Which app is best for creative writing? Writing is an essential skill, but it can be tough. When it comes to creative writing, there are many tools and apps available today that can help you create compelling content and improve your writing. But what’s really out there and which is the best for you? We’ve put together a list of some of the most popular apps for creative writers. From outlining to editing and everything in between, these apps can help you improve your writing skills, make your work process a lot more efficient, and transform you into a fantastic writer. So if you’re looking to be more productive and organized in your writing, keep reading. ProWritingAid (Mac, Windows) ProWritingAid is a great option for writers of all levels. It is more affordable and the best alternative to Grammarly. It offers a variety of features that are tailored specifically for creative writers, such as revision tracking, word count estimation, and detailed analysis of a writer’s strengths and weaknesses. The app also has a “learn mode” that helps novice writers improve their vocabulary and grammar skills incrementally. Plus, it’s easy to use and can be accessed on any device and the customer support team is available 24/7 to help you get the most out of the app. Key benefits of ProWritingAid: detailed feedback on your grammar and spelling, which can help you to iron out any mistakes and improve your writing style a range of helpful exercises to help you improve your writing skills, and it is perfect for both beginners and experienced writers a wide variety of resources, including tips on how to write essays, articles, business letters, and more an integrated plagiarism checker ensures your work is free of plagiarism Grammarly (Web, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS) Grammarly is a… read more →
So you want to get your book published. The good news is that you have plenty of options. You could go for self-publishing, conventional publishing, also known as traditional publishing, and so many other publishing modes in-between that tend to blur the lines and make everything seamlessly blend in. The bad news is that you’ve got so many potential paths before you that it’s easy to get confused on what to do. That, my friend, is the curse of having too many options. And that’s why articles like this one exist: they tell you what you need to know so you can see the forest from the trees and make a more informed choice. To publish or to be published? Thomas Hayes, an expert essay writer, author of several top resume writing services, and a partner at many prestigious publishing and marketing firms, understands how the arcane world of publishing works and has quite a lot to say about the eternal question that faces every newbie writer. “We live in a digital world. What that means is that we all get plenty of options when it comes to sharing our work. This is especially true for those who want their thoughts and ideas turned into books, whether physical or digital. The thing is, though, that while everyone can write a book or have a book written for them, not everyone is going to be accepted by a conventional publisher.” Conventional Publishing So what, exactly, is conventional publishing all about? Basically, the publisher will read your proposal, if you’re writing a non-fiction book, or manuscript if you’re writing a work of fiction. Basically, you should think of the publisher as an investor and your book idea or manuscript as the investment. The publisher will invest their money, in the form of… read more →
When people are looking for new books to explore, there are three elements that get their attention: The cover The text at the back of the cover The introduction You’ll think about the first two elements after you write the book. The introduction, however, has no time to wait. All great books start with greatness. Do you remember the first sentence of Anna Karenina? “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” After reading that first sentence and the entire introduction, you just know that something extraordinary will follow. You know it’s more than just another love story. How do you get there? How do you craft the perfect introduction to hook the reader? We have few tips to offer. 1. Don’t Skip the It Your first chapter may be the introduction. May writers do that. Tolstoy did it. Does that mean you should do it? Not necessarily. An introduction is where you make the case. You tell the readers what this book is about and you explain why it’s an important book to read. It’s what convinces the readers your book has value. Do you know how George R.R. Martin started A Game of Thrones? With a prologue. The author gets straight into the story, but this feels like an introduction we definitely need for the complex plot that follows. 2. Find the Hook Your first sentence is a hook. When a book’s cover gets someone’s attention in the store, they will skip through the text on the back of the cover. Most people will then get to the first page of the introduction. They will read the first sentence. Will it make them pick up the book? Let’s check out an example: Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin. This is how… read more →
You’ve written a book, and it’s the best thing ever! So, now you want people to read it. How do you get it to them? In our current publishing world, there’s three major options. You can contact a traditional big publisher, who – if everything goes well – will buy the rights to your book, edit it, put a cover on it, market it and send you money when it sells. You can contact a smaller independent (indie) press, who have the flexibility to take chances on unusual work, and who are more likely to involve you in the details of publishing – but who don’t have the same marketing reach as the big publishers, and won’t sell quite as many as the big traditionals. Avoid anyone who asks you for money to publish (known as ‘vanity press’) with the promise of royalties in the future – it’s very likely that you’ll pay a lot and not get nearly as much back. A publisher should always cover things like editing and cover art for you, even if that means your royalty share is smaller. Or you can self-publish. This means you’re the one responsible for everything – editing, cover art, formatting, releasing, marketing, selling – so you’re putting the book out under your name, and you keep the profits from it. You can sub some of the work out (eg. hire a proofreader, purchase cover-art) but it’s down to you to sell your book to the world. And the great thing is that there are plenty of ways to do that! In this article, we’re going to briefly cover some alternative methods of getting your writing out there to your readers. While we tend to think of self-publishing as being a hard copy or ebook version of a book, that’s… read more →
We all know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but it’s a truth that a lot of us do. They’re eye-catching and make us look, but they’re also a shortcut: they give us an indication of what the book is about, and what’s inside. Swooning lady not wearing much? I don’t do romance. Spaceships and lasers? Ugh, sci-fi. Plain text and plain color? Hmm, boring. Unfortunately book covers are a major, major part of the marketing of your book. They’re also hard to get right, but you know when they are – or when they’re just not quite what you want! So, here’s some thoughts on how to make sure you’ve got an eye-catching and marketable cover for your writing. A book cover needs to do two things: give information about the book make the reader curious And that’s basically it. Simple eh? Hard Information This is definite, precise information that you need to have on the cover. There’s usually a place allocated for this – for example, you’ll look for the title in large letters, the author’s name in smaller ones, the ISBN on the back…although the format can be varied, it’s usually within fairly standard guidelines. Your name This is the name you want to be known by as an author, and the name that might be used elsewhere – for example, on your personal website, or in any promotional materials. It’s quite confusing if you’re calling yourself “Tommy Smith”, and the name on a cover is “T Smith” – I’ll be searching for books by “Tommy”. Make sure everything matches so people can find your work The title of the book A blurb The ISBN (find out more about ISBN’s here) You can add some optional extras: Reviews or taglines: “the best book in… read more →
In this article, we’re going to briefly cover the printing options for self-publishing – that is, if you want a hard copy of your book. Step 1: The Finished Text This means the book needs to be edited and proofread, with all the chapter headings in the right place, a preface and acknowledgements (if you want them) and any copyright disclaimers done. Make the text as perfect as you can. However, you don’t need to make sure the layout is perfect – if fact, it’s easier if it’s not! Make the margins all standard, and the font standard. This makes the next stage a lot easier. At this point, you can either turn the text into a print book or an ebook (or both!) Step 2: Typesetting This is the point that the text is put into a printable format. The important thing here is that typesetting is not word processing; it’s closer to artwork than it is to writing. The text positioning needs to be exact, and word processors (such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice) tend to skip the little details that make the text look nice on a printed page. There are several different pieces of software that can be used for this; one popular one is Adobe InDesign, but there are various free systems available as well. You can actually now use Word, but it’s a very different process to writing, and you usually need to use a template. Alternatively, there are a number of professionals out there who offer a typesetting service to self-publishers, often with additional services such as cover creation or proofreading as well. If you’re not too sure you want to get into the details of the typesetting process, it’s worth paying for this stage. Step 3: Thinking About The End Result There… read more →
In this article, we’re going to briefly cover the ebook creation options for self-publishing – that is, if you want an ebook copy distributed through any of the major stores. There are a couple of steps to think about before you can start with the creation process: Step 1: The Finished Text This means the book needs to be edited and proofread, with all the chapter headings in the right place, a preface and acknowledgements (if you want them) and any copyright disclaimers done. Make the text as perfect as you can. However, you don’t need to make sure the layout is perfect – if fact, it’s easier if it’s not! Make the margins all standard, and the font standard. This makes the next stage a lot easier. At this point, you can either turn the text into a print book or an ebook (or both!) Step 2: Formatting This is the point that you put the text into an ebook conversion software, and turn it into something that an e-reader can decipher. The text needs to be able to change size, font, color and layout, but still have breaks before chapters; the reader needs to be able to find the chapter headings on their navigation, and skip forward or backwards; and the book needs a cover and metadata attached to it in the file. While you can do this creation process yourself via software such as Calibre, Jutoh or Scriviner, this can be very time-consuming and you have to get the details right, as well as ensure you have all the formats needed (for example, Kindle uses a .mobi format, while most other ereaders need an .epub). Most self-published authors prefer to use an online platform such as CreateSpace or Lulu. We’ve provided some suggestions below, along with a… read more →
What is Self-Publishing? You’ve written a book, and it’s the best thing ever! So, now you want people to read it. How do you get it to them? In our current publishing world, there’s three major options. You can contact a traditional big publisher, who – if everything goes well – will buy the rights to your book, edit it, put a cover on it, market it and send you money when it sells. You can contact a smaller independent (indie) press, who have the flexibility to take chances on unusual work, and who are more likely to involve you in the details of publishing – but who don’t have the same marketing reach as the big publishers, and won’t sell quite as many as the big traditionals. Avoid anyone who asks you for money to publish (known as ‘vanity press’) with the promise of royalties in the future – it’s very likely that you’ll pay a lot and not get nearly as much back. A publisher should always cover things like editing and cover art for you, even if that means your royalty share is smaller. Or you can self-publish. This means you’re the one responsible for everything – editing, cover art, formatting, releasing, marketing, selling – so you’re putting the book out under your name, and you keep the profits from it. You can sub some of the work out (eg. hire a proofreader, purchase cover-art) but it’s down to you to sell your book to the world. And the great thing is that there are plenty of ways to do that! Over the next couple of articles, we’re going to look at options for printing, ebook and online self-publishing. But first…. Things to think about if you’re considering self-publishing Have you written the best book that you… read more →
An ISBN is an International Book Standard Number. It identifies the book, and it’s usually printed with the barcode on the back and on the book’s title page. If an ISBN was assigned before 2007, it’ll be 10 digits long. If it’s after that, it’ll be 13 digits long. The ISBN records the book’s metadata – so the publisher, the title and the country that it was published in – and is unique to that book. This means it can be easily identified by any bookseller or library. What do the numbers in the ISBN mean? The numbering system can get pretty complicated (check out the Wikipedia page if you want an in-depth analysis) but basically the numbers tell you the country, the publisher and the title, and the final digit is a checking number to ensure the code’s correct. Do I need an ISBN? Basically, yes. If you’re planning on just printing a book as a gift or a private record, you don’t need an ISBN. But if you’re planning on selling your book, or think you might want to sell it or give it away more widely in the future, you need an ISBN. What is the barcode for? Do I need a barcode? The barcode on a book is the ISBN in a machine-readable format. If you’re planning on selling hard copies of your book, then you will need a barcode. Usually, barcodes are provided by the publisher or self-publishing companies. It’s only if you’re getting your book printed privately that you’ll need to purchase a barcode along with your ISBN. Who sells ISBNs? Where can I get mine? ISBNs are sold by national agencies in each country. In the US, Bowker deals with ISBN purchases; in the UK, it’s Nielsen. If you put in “ISBN” and *your country*… read more →
Everyone knows to “use” social trying to cover all the bases. So where do you begin as an author or small publisher looking to make your mark in a clustered book world? Know what they’re good for. Each platform serves a useful and largely individual purpose in terms of promotion and engaging people with what you do. Here’s a brief, basic run through of some: Twitter: Bitesize updates, good for socialising and interacting directly with people. Facebook: Good for slightly longer statuses and more concentrated discussion. Instagram: Visual. Got a book? Post it in well-crafted pictures. Got a dog? Definitely post pictures of them. Youtube: For videos. Regularity can work well here: weekly, fornightly, monthly updates. With vloggers, you need to make sure these are of a fairly high quality to compete. Blog: WordPress, Blogspot or your website are all great places to write longform pieces about topics that are relevant to or interest you, if you’re going for straight up blogging. Or… Tumblr: Can be used for blogging but also a GIF-kingdom. Full of fandoms, and offers a little more freedom than other blogging platforms, and a readymade community. Pinterest: Where you ‘pin’ images, links and more that you like in collections for people to view and pin again. Perfect for moodboards. Linkedin: CV. It’s good for professional networking and snooping people who work for companies that you’re looking to perhaps get in touch with. Snapchat: Temporary photos and videos sent to followers’ phones. Create stories. Periscope: Live streaming, can be integrated into other platforms like Twitter easily. Reddit: A massive community that covers anything and everything. You share things and comment, upvote and downvote. You need to get to grips with subreddits, though we’d assume you’re looking for /r/write. Emails: It’s often forgotten, but setting up a mailing… read more →