12 Best Apps for Writing a Book

Features to Look for in Writing Apps
List of Best Apps for Writers
How to Select the Best App for Writing a Book

Writing and editing a book is time-consuming and mind-consuming. A writing app can make the process a bit easier.

Book writing apps can help with everything from ideation, to planning, to drafting, to structural editing, to line editing, to proofreading.

But with so many options on the market, how do you know which writing app is the best one for you?

Here are our top 12 favorite apps for writing a book. For each app, we have assessed the price, features, usability, integrations, and any notable additional resources.

Features to Look for in Writing Apps

There are many features that are universal to good writing apps, such as an intuitive UI, basic grammar and spell checking, and formatting options. But there are others that are unique to each app, and they will be useful for certain writers but not others.

Working out what features will be useful for you is the first step in choosing a book writing app. Here are a few features for you to consider.

Rephrasing

Rephrasing tools can help you simplify, extend, or improve your original ideas. They can also provide inspiration and save authors from writer’s block.

Plot Timelines

Timelines that jump around without explanation are difficult to follow and mean that the reader is less likely to become immersed in the story.

Plot timelines make it easier for writers to prevent this from happening.

There are many forms a timeline can take, from tagging to a full visual timeline. Work out if this is a feature you need and then decide how it would best work for you.

Dialogue Checks

Dialogue can make or break a fiction book.

Dialogue checks can help you track your dialogue tags and ensure they are showing rather than telling. They can ensure you use quotation marks consistently, and some software can even assess if a piece of dialogue matches your character’s profile.

Character Tracking

Imagining a character is difficult when their descriptions change throughout the story or series. If their eyes are emerald green in book one, and sky blue in book three, readers may become confused.

There are character tracking features that allow you create consistency in character descriptions across books in a series.

Customizable Dictionary

A customizable dictionary allows you to add terms that would not normally be recognized. This is especially useful for writers who have created their own language or those who include many made up names or places.

List of Best Apps for Writers

ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a novel writing app and editing tool that can help take your manuscript from draft to publish-ready.

The tool offers 20+ reports you can use to help your writing shine. The repeats report keeps your writing engaging. The readability reports provide suggestions to cut vague words, replace clichés, and remove sticky sentences. Plus, there is a thesaurus, consistency checker, and much more.

In addition to this, you can also see in-tool articles, videos, and quizzes so you can learn and improve your writing experience as you go.

With a Premium Pro license, you also get access to Sparks, which is an AI generative tool that provides more options than almost any other software on the market. With Sparks, you can improve fluency, summarize text, add sensory descriptions, expand from notes, make present or past tense, add dialogue, quotes, emphasis, counter-arguments, and so much more.

Integrations: Windows, Mac, MS Word (Windows & Mac), Google Docs, Scrivener, Final Draft, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge

Price: ProWritingAid has three pricing options: free, Premium, and Premium Pro. The free version allows users to access 20+ reports with a 500 word limit. The Premium plan has an unlimited word count, and it costs just $10 a month. The Premium Pro plan comes with 50 rephrases a day and costs $12 a month.

Conclusion: ProWritingAid is a brilliant all-around writing tool for novelists that helps with the drafting, editing, and proofing stages. Try it for free today.

Novlr

Novlr is a writer-owned creative writing app.

The features on offer include a basic writing interface, organizational features, statistics tracking, the ability to set motivational goals, style help, and export options.

There are also free courses and guides available that help writers to improve their craft.

Integrations: Online only

Price: There are three basic plans available: starter, plus, and pro. Starter is free and gives you access to five projects. The paid version, Plus, costs $5 a month and gives you unlimited projects, plus the ability to comment. Pro offers some additional features that are powered by ProWritingAid, including a proofreader, thesaurus, and advanced grammar and style checks.

Conclusion: Novlr is a lightweight tool with a clean, easy-to-use interface, which is a great option for writers looking for a lighter-touch tool.

Atticus

Atticus is a writing app created by Kindlepreneur. It works online and offline and helps with writing style and formatting.

The writing feature is a word processor with a few novel-specific features, such as chapters and covers.

The formatting feature is where Atticus really shines. There are templates and a custom theme builder you can use to format your book, and then you can publish on Amazon, Apple Books, and more.

Integrations: Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chromebook

Price: There is only one plan available, and it is a lifetime plan. It costs $147 as a one-time fee to format an unlimited number of eBooks and books for print.

Conclusion: Atticus is one of those tools that is good already but will clearly be great in the future. It’s an affordable way to format your book, but for now, you will still need some complementary writing tools in order to give your story the best chance.

Bibisco

Bibisco is a book writing app designed for authors.

It allows you to create a novel structure, use mind maps to track relationships, organize your world-building, visualize your story timeline, and analyze chapter lengths and the points of view throughout.

You can also set writing goals, including words per day and words overall, and track your progress in the app.

The tool is available in 15 languages, including English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, and more.

Integrations: Windows, Mac, and Linux

Price: There are two plans: community and supporters. The community plan is free and allows you to create unlimited projects. The supporters edition is a one-time payment that also includes mind maps, dark theme, distraction-free mode, and more.

Conclusion: This is a great option for writers that are just starting out and who have a limited budget.

Scrivener

Srivener is a writing app that helps authors write books, and many authors swear by it. It’s designed for fiction and non-fiction authors and screenwriters.

It offers features like book bibles, character management, plot tracking, formatting and exporting options, and more.

One of the most popular features on offer is the goals and tracking feature, which is especially useful during NanoWriMo. You can set overall writing targets, or targets for a particular session, and there is a handy bar available to track your progress.

Integrations: MacOS, Windows, and iOS

Price: There are two licenses available: a standard license and an educational license. Each license is for lifetime, and they both cost under $50 each. The licenses are specific to MacOS or Windows, so if you would like both, you will need to purchase two licenses.

Conclusion: As long as you are okay with a steep learning curve and minimal learning resources, then Scrivener is a brilliant piece of software with some innovative features and an excellent price.

The Novel Factory

The Novel Factory is a novel writing software that helps writers from outlining to writing.

It has features that help with outlining, plotting, character creation, world-building, writing, and word count tracking. It also has a variety of templates in different genres to help writers plan their novels.

One of the most useful elements of the writing app is the organization. Keep all your notes on characters, plot, and the world in one place, making it easy to search through later.

Integrations: Windows, Mac, Android, iPads, and iPhones

Price: There are three plans: basic, standard, and premium. The basic plan allows you to write one novel a year and costs $75. The Premium plan is designed for writers who publish multiple books a year, and it costs $600.

Conclusion: The Novel Factory is a useful tool for writers of general fiction. However, if you are a non-fiction author, or if you need advanced world-building help, there are more suitable writing apps out there.

Ginger

Ginger is an AI-powered writing app and proofreading tool designed for all types of writers.

The tool offers basic grammar and spell checking (which you can accept and correct in bulk), a translator, a rephraser, text-to-speech, and more.

The translator is the feature that sets Ginger apart. It allows you to translate into 50 languages, plus it can proofread text in those languages, too.

Integrations: Microsoft Office, Gmail, Chrome, Safari, Edge, desktop, mobile apps, and more

Price: There are six plans: free, monthly, quarterly, annual, 2-year, and teams. The monthly plan is $19.99, and the 2-year plan is $120 overall. The team plan is $4.99 per month per member. Each paid plan offers the same features.

Conclusion: It’s a top choice for English second language (ESL) creative writers because of the translator, but for native English speakers, it doesn’t have as many advanced features as some of the other writing tools on this list.

Fictionary

Fictionary is a writing app and editing software that is specifically focused on developmental (or story) editing.

The tool has 15 different insights, including blurb and synopsis, story arc, word count per scene, characters, and story map.

One of the best things about Fictionary is the onboarding. There are tutorials and articles to help you use every single feature, so you will get the most out of your purchase from day one.

Integrations: Microsoft Word, Safari, and Chrome

Price: There are three subscriptions: StoryTeller, StoryTeller Premium, and StoryCoach. Each subscription is available to purchase on a yearly or monthly basis. The cheapest plan allows you to edit three manuscripts at a time and costs $19 a month. The most expensive plan is $396 a year and is designed for professional editors.

Conclusion: Fictionary is an excellent tool in a writer’s arsenal, especially if you are a visual learner, but it is not a stand-alone software. You will also need a tool like ProWritingAid to help you with line editing and proofreading.

QuillBot

QuillBot is a writing software that is designed for students and working professionals.

QuillBot offers seven features: paraphraser, grammar checker, co-writer, plagiarism checker, summarizer, translator, and citation generator. The best known of these features is paraphrase, which has a variety of modes to suit your needs, including standard, fluency, and creative.

The tool is available in over 20 languages, including English, Spanish, German, and French.

Integrations: Chrome, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and more

Price: There are two plans available: free and premium. The free plan is limited and gives users an idea of what the tool can do. The premium plan includes all the features and is available in three different payment plans: annual, semi-annual, and monthly. The annual plan costs $99.95 a year, and the monthly plan totals to $239.40 a year.

Conclusion: Quillbot is a popular tool for students and business writers, but the features aren’t optimized for creative writers.

Ulysses

Ulysses is a mobile writing app designed specifically for apple users. There isn’t currently a Windows integration.

It has a clean UI for distraction-free writing. The tool also offers dark mode and full-screen writing mode, so you can customize your experience.

It also has brilliant features for organization, including filters, which allow you to find content quickly. Keywords allow you to categorize work, and groups allow you to collate work—for example, different levels of draft for the same writing project.

Integrations: Mac, iPad, and iPhone

Price: There are two plans: personal and business. The personal plan can be shared with up to five family members, and it costs $39.99 per year. The business plan is priced per user and offers the same features as the personal plan.

Conclusion: Although the features are useful, similar ones are available for free in other tools. But if you struggle with organization and like to help everything in one place, it may be worth trialing.

Vellum

Vellum is a book formatting desktop app, designed for writing projects, available on Mac only.

It offers import capabilities, different book styles, book set creation, previews, layout and design options, eBook generation, and print generation.

The most popular feature in Vellum are the eight book styles. All you need to do is select a style, and the software will change the headings, quotations, paragraph breaks, body text headers, footers, and more.

Integrations: Mac

Price: There are two plans: Press and eBooks. With the eBook plan, you can format eBooks, and with the Press plan, you can format eBooks and paperbacks. Both plans are one-time purchases.

Conclusion: Although it is an intuitive software, there are now other tools that offer more for less.

LanguageTool

LanguageTool is a paraphraser, text editor, and grammar checker.

It can fix punctuation mistakes, help with formatting, and allow you to set up your own style guide. Premium users also have access to unlimited rephrasing, whilst free users are limited to five per day.

Additionally, LanguageTool works in over 25 languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Italian—although it doesn’t offer the option to translate any text.

Integrations: Chrome, Edge, Google Docs, Firefox, and more

Price: There are three plans: free, premium, and teams. The free plan offers basic features, with the advanced features behind a paywall. The premium plan offers four payment intervals, with the cheapest being the two-year plan, and the most expensive being the monthly. The team plan is priced per number of users and offers additional features like team style guide and dictionary.

Conclusion: LanguageTool’s price is on the lower end, and it offers a fair selection of features. However, the lack of a plagiarism checker, tone checker, and structural reports means that creative writers may need to carry out additional edits.

How to Select the Best App for Writing a Book

When selecting any software, including book writing apps, consider the price, features, integrations, and ease-of-use. These four elements are the base of any software, so let’s look at each one in more detail.

Price

On our list, the prices range from free to $600 a year, so there’s something for everyone.

We recommend you select your budget before picking a tool, as you don’t want to fall in love with a tool before realizing it’s too expensive.

Features

With hundreds of tools on the market, each with a unique mix of features, there will be a tool that fits your requirements. To help you find it, ask yourself:

Do you want paraphrasing features?
Are you looking for character and plot tracking?
Would you like formatting and exporting options?
Do you need advanced grammar and spell checking?

Integrations

Where do you write, and do you want your new tool to work with your current software?

Integrations can speed up onboarding and reduce the learning curve of a new tool, so it’s important to check what’s available before purchasing.

Usability

Some of these book writing tools are fairly easy to learn, and others have a steep learning curve with more complex features.

Consider whether you prefer a tool that allows you to jump right in or if you’re willing to invest time in learning.

If your chosen tool is complex, double-check it has the resources and support you need to get up to speed.

If you’re looking for a tool that can help you with every aspect of the book writing process, from ideation, to drafting, to editing, to proofing, then why not give ProWritingAid a try?

Not only do we offer a trial money-back guarantee for our yearly and lifetime memberships, but we also offer a free plan that will allow you to test our 20+ reports on up to 500 words of your text.