Open source book publisher software

You can also view revision history, in case you accidentally delete or change something that you want to restore. Additional features streamline the collaboration process, such as sharing your work with others. Be it your co-author, editor, you are a click away.

You can also use the track changes feature for the editing process, so you can see exactly what your editor has changed. Note: A major downside to using Google Docs as your book writing software is that it does not support heavy formatting and outlining. Therefore, writing an entire book on this platform can be a bit challenging, but you can still use it for short stories , articles and note-keeping.

If you are a novelist and need to be able to write a well-planned and structured novel, then this software is for you. Developed by Simon Hynes , a programmer and author, this program was especially designed for other book writers. It can be frustrating using a regular word processing tool to structure your novel. Since yWriter was designed for novel writers, it features an organization component to help you plan and structure your book.

This can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on your needs. However, if you only write in one area and on one device, this might not be a big deal. Note: Since yWriter is a free book writing software specifically designed for authors, it does not come with any templates. Evernote has both a free, and paid version. You can use the free version as a word processor and note-taking software, or pay for the premium version if you want extra perks. This makes it a useful book writing software because the same note-taking organization principles can be integrated into the process of writing a book.

The ability to create notebooks, tags, and sort information, as well as robust AI-suggested content means that this book writing software is a power-house for personalization. With enough tweaks and adaptability, Evernote is a super versatile program that you can adjust to fit your needs best.

Anyone who is in the process of writing a book knows how often a random surge of inspiration, or piece of research, hits us as we write. Evernote is perfect for housing all of our inspirational quotes or research, without derailing our book writing efforts altogether.

Related: Inspirational Writing Quotes. Also, consider the costs of your initial investment — will it pay for itself when you start earning book profits? Novelize was developed by writers, for other writers. The app is characterized by a clean, minimal interface with convenient built-in tools to make writing your novel easy in one dedicated platform.

Unlike other book writing software on the market that requires you to download a program to your computer, the Novelize app can be accessed on any device that has access to the Internet. If you want to try the app out first before committing, take advantage of the day free trial , and continue with the service if you choose to pay.

While writers can use this app for writing a nonfiction book, the overall set-up looks to be more conducive for fiction novel writing.

The layout of the app is simplistic and minimal, with plenty of white space. The tabs and field text are in a soft gray, to limit distractions. The Novelize team understands that for most writers, simple is better! One of the perks that sets this book writing software apart from others is that it has a built-in tool to develop characters.

The tool includes a Name Generator, and a template for adding character stats, internal and external conflicts, relationships, and more. Trying to hit a specific writing goal? Novelize has you covered. To be fair, they team are open about this limitation but I think it should be mentioned because it's a serious gotcha for people looking to self-publish their masterpiece.

Create great flyers, newsletters, brochures, and more with open source software. Image by :. Get the highlights in your inbox every week. How do you design for print?

Choices I primarily use an open source tool. I primarily use a proprietary tool. I rarely design for print. Scribus Scribus is the gold standard when it comes to open source desktop publishing. LibreOffice Don't want to learn a new program?

Markup The third option, and, hear me out, is to use a markup language. Bonus: Inkscape While Inkscape isn't by any means a graphics layout application, vector illustration applications have been used for layout by many a professional artist. Editor's note: This article was originally published in July and has been updated. Topics Art and design. About the author. Jason Baker - I use technology to make the world more open. Linux desktop enthusiast. Raspberry Pi tinkerer. Data analysis and visualization geek.

Occasional coder. Web maker. Red Hatter since More about me. He has worked in the film and computing industry, often at the same time. He is one of the maintainers of the Slackware-based multimedia production project Slackermedia. Recommended reading Run containers on Linux without sudo in Podman. Send desktop notifications and reminders from Linux terminal.

Create bookmarks for your PDF with pdftk. Gamify your creativity on Linux with Dot Matrix. Don Watkins on 07 Jul Permalink. Hans Bezemer on 08 Jul Permalink. LyX is all I need. Macharyas on 08 Jul Permalink. Mark Thomas on 08 Jul Permalink. Open source Sourcefabric Booktype software gives you seamless publishing in EPUB format to all major sellers of e-books with one click. Open-Source Publishing Software Booktype is web based, single-source publishing software for creating books, reports, manuals and more.

Important Update We are no longer developing Booktype. However, it is still free and open source. It worked fine in my case but you should keep that in mind and go through its GitHub page if needed. It works totally offline and you can create your own custom keywords to expand texts that you would use frequently.

GitBook makes use of the git version control system to keep track of changes in the document you are writing. It also enables several users to collaborate on a book. Unless you have a team to collaborate with, you may not require the paid plans. So, you can use it on any platform Linux, Windows or Mac.

Ghostwriter is a personal favorite of mine. In fact, I do all my writing in it. This application allows you to use the Markdown language to create documents. It is distraction-free markdown editor by design. One nice feature is that it will convert headings to chapters if you export to Epub.

Scribus is a free and open source desktop publishing application. It is released under GPL. Markdown is more than a tool. It is also a formatting syntax.

This means that you can write your stories in a plain text editor and then convert it to any document format or just use to conver text to HTML. All you have to do is add a series of symbols throughout the document. This is great because it prevents you from being locked into one program or file format only to see it die. In order to use Markdown, you typically need to use a text editor that supports Markdown. Ghostwriter, as mentioned above is one such useful editor to use for it.

You may refer to our list of the best Markdown editors to get a head start. Markdown is released under a custom license. AsciiDoc is another document formatting syntax. AsciiDoc has support for several option, such as footnotes, tables, cross-references, embedded YouTube videos, and more.

It can be used in the creation of notes, documentation, articles, books, e-books, slideshows, web pages, man pages, and blogs. It is released under GPL v2.