A thought occurred to me recently. Is it possible to write a professional looking Kindle book for free?
Don’t misunderstand me, I love my current software tools. I use UlyssesIII, Scrivener, Scapple, Affinity Designer, Pixave, Vellum and many others. I purchased these applications over the last few years, my decisions based mostly on blog reviews. When I purchase a piece of software I want it to be intuitive, easy to use, and feature rich.
The thought turned into an idea. Could I write a book about it? I started my research a few days ago, and do you know what? I reckon you can!
The beauty of writing a book using free software is you have to get down and dirty sometimes, and that is when you learn more about the process you have taken for granted in the past.
I have found some terrific free software. Some of it is a little clunky and not terribly intuitive, but others are real gems.
Take the writing application, for example. I looked at so many, most were good but lacking certain features I had become accustomed to. Some were in beta, and even though free they might not remain so. In the end only one application met my requirements.. and then some! TextNut!
TextNut reminds me of Ulysses, it doesn’t
have quite as many features, but it is a joy to use and even offers some functionality that Ulysses doesn’t have.I wrote 3000 very enjoyable words in it yesterday with no problems at all. The beginnings of the book structure are there, and my screenshot testing went without a hitch.
It exports via HTML, RTFD, PDF and Markdown. It uses Markdown, but you can write in wysiwyg.
The developer offers an in-app purchase to allow unlimited libraries and external folders, but the 4 libraries and 2 folders are more than enough for one book. It supports themes, exports to Medium, Blogger and Wordpress, and also has a ‘Zen’ mode for distraction free writing.
I am really impressed, can you tell?
Oh, and one final unexpected surprise, there is an IOS version that will sync via Dropbox or iCloud. The IOS version is also free with the same limitations as the OSX version, but it means I can write on my iPad too!
The developer is approachable and kindly gave his consent for me to use screenshots of the app in the book. TextNut is available from both Apple app stores. Here is a link to the app website: http://www.textnutwriter.com/
Thanks to TextNut, my next few weeks won’t be all cussing and swearing as I struggle to use free software to write the book. Although formatting is something I look forward to with a quiet foreboding.
SM
