In 2021, I released my book Evergreen Affiliate Marketing. It took me roughly 2 years to write, edit and publish. The horse that carried me through the process was the writing software Scrivener.
Scrivener is a magnificent tool that makes writing books of any length feel manageable. That is of course after you fight through the steep learning curve. Once you learn how to use a critical mass of the smorgasbord of features, you can unleash unreal writing productivity.
So, why am I not using it for my next book?
Here’s are 5 reasons why.
#1 Mobile Functionality
To really harness my true writing potential, I need to be able to jot down ideas and content on the go.
Just like everyone else, I’m not immune to writer’s block. However, I do believe that I am more prone to “writer’s inspiration,” and I need to be able to quickly capture my thoughts before they fade away.
Right now, for example, I’m composing this post at home, on a Sunday separated by 4 miles from my iMac at my office space.
While scrivener does offer a mobile application, it’s a bit of a disaster. Saving data is a mess and it’s just not the same feel as the desktop application.
#2 Notion Gives Me an All in One Book Launch Solution
Every aspect of my book can me held inside of pages in a Notion.so workspace.
The core pages I need for my entire book. Each of these pages can be expanded.
Although I can technically plan my promotion schedule in Scrivener, it’s not the same as the timeline functionality of Notion.
Notion has functionality similar to tools like Trello that allow you to create calendars, due dates and task boards.
Scrivener doesn’t offer anything like this.
Although I am extremely proud of the substance of my last book, my launch was amateur at best. I had no plan for promotion or growing pre launch hype.
Notion makes this part front and center and very manageable.
#3 Clipping Research
Any decent author will acknowledge that most of writing a great book is researching the topic. To truly maximize the value of my research, I need to be able to organize in a way that can help me quickly reference it when I start writing.
Although Scrivener has some great functionality for research, Notion has way more fire power.
Notion makes it easy to save content directly to my research page from any device. I can also clip web pages using their free web clipper app.
With Notion, there aren't any unnecessary steps between research and composition.
#4 Collaboration
Saving files is a nightmare but it's a walk in the park compared to collaborating with others inside of Scrivener.
Notion.so is built for collaboration. I can easily grant access to pages, assign tasks and more.
When someone makes edits to something, it is immediately saved and can be viewed by anyone with access.
There is no need to save and do the elaborate song and dance that you need to do with Scrivener.
#5 Continuity
Although Notion is amazing and has all of the functionality I could ask for, the fact that I use it consistently for everything I do now is where it really becomes truly valuable.
My Notion account is like my second brain. It is where I store everything I need for my businesses.
This is actually why I don’t encourage people who have been long time users alternative tools like Evernote to jump ship and come to Notion. The value is in what you create and store, not the tool itself.
By composing my book in Notion, I keep that continuity rolling and the value grows.
If you're just burnt out or disenchanted with Scrivener, here are 10 other Scrivener alternatives worth checking out (the author of this one didn't include Notion in the list).