Please suggest me the best software to write a book

[Guest]

An old question, but a very important one.

[Daan]

Best? That depends on many things.

I use Scrivener, it is not "just word" nope. It is closer to a management system that allows you to cut up your writing projects in smaller bits. And then edit it, move it, and finally compile/export it into a format you require.

Yes, ebooks, pdf's, word files, pretty much most type of files and formats that are common.

Even "manuscript" format so editors like you a lot.

[Dan]

Your software is your imagination. You can't, yet, program software to write a decent book. And even if you could, being an author is in no way a ticket to wealth. There are over 200,000 books published every year.

There's only 1 Harry potter.

You do the maths.

Don't miss: What dictation software/apps are you using?

[Jean]

I use WriteItNow. It's like Scrivener but with more features.

[Gary]

The human brain is the best software to write a book. I think some software has advantages for different types of formatting and stuff, But I can't imagine software makes a significant difference for the actual writing of a book unless you want some sort of AI go do all your thinking and imagining and everything for you which means you should not be a writer.

On the other hand I am ignorant of how these various softwares for writers work, It would love to read a concise description of the advantages and disadvantages of each other.

I have found that special film scripts software is a great convenience, I'm not sure how such a thing could apply to a prose text manuscript

If someone give me a concise lecture to relieve my ignorance and prejudice against thinking that software makes a huge difference I would be delighted to learn.

Explore these too: Currently using Google docs. Need advice of all kinds. Formatting, software, etc

[Anna]

Scrivener for fiction. It is great for building scenes and characters. It has a steep learning curve though.

Atticus for nonfiction. It has great templates, ornamentals, and is easy to use.

[Gunnar]

Many of the most iconic novels were written on a typewriter.

I have seen writers simply use pen and paper.

But Microsoft Word are good and Scrivener is great to be even more organised.

But when I am reading a book I never start thinking “wow, this is great book, it must have been written on a good software”

Also, check out: Tech minded friends, what's a good alternative to Google docs?

[Joseph]

I like google docs lately for the writing, but it lacks some of the formatting features I need, so I’ll be moving my WIP back into OpenOffice for final formatting.

OpenOffice has served me well for all of my novels and handful of other things. In general, I prefer in over MS a lot, and is free.

I prefer OO a tiny bit more than LibreOffice only because open also saves where you were in the manuscript… a very minor thing, but it saves time getting back into flow.

[Louise]

Microsoft Word. You can use whatever you want, but Word is the only format accepted by a lot of people in the publishing industry.

[Linda-Your]

If you can’t afford ms Word, Google Docs works fine. It creates .docx formatted files so you don’t have to reformat.

It also has a navigation like MS Word pane that will make outlining your book easy.

Don't forget to take a look at: As a beginner, Google docs or Apache OpenOffice?

[Chuck]

Papyrus Author.

I use the free version. I had the premium version but found I like the free one better. I also have WriteItNow by Knightsbridge.

It's a great program, but with my vision problems, the easier-to-read interface on Papyrus made me change.