Julie Broad (founder of Book Launchers) evaluates writing apps aimed at nonfiction authors, focusing on organization, outlining, distraction-free writing, AI assistance, and export/formatting. She recommends Atticus as an all-in-one writing-and-formatting tool (good for simple interiors but limited for professional design and editor workflows) and Dibly Create as her top choice for AI-powered outlining and overcoming writer’s block; she also briefly mentions Notion, Evernote and Scrivener as alternatives. The video emphasizes that no app replaces the author’s work and that the best tool is the one the writer is most comfortable using.
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Wondering if an app could help you get your book written faster and maybe even better. Well, if you are, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host at this fabulous channel, Book Launchers tv. Writing a nonfiction book isn't just about typing words. It's about organizing, organizing research, structuring ideas and keeping momentum. The right writing app can help, but which one and how do they work? Alright, so just a caveat. On this video, we are focused on nonfiction authors. So. So we're looking at apps that help with writing and structuring factual books, not fiction focused tools that help you with characters and worlds and all of that fun stuff. And I'm also not talking about tools that just act as a vessel for your words, like Google Docs or Word or even Scrivener to a point. In this day of AI, we want a program that does more than just let you type into it. Also, in that same vein, I'm also not including ChatGPT or Claude in this because they're general tools, not book writing. Got it. All right, so with that in mind, what makes a good writing app for nonfiction? Well, before jumping in, let's quickly define what makes a great writing app for a nonfiction author. In my view, we're looking for something that has easy organization. Nonfiction books require structuring ideas, managing research and keeping track of chapters. Ideally, distraction free writing. The best app will let you focus on writing without unnecessary distractions, probably AI or smart assistance. Some modern apps now help with outlining, improving flow or generating content ideas. I also think it should have seamless formatting or exporting, so the ability to structure and format content for easy publishing. So here's my top three writing apps for nonfiction authors. But I kind of cheat. You'll see what I mean in a minute. Now, many people will tell you Scrivener is the best. But me, I have a major dislike for it because I think it's too complicated and it's not on my list at all because I own it and tried it and used it and I spent more time trying to figure out how to use it than I did writing. So I went back to Word. Mostly. When I write, I use Word with the Internet turned off. That's just how I roll. But you might be more fancy than that. And so here are some options I do like and I can recommend, number one, Atticus. It's to me a great all in one solution for writing and formatting. And I think it's best for authors who want a complete writing and book formatting solution in one place. When I say formatting I do want to be clear. This is for the interior design of your book and it works, but it's not a replacement for a great designer or a keen eye. I had a client bring their book to us and he'd spent two days trying to get it just right in Atticus and said the images never did go where I wanted them to and I didn't like some of the spacing issues. So we ended up exporting it and custom designing it in Adobe and it looks beautiful. Now if your book is simple without a lot of images, Atticus will do the trick. If you want your book to have the polish of a traditionally published book that can sit on a bookstore shelf, hire a designer and skip Atticus. I wrote my book Self Promote and succeed in it and I did a full video a few years ago. Now the tool has improved since since that video and we have had clients use it. Nobody loves the experience of writing in it, but a few have said they really did think it was a strong option and they're happy they used it. Have you used Atticus? Let me know below. I'm curious what you think and what your current opinion is of it. Now if you do like Scrivener and the ability to move your book chapters around, which was my favorite feature of Scrivener even though I didn't like Scrivener, I really did like that. That is a feature of Atticus and was my favorite feature of Atticus. It also has great motivation with the word count and goal counter or it has a distraction free writing mode as well and you can go full screen which helps keep you focused while also having easy navigation to organize chapters. It also has a cross platform and cloud based tool. It works on Mac, Windows, Chromebooks and even mobile which makes it accessible and easy, which I think is great. And there's no subscription fee. It's one time and I think it was $147 and it includes all updates so you pay for it once and use it for a lifetime. Atticus streamline the process from first draft to publication and I think it's a decent option. The big thing that keeps me from recommending it like from the rooftops is that it when you want to work with a professional editor, because you want a professional editor you can invite them. But we work with a lot of editors and almost entirely they prefer to work in Word so you're going to have to export it from Atticus and edit it in Word, then you'd have to load it back in and this gets messy. Word does not understand the formatting in Atticus, so so you lose all the formatting except chapter titles and that was a big drawback. It also doesn't have AI features built in. At least it hasn't recently. That may have changed when you're watching this video. So overall I'm an Atticus fan, but it is not my first choice. All right, my second recommendation is Dibly Create and I think this is best for AI powered writing and book structuring. This is probably my first choice of the apps because it's a robust tool that helps battle writer's block and even helps you build your outline. Dibly Create at the pro level helps you generate book outlines, organize chapters, structure your manuscript faster and you have tokens that roll over so you can use if you don't use them all one month, they just build up and up and up and you use those tokens for generating outlines and ideas. And it has sections and tools to help keep track of your ideas and organize them into logical book sections. Kip is their built in AI tool and it's your writer's block battling buddy and it offers suggestions for improving clarity, flow and engagement as you write. They have built in collaborative features so it works for co authors and beta readers to collaborate within the platform. I really do love Dibly Create. I did have an author tal me. They had a glitched on them and they lost some work, but I believe they reached out to Dibli and actually got the work recovered through the support team. Personally, when I tackle my next book I'll be using Dibly Create and I'll let you know how that goes. It was going to be this year. However, we have some exciting news with a software project launching very soon so I'm focusing on that and a second edition of Self Publish and Succeed. So not the new book yet. Here's where I'm cheating number three. I'm kind of lumping some other things together because I don't use them, but I know people who love them for different reasons and I just really wanted to make sure they were mentioned in this video. First thing is notion and it is great for organizing research outlines, brainstorming ideas. It's not really great for long form writing, but it's still an app that will help you write your book if you want a way to organize yourself. So that's why it's here. Also Evernote Fantastic for research and note taking. Again, not ideal for writing long manuscripts. And of course there's Scrivener, which I mentioned at the start. I think it's overkill for a nonfiction book, but I do know some people who love it and if you're using notion and loving it, I think Scrivener is probably a good one for a notion match. Plus it has the long form writing capabilities and the ability to move chapters around and restructure. Ultimately, no app is going to write your book for you. Well, actually the AI with Dibly Create will actually write your book for you. But I recommend you write the book so you create your own intellectual property that you can protect and you have a book that is better than something AI can write. But the right tool can remove friction and make the process smoother for you. Fighting that dreaded writer's block is powerful and that's why Dibly Create is my choice choice for the app and I think KIP will keep you from getting stuck if you struggle with organization, focus or structuring your book. A writing app can speed things up and reduce frustration. But ultimately, if you're comfortable writing in Google Docs or Word and you have a solid system in place, don't overcomplicate things. My answer to all authors who are looking for tools to write is always the same. The best tool is the one you're most comfortable writing in, so you can just focus and get your words on the page to send it to an editor to polish you into brilliance. If you're getting too caught up in choosing a tool instead of just writing, you're wasting time. So please stay focused on the most important task at hand, which is getting words out of your head onto the page. If you do want to check out Dibli, we do have an affiliate relationship with them and you can send us a few bucks and let them know we sent you by going to book launchers.com dibley I'll put the link below. What tool is your favorite and what did I miss? Because there's so many tools out these days? Tell me in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you get entered to win some of our swag and you move one step closer to being a YouTube bestie like Steven Searle, Debbie Martin, Kevin Hall, Emily Romero. Well thank you all of you for your likes, shares and comments. Happy writing Whatever tool you use, writing a hashtag noboringbook is about so much more than apps and software. So join our free community to get support, guidance and fun to help you get your book done. Book launchers.com schooltojoin See you on the inside.
