The Best Apps for Writing
One of the many questions that pops up in writing groups is which apps are the best for writing. I did a comparison of pure writing apps here, but there is more to writing than just writing.
What? What else is there?
Plenty
Besides writing, there are apps that help you write, apps that help you organize, and apps that help you format your work into a publishable form. Today’s post will address a few of them.
We’ve already addressed writing in the post on Word versus Scrivener which Scrivener won hands down.
Now let’s focus on the others. As far as apps that help you write, I’ve done a post on that as well; it’s an app called Text Expander™, and it’s an invaluable tool to aid your writing.
Formatting with Vellum
A lot has changed in the reading world. Digital reading (eBooks) has taken over half of the reading public while print books have a firm hold on the rest. Either way though readers want to enjoy a good reading experience, which means the books should be formatted well and presented in a professional manner.
The self-publishing boom created a lot of opportunities, and one of the bigger ones was for professional formatters. Tens of thousands of books were being written, but they had to be converted from a text file to formats for eBook, Kindle, and print, and it was not an easy thing to do.
Authors paid anywhere from $75 to several hundred dollars to have their books formatted. Even then, it was often trial and error to make it work with all the formats, not to mention that a lot of the formatting didn’t look good. It was acceptable, but not good.
A lot of companies made attempts to automate the process but none of them seemed to get it right. Several came close: Scrivener did a decent job, and it was fine for beta readers and such, but it wasn’t good enough for a finished product.
Then along came Vellum, and everything changed. For the first time, formatting a book professionally was put into the hands of anyone who owned the software. Vellum was not only easy, it was quick, and the end product was gorgeous. Below is a screenshot of what it looks like while you’re using the product. The far left shows your volumes, parts, or chapters. The middle section shows your text, and the right shows what the finished product will look like on various devices: Apple, B&N, Google, Kindle, Kobo, and Print.
You can see at the beginning of the first paragraph what it looks like in text form, and if you look to the right, you’ll see how that P will be presented in final form. There are many styles to choose from in Vellum’s preferences. Notice also the chapter heading. I used a small image of my book cover at the beginning of each chapter. Vellum makes inserting a picture or image almost as easy as typing a line.
I could go on and on about the amazing things you can do with Vellum and how easy they are to do, but you need to try it out yourself. I believe they have a thirty-day free trial, so click on the image above and check it out. I guarantee you’ll love it.
There’s one app we haven’t mentioned yet, and that’s Index Card for the iPad. When it comes to outline, I haven’t found anything that compares. I intend on doing a separate blog for that app.
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Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of gritty crime dramas about murder, mystery, and family. And he also writes nonfiction books, including Simply Put: The Plain English Grammar Guide and the No Mistakes Careers series as well as other books on grammar, fantasy, publishing, writing, and children’s fiction and nonfiction.
When Giacomo isn’t writing, he’s helping his wife take care of the animals on their sanctuary. At last count, they had forty animals—seven dogs, one horse, six cats, and twenty-five pigs.
Oh, and one crazy—and very large—wild boar, who used to take walks with Giacomo every day.
He lives in Texas, where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with forty loving “friends.”
Mike Landis
Giacomo Giammatteo
Mona Curington
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