Being a writer in this day and age entails you to be up to date with the latest Writing tools. And this includes Book Writing Software. These are types of software that were created to make writing so much easier. Book writing software are all designed to make your book writing experience smoother and more effective. These types of software are word-processors that unlimited text and give you the luxury of a free-flowing writing experience. This list gives you the chance to choose which software is best for you.

1. Microsoft Word

Developed by: Microsoft

First released: October 25, 1983

Price: $9.99 per month on Office 365 Home and $6.99 per month on Office 365 Personal

It is one of the first and most used book writing software. It is in truth synonymous with writing because a majority of people all over the world use it, and hold true to its effectiveness. In many ways this software is a comfort zone for most writers because they grew up using it and have a certain affection and affinity with it. If you are a long term user of this software, you would have a hard time assimilating to a new software.

Advantages

• Microsoft word is quite a well-known software
• It is very easy to use and dependable
• Corrections are efficient and very easy to clean up
• The bullets and numbers are done automatically
• It is a staple for almost any computer user

Disadvantages

• It lacks certain features that are present in the more recent book writing software
• You need a computer in order to edit or view the documents
• The auto format tool can be annoyingly inflexible

2. Scrivener

Developed by: Literature and Latte

First released: January 20, 2007

Price: $40.00 for Windows and $45.00 for Mac OS

It was created with writers in mind. It is in truth not for the everyday user. Its 550 page manual is a testament to that. But if you want a book writing software that will help you grow as a writer. This is the software for you. It is extremely effective for writing story lines and book formatting. Its many features will surely give users the edge when it comes to keeping track of your writing.

Advantages

• It is a magnificent tool for storytelling and plot making
• A great selection of templates
• Has functions that can easily export your data to other digital platforms

Disadvantages

• It is not for the everyday user
• May take a long time to learn

3. Google Docs

Developed by: Google

First released: March 9, 2006

Price: Free

Google Docs is one of the most popular book writing software around. It’s most unique features is that it is very secure because everything is saved at the server and thus you always have a back-up. This is extremely welcome for writers because it can be very distressing to lose a day’s work of writing just because of a power outage or you forgot to save your work.

Advantages

• Automatic save functions
• Easy access no matter where you are
• Built in comment functionality

Disadvantages

• Functions may seem limited for some users

4. FocusWriter

Developed by: Graeme Gott

First released: October 23, 2008

Price: Free

FocusWriter is the most minimalist form of book writing software out there. It is a simplistic take on the format. It was designed to eliminate all other forms of distractions and makes the writing feel more old school.

Advantages

• Eliminates distraction by having a very simplistic format
• It is straightforward and easy to use
• Can be downloaded for free

Disadvantage

• It’s simplicity might not please everyone
• It lacks certain functions that other software have

5. WriteMonkey

Developed by: Studio Pomaranca

First released: May 15, 2007

Price: Free

WriteMonkey is a small package that packs quite a punch. It is a free program that enables you to format, annotate, classify and link without any unnecessary fuss.

Advantages

• It has an excellent outliner and automatic syntax highlighting
• Good file organization

Disadvantages

• It takes some time getting used to

6. Celtx

Developed by: Celtx Inc.

Price: Free

Celtx is an online script writing platform designed for small creative teams and includes a solo screenwriting package. It also allows creators to integrate media into their projects and facilitates team-based project management.

Advantages

• Perfect for script writing
• It provides a suite of tools for professionals, aspiring professionals, and media students including outlining and research capabilities, story boarding, camera blocking and production scheduling.
• Has shared access to scripts or novels used to require a paid subscription to Celtx Studio. Now you can share a script or novel with up to 10 users — free of charge.
• Comments can be shared.

Disadvantages

• Lacks features that are commonplace to other book writing software
• It requires an internet connection

7. LibreOffice Writer

Developed by: The Document Foundation

First released: January 25, 2011

Price: Free

LibreOffice Writer is technically a free and open source alternative to Microsoft Word as a book writing software. It technically has all its features.

Advantages

• It is for free
• The program is a cross platform and could be written in any platform
• Saves PDF’s efficiently
• Very easy to download
• It has most of the features of Microsoft word

Disadvantages

• It lacks some of Microsoft Word’s more subtle features
• Uses up a lot of memory
• It does not come with technical support
• It is a tad bit slower

8. Sigil

Developed by: Kevin Hendricks and Doug Massay

First released: 2009

Price: Free

Sigil is an Open Source WYSIWYG ebook editor that produces ebooks in the popular epub format. You can use this software on most smartphones and tablets, and even on desktop or laptop computers.

Advantages

• It has a table of contents generator with multi-level heading support
• Contains WYSIWYG editing in book view
• Has full UTF-16 and EPUB 2 specification support
• It is comes with a FlightCrew validator for EPUB standard compliance validation (separate plugin)

Disadvantages

• Its many features are predominantly for the e-book format only
• It has limited EPUB 3 support.

9. Trelby

Developed by: Osku Salerna

First released: September 26, 2012

Price: Free

Trelby is made for playwrights in mind. It is a powerful multi-platform screenwriting tool that is available for Linux and Windows.

Advantages

• It is easy to use
• It offers Import and Export for Final Draft and Fountain files
• It’s for free
• It has various production tools

Disadvantages

• It is made predominantly for playwrights
• The view page is not adjustable
• It is not mobile friendly
• Does not come for Mac OS

10. Scribus

Developed by: The Scribus Team

First released: June 26, 2003

Price: Free

Scribus is a desktop publishing application for Linux, OS X and Windows that’s capable of producing entire magazines.

Advantages

• Good color management support
• It offers professional grade publishing
• It’s great for producing magazines
• One can easily edit objects within the different layers of a document
• It goes well with Windows environment
• It’s for free

Disadvantages

• Lacks a spell check feature
• It runs slowly if you’re working on multiple pages on XP
• The program may get bogged down by large files
• The documentation and help resources are a bit disorganized.

11. Hemingway

Developed by: Adam and Ben Long

Price: Free, and $19.99 for Hemingway Editor 2

Hemingway is a highly efficient proofreading device designed to highlight complex and long sentences. It is excellent at spotting grammatical errors and highlights them through coloring the errors.

Advantages

• It is highly efficient
• It color codes each potential error type
• It’s efficiency makes it perfect for tight deadlines
• It makes your writing very clear and uncluttered

Disadvantages

• It lacks a complete spell checker
• Overly strict adherence to correct grammar.
• The Live preview feature in the desktop version of Hemingway makes your text editor slow
• In some cases for the desk stop version the colored sentences are overlaid causing double lines

12. Evernote

Developed by: Evernote Corporation

First released: June 24, 2008

Price: Free, Plus for $34.99 per year, and Premium for $69.99 per year

Evernote is first and foremost an archiving tool and also an absolutely superb research tool. One of the best things about Evernote is the efficiency with which you can categorize your work and add it to an already existing storage system. Evernote allows you to have an idea at home, work and have the luxury of storing it away in a highly organized and innovative archive.

Advantages

• Work is archived fast and efficiently
• Provides a highly efficient archiving system
• It allows you to keep detailed notes on your writing and store them hassle free anytime
• Organizes all your ideas without fail

Disadvantages

• The format can be confusing

13. Freemind

Developed by: Jörg Müller, Daniel Polansky, Petr Novak, and Christian Foltin, Dimitri Polivaev.

Stable released: September 12, 2014

Price: Free

Freemind is all about mind mapping. It gives you the flexibility to organize your thoughts and inspirations on paper as you try to unravel the whole story. The software helps you to visualize the tone of your book.

Advantages

• It has a huge array of features that will help you organize your ideas
• It supports hyperlink which gives you the ability to link web-sites and even documents to a map
• You can export your work in a variety of formats
• It hastens note taking

Disadvantages

• It uses an older style logical structure that could frustrate some reader

14. WriteItNow

Developed by: Ravenshead Services Ltd

Price: Registered download version for $59.95, Upgrade from version 4 to 5 for $19.95, and CD version for $65.95

WriteItNow is a truly multifaceted tool that brings both efficiency and innovation to writers. It’s most innovative new feature thus far being the character tab that allows highly detailed character building.

Advantages

• The program has a highly detailed character building function that allows you to download name sets depending on locations and time periods
• It has a huge array of features that will help in almost every aspect of writing
• Offers an events graph which allows you to view different strands of the plot
• The thesaurus is extensive.

Disadvantages

• The software lacks genre outlines
• It does not have phone support

15. ProWritingAid

Developed by: Chris Banks

First released: February 10, 2012

Price: Free, Premium for $40 per year, and Premium+ for $45 per year

It includes various features such as checks on sentence length, grammatical errors and redundancies. There is even a ‘Human Editor’ button in the top right, which allows you to submit your work for editing by a member of the ProWritingAid team.

Advantages

• It has a huge array of features to help you edit your work
• Contains a human editor button that gives you the choice to ask the ProWritingAid team for help
• Has a highly adaptable program that can be useful for a very long time
• The format is innovative

Disadvantage

• It takes a bit of time to fully master
• It is overly proactive

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