Julie Broad (founder of Book Launchers) answers a viewer question about what software to use to write a book. Using a personal anecdote about buying and trying Scrivener, she argues that the choice of writing software (Scrivener, Vellum, Wattpad, Vellum, etc.) is far less important than simply using whatever document editor the writer already knows (Word, Google Docs, Pages, Notepad) and spending time actually writing. She emphasizes focusing on making the book engaging and valuable for the ideal reader, warns against letting tool research delay writing, and highlights Book Launchers’ coaching/support services and the emotional rollercoaster of writing.
Chapters
Have you been told you need to use Scrivener to write your book? Or maybe you were told to write your drafts in Wattpad or maybe Vellum? If you're wondering what software you need to write your book in, today's video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers, a fantastic, supportive company that will help you write, publish and promote a business and brand boosting nonfiction book. We don't just edit or just market your book. We take a really holistic approach to helping you create the best possible book that is most likely to achieve your goals. There's a really important reason that our hashtag is no Boring Books and we even put it on a mug. We want your book to be so much more than a business card book. We want something awesome that people will share and tell others about. We want your book to be a game changer for you and for at least a few of the folks reading it. A great book can do that and your book should be great. If you want our help creating a game changing book, please reach out right here. Book launchers.com application so if you're like Carol Starr, you might be feeling confused about all the advice out there about the different software you should use to write your book. Here's what she wrote. I heard about Scrivener from a famous published author friend. I found a reference to Vellum. I found you what is the best tool for a beginner writer who wants to publish ebooks on Amazon and hardcover nonfiction books? This is such a great question. And first of all you care and you want to write the best possible book. So of course you want to use the best possible tools. It makes sense. Here's my take though. I started writing a new book all about self publishing successfully. You know some of the fun stuff we talk about here. And as I was doing that I thought I want a company helping people write books. I better use the best tools for this so I get where you're going with this. So I went out and I bought Scrivener, which is what all my writer friends were telling me I had to to use. I opened it up and I was like what the. I started typing on a page and then saw this corkboard feature. So I ended up messing around with that. Then I was like, oh, it looks like I should organize things by chapter. So I spent an hour setting up chapters and then I was struggling to find a few things that are normal functions in Word. So I started watching YouTube videos to figure it out. Then I found all these other features. Five hours into it, I hadn't written a word on my book. I realized I don't need fancy software to write my book. I just need to sit my butt to down at a computer and type. I can type in Notepad, Google Docs, Word pretty much anywhere I normally would create documents. And it's way more efficient than using these fancy software systems. What I really need to do is spend time making sure my book is interesting, engaging, and delivering a ton of value for my ideal reader. So that's my answer to you. Stop wasting time pursuing the best software to write your book in. This is not the software you'll use to publish your book. It's just what you need to take the words from your head to your fingers and onto the page so someone else can edit, refine and polish your work. I'm especially talking to you if you're the kind of person who's going to research the heck out of this. What do you currently use to type up a document? That's the software you should use to write your book, period. You know it, you're comfortable in it. Your energy can go towards the most important thing you need to worry about as someone writing a book, and that is making sure that what you're writing is good. It has an awesome hook, and it's going to help your ideal reader that you want to reach. Writing a book is scary, and I know how much easier it is to worry about how to write it than actually sit down and get to work. By the way, this is also why we have amazing writing coaches on our team to help you work through your ideas, review what you're writing as you do it, and support you through the emotional rollercoaster of book writing. It is terrifying. And I've talked about it before, that you're gonna go through this crazy ride of oh my gosh, everybody's gonna want to read my book. It's so amazing. I'm gonna sell so many copies and help so many people too. This sucks. I'm gonna quit. Who am I to write this anyway? Nobody wants to read it. 2. Is anybody even gonna care if I write this book? And. And then I can't wait to hear what everybody thinks about this book. I've really nailed this idea. And on and on and on through that emotional rollercoaster of constant self doubt. Are you excited yet? Makes you really want to do this, doesn't it? But the time you're figuring out whether you should use Scrivener or some other software is just delaying the inevitable rollercoaster ride and it's not going to make your book any better. So again, let me say this. Whatever software you already use, whether it's Word Pages on your Mac, Google Docs, those are great for writing. And that's the key you have to write. So stop your research. Just go get writing. And I can't wait to read what you're working on. Share it below in the comments. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some great book launcher swag. If you have a question, I just might shoot a video for you like I did for Carol. And make sure you subscribe to the channel and turn those notifications on so we can become YouTube besties. Because I truly appreciate each and every one of my YouTube besties like Marnie Spencela, Bonnie Bullock, Ron Neitzel, and Lisa Rivera. Thank you so much for for your comments and support. So now if you're wondering how to get started writing your book, there's a video for that or how to start your chapters. So you're writing a page turning nonfiction book. There's a video for that too. Head on over to these videos and I'll see you there. I can't wait to keep hanging out with you.
