Selling Books

Your Guide to Writing, Publishing and Marketing Books and Ebooks

  • Blog
  • Free Newsletter
You are here: Home / Cathy's Blog / What is the Best Book Writing Software?

What is the Best Book Writing Software?

June 15, 2016 by Cathy Stucker

book-writing-softwareOne 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.

Related Posts :

How Important is Visual Communication in an E...
An Easy Way to Multiply Your Book Sales
How I Sold $600K With One E-Book
Kindle Countdown Deals - Put Your Kindle Book...

Filed Under: Cathy's Blog, Resources for Writers Tagged With: Ebooks, software, training, Word

Comments

  1. Marty says

    July 16, 2016 at 8:43 am

    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.
    Marty recently posted..How Do I Learn More About Customers Through Sales Calls?My Profile

  2. Cathy B Stucker says

    July 16, 2016 at 9:09 am

    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.

  3. Ricardo Fayet says

    August 1, 2016 at 1:31 pm

    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

  4. Cathy B Stucker says

    August 1, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    Ricardo, Reedsy looks interesting. I’ll have to give it a try.

    Thanks!

Sell More Books!

FREE! Sign up Cathy Stucker's Selling Books newsletter. You will get useful tips and techniques for writing, publishing and selling books, plus member-only exclusives such as free webinars.

BONUS! Get instant access to Cathy's audio program on how to Build an Effective Author Platform!

I respect your privacy & will NEVER sell, rent or share your email address. More than a policy, it's my Privacy Pledge.

Recent Articles

  • Save the Cat! Writes for TV
  • Summarize Your Book and Increase Your Book Sales
  • Why Structure Is a Friend, Not a Formula
  • Save the Cat Story Cards
  • Save the Cat! Cracking the Beat Sheet
  • Stop Procrastinating, Start Writing
  • FAQs About Children’s Book Illustrations
  • 5 Posts Every Author Should Write on their Website
  • Reducing Everyday Distractions So You Can Get More Writing Done
  • E.S.Danon – Moon in Bastet

Pages

Contact
Contribute Articles
Contributing Authors
Free Newsletter to Help You Sell More Books
Get Interviewed
Publishing Resources
Subscribe/RSS
Privacy/Disclosure Policies

Categories

Agents Amazon.com Article Marketing Author Interviews Author Platform Blogging Book Business Book Design Book Marketing Book Proposals Book Publicity Book Publishing Book Reviews Book Signings Bookstore Book Titles Book Tours Cathy's Blog Children's Books Content Marketing Copyright Copy Writing Ebooks Editing Fiction Writing Freelance Writing Get Published Ghostwriters Internet Marketing Marketing Fiction Motivation Networking Non-Fiction Writing Oprah Winfrey POD Publishing Public Speaking Research Resources for Writers Running Your Publishing Company Self Publishing Social Media Special Sales Video Marketing Writers Block Writing

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2006 - 2022 Cathy Stucker · All Rights Reserved

Log in to your account