Book writing software: why a free app is enough, and how to choose one

Stage 6 of this guide covers how to draft each chapter. This page covers where the words live while you do it.

The habit matters more than the app

Searching for the right writing app feels like progress. It is not. Every hour spent comparing tools, importing files and learning shortcuts is an hour not spent on the chapter that is due this week. If you stall, the cause is far more likely a thin plan or irregular sessions than your software, and no app fixes either one.

A test we suggest: if you have written fewer than 5,000 words of your book, you do not yet know what you need from software. Write those words in whatever is already on your computer. The problems you hit (lost files, a chapter you cannot find, an editor who cannot read your format) will tell you what to change. Problems you imagine in advance usually do not show up.

What a nonfiction author actually needs

Nonfiction books are built from chapters, stories and research, then shaped by an editor. That makes the list short:

• One file for the book, or one file per chapter. Either works. Separate chapter files are easier to send, reorder and back up, and a problem in one file never touches the rest.
• An outline view or headings navigation. Use real heading styles for chapter titles and sections, and the app can list them in a sidebar so you can jump around a long document.
• Comments and track changes. Your editor and early readers will mark up the text. You need to see each change and accept or reject it.
• Version history and a backup. You will cut a passage and want it back. You will also, one day, lose a laptop.
• Export to Word (.docx). Most editors, and many publishers and designers, work in Microsoft Word files. Whatever you draft in, you need to hand over a clean .docx.
• A way to work offline. If you write on planes or with weak Wi-Fi, check how your tool behaves offline before the day you need it.

Everything else (corkboards, themes, goal meters, typewriter sounds) is optional. Some writers find those features help them focus; none of them is required to finish a book.

The main options

What follows comes only from each maker's own website and help pages, read on October 25, 2026. Prices and features change, so check the maker's page before you pay for anything.

Google Docs (free)

Google says anyone with a Google Account can create in Docs; paid Workspace plans add business features. Docs builds a document outline from your headings, lets others suggest edits that you approve or reject, keeps version history you can restore or name, and can save a document as .docx. You can edit offline in Chrome or Edge after turning offline access on. A strong choice if you want to share chapters with readers easily.

Microsoft Word (free on the web, paid on the desktop)

Microsoft offers Word for the web for free, with files saved in and shared from OneDrive. The desktop apps come with paid plans; on Microsoft's US page, Microsoft 365 Personal is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Word has track changes (including in Word for the web), comments, a Navigation pane that lists your headings, and version history for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Since .docx is Word's own format, nothing needs converting before it goes to your editor.

Apple Pages (free)

Apple says Pages, Keynote, Numbers and Freeform remain free for everyone; an optional Apple Creator Studio subscription adds premium templates and content. Pages has a table of contents sidebar for moving around, track changes and comments, a way to browse and restore earlier versions, and export to Word. A natural fit if you work on a Mac and your editor is happy to receive an exported file.

LibreOffice Writer (free)

LibreOffice is free and open source, offered "at no cost to you," and describes Writer as a word processor for everything up to full-length books. Writer can record and display changes, insert comments, jump around the document with the Navigator, store versions inside a file, make a backup copy every time you save if you turn that on, and save as a Microsoft Word file. A good choice if you want a full desktop word processor without a subscription.

Scrivener (paid)

Scrivener, from Literature & Latte, is built for long projects: a binder, corkboard and outliner for breaking a manuscript into pieces, comments and annotations, snapshots of a section before you revise it, automatic saves and backups, and a compile step that exports to Word, PDF and other formats. It is a paid licence for each platform, with a 30-day free trial; the store page lists the iPad and iPhone version at US$23.99. Worth a trial if you like to see and rearrange the whole book at once. If you choose it, learn the compile step well before your editor deadline.

ghostwriter (free, distraction-free)

ghostwriter, made by KDE, is a free and open source Markdown editor built around distraction-free writing: a full screen mode, a focus mode that fades everything except the text around the cursor, an outline sidebar for jumping between sections, live word counts, and autosave with file backup options. Its documentation says export options depend on processors such as Pandoc that you install yourself. It does not state Word export, comments or track changes, so treat it as a drafting room and move finished chapters into a word processor for editing.

How to choose in five minutes

1. Already comfortable in one of these? Use it. Familiarity beats features for a project that runs for months.
2. Sharing chapters with readers or a co-author as you go? A browser-based tool such as Google Docs or Word for the web makes sharing a link simple.
3. Want everything on your own computer, with no subscription? LibreOffice Writer, or Pages on a Mac.
4. Constantly rearranging sections, or managing heavy research? Try Scrivener's free trial on one real chapter before buying.
5. Distracted by everything on screen? Draft in a distraction-free editor, then move the text into a word processor for editing.

Then stop choosing. Commit to the tool for the whole first draft and review the decision only if something actually breaks.

Wondering whether an AI tool belongs in the mix? Our guide to whether AI can write a book covers where it helps, where it hurts, and the platform rules on AI content.

A setup that works with any of them

1. Make one folder for the book

   Everything for the book lives in it: chapter files, your outline from Stage 3, a research subfolder and a notes file. If you cannot find a file in ten seconds, it is in the wrong place.

2. Use one file per chapter

   Short files open quickly, are easy to send one at a time, and keep a mistake contained. You will combine them into one manuscript when the draft is done.

3. Use real heading styles

   Apply your app's Heading 1 to the chapter title and Heading 2 to each section, instead of making text big and bold. Headings drive the outline sidebar, and they carry over into the Word file your editor opens.

4. Set a backup rule and keep it

   Keep the book in two places that cannot fail together, such as a cloud folder and a drive or second service. At the end of each week, save a dated copy of the whole folder. Test once that you can open the backup.

5. Use one naming rule

   Number chapters so they sort in order, and put dates in year-month-day form so the newest version is easy to find.

If you prefer to talk your chapters out and transcribe them, the transcript still lands in these same chapter files; the setup does not change.

Handing the manuscript to an editor

• Ask first. Most editors want a .docx file, one for the whole manuscript or one per chapter. Ask which, and whether they want a particular font or spacing.
• Export a copy, keep your original. Send a .docx from Docs, Pages, Writer or Scrivener, and keep working files untouched. Open the exported file yourself before you send it to check headings, italics and notes came through.
• Expect track changes. The file will come back with changes marked and comments in the margin. Accept or reject each one; do not just turn tracking off, which hides the marks without resolving them.
• One version in play at a time. While the editor has the file, do not keep revising your copy. Otherwise you will merge two sets of changes by hand.
• Rename what comes back. Save the returned file with a new date so you always know which is the current manuscript.

Stage 7 covers what to do with the edits themselves.

Mistakes that cost authors weeks

• Tool-hopping. Moving the book to a new app every few chapters means re-learning, re-importing and fixing broken formatting each time. Choose once per draft.
• Formatting while drafting. Fonts, page layout and chapter-opening designs are the designer's job, after editing. Use heading styles and plain body text, and leave the rest.
• No backup. A dead laptop or a synced deletion can take months of work with it. Two places, a weekly dated copy, and one test restore.
• Many copies of the same chapter. "Chapter 4 final," "Chapter 4 final 2" and "Chapter 4 USE THIS" guarantee you edit the wrong one. The naming rule prevents it.
• Paying before writing. Buy software only after a free trial on a real chapter shows it solves a problem you actually have.

Further reading

The Scribe Method, Scribe's free book on writing and publishing, has a short chapter arguing that the only software you need to write a book is already on your computer, and that the search for the perfect tool is often a way to avoid writing.