Writing Tool: iBooks

Photo credit: nikkorsnapper on Flickr

So not too long ago, I wrote a post on the awesomeness of Scrivener. Since then I’ve bought the program, and so when time came to export my NaNo WIP for the first read-through, I decided to take advantage of one of Scrivener’s very handy features: the ability to export your book as an e-book.

Now while this is a particularly handy feature for indie writers, I’d like to argue that it’s actually a fantastic feature for any writer with an e-reader, because it allows you to read your WIP away from your computer without having to print it, which is pretty fabulous if you ask me.

So as I am also an Apple person, I decided this time to export the WIP to iBooks for the initial read-through. Best. Decision. Ever.

First of all, reading on iBooks is a joy. Even my completely unformatted WIP looked beautiful and professional and it felt pretty cool to be able to read an e-book version of my WIP. But beside the prettiness, I quickly discovered that iBooks is actually a great program for the read-through. Why?

Its awesome highlighting and notes feature.

So basically if you have an iPhone or iPad, all you need to do to highlight a passage is drag your finger over the line you want to highlight with slight pressure, as if your finger was the highlighter. Ignoring the fact that I found this totally entertaining (yes, I’m rather easily amused), it also allowed me to make easy, color coded notes (there were five different colors for the highlighter, plus an underlining feature) while I was reading. As a bonus, I wasn’t tempted to edit prematurely because I couldn’t.

Even better: when time came to look back on my notes, iBooks collected all of my highlights and notes in a very easy to browse list. All I had to do to access it was jump to the table of contents and choose “Notes.” All of my highlighted passages and notes were organized by page. If I wanted to see it in context, all I had to do was tap the note and it brought me to the spot in the WIP.

Yeah. It’s pretty fabulous.

This was my first time using iBooks for a read-through, but I will definitely be using it again in the future.

Have you ever used iBooks or a program of the like for read-throughs? What was your experience like?