring sessions.
You can learn more about how writers can get the most out of Freedom on our review here.
Cost: $29 / year for Pro version, which I use and recommend (Free trial available)
Where to find it:Get started with Freedom here
6. Microsoft Word (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 help you write your book, it might be an excuse to avoid doing the hard work of writing.
Most of us learned how to use computers by using Microsoft Word, or a program like it. Word gets the job done. Sure, Scrivener is a little better for books, but I wrote my first book on Word and it’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 document grows, it becomes more and more difficult to work with, whereas with Scrivener, it becomes easier—but the point is, if Word is what you have, don’t let that stop you from finishing your book.
As Jeff Elkins said in his review of Word, “If you aren’t already putting in the hard work to be the kind of writer you want to be, it doesn’t matter what new writing software you invest in. It is not going to help.”
Cost: $69 / year from Amazon (includes Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft software)
7. Ulysses (Word Processor)
When I’m writing for a long time, I like to get up and go for a walk. Sometimes, I wish I could continue writing while I walk. Other times, I come up with an idea while I’m walking, type it up on my phone, and then want to easily move what I wrote to my laptop without having to go through the hassle of emailing it back and forth to myself.
That’s where Ulysses comes in.
Ulysses is a word processor for Mac that allows you to sync between all your devices, so you have what you need wherever you are. Scrivener recently released their iOS app which allows you to do this as well, but the process is clunky and requires you to purchase both the desktop and iOS apps. Ulysses’ sync makes the process much more seamless.
Like Scrivener, it has a binder-like sidebar that allows you to move documents around. Ulysses is not designed specifically for books so it takes a little configuring to make it work for you, but once you have it set up the way you want it’s very intuitive.
And while I hate Markdown, I actually like the paired-down formatting options Ulysses gives. Overall, I’m not going to convert from Scrivener to Ulysses any time soon, but I think it’s a great option for most writers.
Cost: $45
Where to find it: App store, or here (Mac only)
8. Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheets)
As Jeff Elkins says in his review of Microsoft Excel, it’s great, but “it’s a little like bringing a bazooka to a knife fight. You will need only a small fraction of its capability.”
If you have Excel and love it, great. Otherwise, use Google Sheets, especially if you’re sharing your sheet with a collaborator or editor.
Cost: $69 / year from Amazon (includes Word, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft software)
9. ProWritingAid (Grammar/Spell Check)
Can book writing software replace an editor?
Definitely not. But if you ask Alice Sudlow, our in-house editor, she’s tell you, “If you don’t have access to an editor (or if you do, but you don’t want to hire them to edit your emails or Facebook posts), grammar checking software like ProWritingAid is an accessible, affordable alternative.
If you struggle with grammar, sentence structure, spelling, or even writing style, ProwritingAid can help. It goes far beyond your built-in spell-check.
You should still learn grammar skills, but ProWritingAid can help you start to see the patterns and grow as a writer.
There’s a free version that’s very good. It can even be installed into your browser or Word processor, so you can check your grammar wherever you 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 get the most out of ProWritingAid here.
Cost: Free! (Premium version is $60 / year)
Where to find it: Get started with ProWritingAid here
10. Hemingway App (Grammar/Style Checker)
Best Software For Writing A Book On Mac
Most writers think their sentences are easier to read than they are. You think you’re coming across clearly, that your writing makes sense, but 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. You can copy and paste your writing into the website’s input box. Then it will grade your writing based on your used of adverbs, passive voice, and sentences as units.
Hemingway App is useful, but even the best book writing software can’t replace a good editor.
Cost: Free!
The 7 Tools Every Writer Needs
Every professional has a set of tools at their disposal that not only makes their job possible, but makes them better at doing it. Writing is no different, and while the right software is important, it’s just one of the many tools you need as a writer.
That’s why we published a free 22-page eBook, 7 Tools to Help You Write a Novel. In this short guide, we’ll cover some of the basic tools that form the foundation of a writing life.
You can download it for free here. Enjoy!
Best Mac For Writers
The Most Essential Book Writing Software
Imagine it’s three thousand years ago. You’re sitting around a campfire with some of your family and friends, tired from the day’s work. You begin to tell a story. It’s one you’ve told before, told a hundred times. You can see faces around the fire, the children with their eyes wide, the men and women who have heard the story before but still enjoy it because it brings meaning to their lives.
Storytellers—writers—have existed since the beginning of humanity. They didn’t always have book writing software. They didn’t have the printing press or the internet. They didn’t always even have the alphabet to write their stories down.
Instead, storytellers had their imaginations, their voices, and a rapt audience.
You don’t need book writing software to write a great story. Book writing software can make the process a little faster or easier, but the truth is great stories will always exist, no matter what kind of software we have.
The only three things essential to writing a great book:
- Your imagination
- Your words
- A desire to tell your story
That’s all you need. Do you want to write your book? If you do, then do it. Write it. Nothing is stopping you except you. So go get writing.
What pieces of book writing software do you use? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
The world is full of powerful software to help you write your book. In the end, though, all these tools are just that—tools. The stories you imagine and your discipline to put the words on the page are far more important.
So for this practice, set aside all the fancy software. Eliminate all the bells and whistles and open up your computer’s native text editor (TextEdit for Mac or Notepad for Windows). Take fifteen minutes to write without any distractions. Continue your work in progress, or start 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 is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris, a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. You can follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).