The Best Writing Software Options for Anyone Publishing an Ebook
Ollie Ander
Is probably just a couple cats in a trench-coat—the hair shedding and sunlight napping are highly suspect.
There’s an ever-growing gap in the publishing industry between what’s being read and what’s being physically bought. Although some are scrambling for beautiful hardback special editions of their favorite series, there’s a disparity in consumer interest for the average physical release. With rising material cost, smaller authors are struggling to justify print runs at all. This trend in mind, many authors are making the conservative choice to only release digitally—perhaps you are too?
The following is a list of the best writing software that provide ebook formats, which could save you a pretty penny and get you self-published quicker.
Word Clones
$ Microsoft Word$ and all the adjacent clones of that program are an easy means to produce an ebook. Since ebook text is adaptive, your provided document doesn’t need to be static (like a PDF). As long as you appropriately add spacers in the document and make Chapters into Heading format, most ebook distributing platforms can take care of the rest. A well formatted .DOC file is enough.
Any basic word processor could do the trick, including $ Google Drive/Documents$ , $ LibreOffice$ , and even older versions of Microsoft Word back to 2013 (which don’t require a subscription plan).
Scrivener
A tried, true, and beloved application since its release in 2007, Scrivener is heralded as the first program of its kind: designed by writers, for writers. $ Scrivener$ 3 released in 2017 can be bought with a lifetime license ($79.99) or offered with discount to owners of previous versions. The application runs on all mainstream Operating Systems (OS). Scrivener 3 can export in .TXT, .RTF, .DOC, .MD, .PDF, and more, which is all you will ever need for an ebook.
Unlike later mentions, however, Scrivener does have a bit more of a learning curve. It has the barebones functions of progress and project tracking. Although you can organize any part of your drafting phase into Scrivener, its layout is entirely malleable. If you have a cluttered brain, that may translate to your Scrivener files too. Scrivener can get the job done for writing, and producing an ebook-ready file, but if you want applications that also provide structure, keep reading!
Reedsy Studio
Reedsy just released updated information on its online writing app in early 2025. $ Reedsy Studio$ ’s press release promises a combined experience for your Planning, Writing, and Publishing phrases.
In Planning there are some comprehensive wordcount and planning tools, including congratulatory/motivational emails on your progress. Extra files on worldbuilding (etc) have separate tabs for organization.
While writing, your text is aligned with how it will look on a page (in paperback) which is far handier than clunkier tools which provide a separate window of how text will look on a device—although this feature is less useful when only publishing in ebook. Chapters and meta data are kept separate and draggable in a sidebar.
The real draw for Reedsy Studio, however, lies in its accessibility in incorporating editing peers through Reedsy. You can do in-time edits and writing alongside other users.
Reedsy Studio’s export options can be in .DOC, .EPUB, or Print-Ready PDF, but the styles of export formats are standardized with only three options of font templates. This is not a drawback to ebooks but would be quite limiting for physical release. Reedsy Studio is currently free and accessible on any OS’s online browser.
Novelpad
$ Novelpad$ is the writing application devoted to your quality of life, introducing even more functions for your ease of writing than you probably knew you needed: A clean, streamline writing application to keep you focused, the ability to divide by chapters/sections (even $ Scene Cards$ ), and colour-code to keep things $ structured by your outline$ as you go. The $ Insight Board $ is your own personal index to your WIP. Novelpad has shareable links for collaboration and to receive feedback but is not wholly integrated for editing services.
On top of having tools for word count tracking and $ goal setting features$ , Novelpad has extra safety nets for your writing progress. Not only is it available in online browser and offline application, it keeps save states so you can $ rewind to previous versions$ , should need be. Novelpad is all about getting you writing and finishing your project.
You can export from Novelpad in .DOCX, .EPUB, or Markdown formats—perfect for those wishing to exclusively write, write, write and publish their ebook. Novelpad is available through monthly ($15) or annual ($120) subscription. It works through any online browser or OS, and is able to be downloaded for offline use (even on mobile).
The apps included on the list above were specifically picked for prioritizing the process of writing and producing an ebook, which precludes some that can also format for print but are not optimal to the writing experience, such as: Vellum, Atticus, Ulysses, and Adobe InDesign. Although with those apps you can see your writing as it may appear on-page, that feature is more useful for print, and not necessary for ebooks (as the distribution of text on every device will be different).
If you’re looking to do something fancier with the type-fonts or chapter headers in your book, outside of the simplicities of an ebook, here’s an article breaking down the pros and cons of some of the $ Best Book Formatting Tools$ .
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