We review ebooks, courses and tools for writers, so you can make good decisions about how to invest in your writing career.
Ebook: Writing For The Web
About the creator: Will Moyer is a web designer and front-end developer who loves writing and clean design.
Price: $4.99
Who It’s For: Writers, bloggers and editors who want to streamline their content-creation and collaboration processes.
If you’re already tech-savvy (e.g., you’ve explored a variety of writing tools and are comfortable with HTML), this book won’t add much to what you already know.
However, if you’re frustrated with your existing writing tools and want to learn about your collaboration options beyond emailing Word docs back and forth, you’ll want to check it out.
What It Will Help You Do: This is a logical, practical, no-nonsense look at a writer’s workflow and toolbox. The book helps you analyze your current tools and process and identify opportunities to make it easier, more comfortable, and more efficient.
Will’s list of suggested plain text editors and collaboration tools for different writing preferences gives you the chance to find one that works for you, whatever your needs. (Want to switch back and forth between your Windows laptop and your iPad? Need to share your work with a client who only accepts Word docs? There’s an option for that.)
The book also includes a gentle intro to HTML and CSS; while Will acknowledges that writers don’t need to know a lot about programming, they do need to understand enough to see how it affects their digital content’s presentation.
The Best Part: Will’s conversational style makes the book easy to read; he clearly explains technical concepts and addresses concerns for the non-technical writer. His list of tools and explanation of how to link them together into a workflow is helpful to those interested in overhauling their writing processes. The resource links at the end are great as well.
The book outlines a variety of options and leaves the choice in the reader’s hands — how will you create your own toolbox?
What Would Make It Even Better: As Will freely admits, the book is just one guy’s opinion on writing workflow options. Having said that, it’s a pretty well-thought-out one.
Our Recommendation: If you’re considering making a change to your workflow, this book will help you find and understand tools that can make you more efficient.
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