One of the questions I get a lot is about what software to use to write books. Should books be written in plain text? Do you need special publishing software such as Adobe InDesign? And what about Scrivener?
You can use whatever software works best for you, but I have learned that using good ol’ Microsoft Word can be the best choice. You can upload the files directly to Amazon and other ebook retailers, and you can also use it to create print versions of your books. There are a few things you need to learn to create books with Word, but I have discovered a resource that will show you exactly what you need to know. It is fast and inexpensive, and you will be publishing like a pro in no time at all! Read on to learn more.
What Is the Best Book Writing Software?
I get this question a lot. Writers want to know what software they should use to write a book. There are lots of choices, but the truth is that you don’t need special software. Are you already using Microsoft Word? It is a good choice to write books and ebooks because you can submit Word documents to many ebook retailers, and create print books by uploading a Word doc to CreateSpace.com.
Even if you have been using Word for years, there are tips and tricks you may not know that can make creating a book or ebook faster and easier. Author Barb Asselin has created an online course called Word 4 Authors where she shares what she has learned in self-publishing dozens of successful books.
With Word 4 Authors you will learn how to properly format your books for self-publishing on Amazon, CreateSpace, and Draft2Digital. If you are not familiar with Draft2Digital, it is a service that will distribute your ebooks to many popular ebook retailers, including Apple, Kobo and many others. That means that you can quickly and easily start selling your ebooks in multiple stores, all over the world.
The course begins with the basics, so if you have never used Word before, you will learn the simple steps you need to create professional manuscripts. (If you are an experienced user you could skip this first section, but if you view the lessons you will probably pick up some useful things you didn’t know.)
From there, Barb takes you through formatting, whether you are staring with a blank page or a manuscript that needs to be reformatted. She also shows you how to do the things that many new authors struggle with, such as inserting images, creating a clickable table of contents, and making sure your book looks great on the Kindle platform. Later modules explain the tweaks you will need to make to put your books in print with CreateSpace or distribute it to other ebook retailers via Draft2Digital.
This is a step-by-step course that shows you exactly what you need to do and how to do it. The course is online and you can complete the lessons on your own schedule and at your own pace. Barb Asselin not only understands how to get the most out of Word, she is an excellent teacher. The lessons are clear and to the point.
Want to learn how you can start writing and publishing books with Microsoft Word? Check out Word 4 Authors. In just a couple of hours, you can view all of the lessons and have a solid understanding of what Word can do for authors. If you want to practice what you have just learned, you can do so with your own book or with the practice lessons included in the course.
Instead of spending a lot of time trying to learn expensive new software, why not spend a little time learning how to get the most out of the software you probably already have?
Learn more about Word 4 Authors here.
Awesome stuff, Cathy, I don’t see why anyone would move away from MS Word to be honest, it’s everything you need in one place, it looks pretty, and produces the best results.
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Marty, MS Word is not my favorite, but I end up using it more and more just because it is easy to use for ebooks. Most ebook distributors (including Amazon.com) will accept a Word file.
Thanks for the comment.
MS Word is definitely used by most authors, but it’s a pretty poor tool for writing books, unfortunately. You should take a look at the Reedsy Book Editor. It’s mainly a formatting tool, able to produce and export an EPUB or print-on-demand file in just a few minutes — but it has also got a very cool interface for writing, very similar to Medium. You can learn more about it here: https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-format-a-book
Ricardo, Reedsy looks interesting. I’ll have to give it a try.
Thanks!