One thing I enjoy about in-person book events is people asking questions about writing. A great many of those inquirers are people who want to write but don’t know how to start. That answer is simple: Put butt in chair and write.

But that’s not what this post is about.

People who know I’m an indie publisher as well as author are curious about that process, and one person asked a question I hadn’t heard before.

What technology do you use?

Writing is a vocation where you can go totally analog, i.e., pen and paper, or use varying degrees of tech; dictation programs, editing programs, and so forth. I’m actually not a typical writer. I don’t outline. I plot and plan, but I find outlines constrain any spontaneity in my writing. Again, that’s me. So, I don’t use a lot of the editing, reviewing, AI-based tech.

But here’s what I do use, and disclaimer, this is what works for me. It may not work for you.

Composing

Initially, I composed using MS Word, which has a lot of great features, except when it came to editing and formatting. Current versions of Word have addressed that, but some years ago I switched to Scrivener for composing.

Like Word, Scrivener has spell check and a grammar checker. Like Word, Scrivener’s grammar checker sucks, often suggesting things like “it’s” when it should be “its” or the wrong verb tense. Grammar check gets turned off for me.

The key difference for me with Scrivener is the ease in making large scale edits. For example, a lot of my work, since it’s based on historical or current events, has a strict timeline. Quite often, scenes or whole chapters need to be reordered. In Word, that was tedious cutting and pasting and trying to remember where you wanted to move the scene or chapter to. Scrivener treats each scene as subfiles under a chapter, so you grab the scene and move it to where it needs to go, either in that chapter or to another chapter. It works the same for reordering chapters.

Scrivener has other useful tools like Character Sheets and a folder for Places, not to mention the Research folder, where you can put the links to websites you used to research and can then easily get back to them. If you’re a writer who wants to submit manuscripts to agents or publishers, Scrivener can format it easily and even include the front matter needed for a manuscript that’s submitted–all precisely spaced and structured for industry standards and using only a few clicks.

Of course, Scrivener is simply a fancy word processing program, but it’s the sometimes hidden features that are more helpful. For example, you can set a word-limit per scene or per chapter, which is helpful when a literary journal you’re submitting to sets a specific word count you can’t exceed.

The one drawback to Scrivener is that at first glance it’s complicated, and that turns many users off. There are online workshops that help and manuals and tutorials built into the program itself. I took a workshop that gave me the fundamentals, then when I had some time, I sat down and played with it.

I believe Scrivener is reasonably priced, under a hundred dollars at my last look, and the upgrades are usually free unless it’s a major upgrade. Oh, and though there’s now a PC version, it’s much more versatile on a Mac.

Editing

I edit in Scrivener as well, but I find when I want to send the manuscript to Beta readers and my editor, I use Scrivener’s Compile function to create an MS Word document. In some ways, Word is inescapable.

I don’t use programs like Hemingway or Pro Writing Aid to edit my manuscripts. In principle, I prefer my knowledge of grammar, story structure, and style to fix a rough draft. The experience I have had with such programs showed me they tend to simplify your writing too much. Trust me, readers will overlook an errant comma as long as you’ve used words in an interesting and compelling manner. I’ve also found that these programs, because they can’t read your mind, may change things from the specific way you wanted them to be. As with a human editor, don’t do an “accept all.” Look at each suggestion and decide if it enhances your story. That does require some objectivity, and writers hate to kill their darlings.

I have a couple of writer friends who use ChatGPT not to compose but to offer suggestions on grammar and style. They feed chunks of a manuscript at a time for ChatGPT to examine and improve. All well and good, but any of this type of AI “remembers” what you put in it, and you could find a piece of your work inside a manuscript someone has used AI to write in its entirety.

I have a good background in English grammar and composition, so I rely on me and the Chicago Manual of Style to do that kind of edit. When I reach the point in this process where I’m about to publish the manuscript, I use iOS’ Text to Talk feature to “read” the manuscript to me. I make notes on awkward-sounding phrasing, and this is great for finding typos.

If you don’t have a good background in grammar and punctuation, the various offerings in editing tech will help you produce a professional manuscript. Ask other authors what they use, and look at the reviews of these programs before you choose one. Also, they can be quite pricey, and some are only available on a subscription basis.

Formatting

As I mentioned above, I initially used MS Word to format a manuscript. Formatting it for print was easy; formatting for an Ebook, not so much. At first, I contracted with a formatter to create epub files for me, but that was expensive. So, I taught myself how to do it in Word. Linking a chapter in the table of contents to a chapter in the body of the manuscript was a tedious process, and for my longer works, it took days, even weeks. That was likely because I didn’t have enough experience at it.

Along came Vellum. Vellum is a program that takes a Word .docx file and creates a formatted manuscript in literally seconds. It does such a good job, that usually only minor tweaks are needed. It also adds front matter (title page, copyright page, etc.) and back matter (author bio, other books by the author, etc.). And you can add elements to the front and back matter for a truly professional “look” that equates to traditional publishing.

There are many styles to choose from for the interior of the book, and you can mix and match elements from each of the styles. You can also add illustrations and other custom artwork. Once you’re satisfied, you can generate a file for print (.pdf) and for various eBook distributors, e.g., Kindle, Nook, etc.

My initial outlay for Vellum was $249, but it had “paid” for itself after I formatted three books using it. Its updates are free.

Publishing

I primarily use Kindle Direct Publishing for eBooks and print books, and, yes, I’m aware people have issues with Amazon right now, but it is the largest distributor of eBooks and print books in the world.

I also use IngramSpark for publishing paperbacks because bookstores and libraries will buy from Ingram because any books not sold in the bookstore can be returned either to the author or to Ingram for destruction. Ingram also does eBooks, but I haven’t used them for that and have no direct experience.

Draft2Digital was initially an alternative distributor for eBooks only, but they now also create paperbacks. If you haven’t already put your eBook on Amazon, it will offer that to you. It’s list of distributors is extensive, though many are not well-known.

All three of these are free to set up and take a portion of the sales. With all three, you are responsible for marketing. There are many up and coming places to publish eBooks and print books, but beware of the hybrid publishers. Despite how they may market themselves, you’re paying them to publish your book.

As with any of this tech, speak with other authors who’ve used them. All of them have customers who are deliriously happy, and of course, there are some detractors.

Again, this is the tech that works for me, and I’d love to hear from other indie authors who do something different.