iPad Apps for writers

Okay, I'm back with another post on apps for writers. Now that I've got an iPad, it's a bit easier to suggest what works and what just looks cool.

First, are two apps for tracking submissions to publishers. The first, TOTAL SUBMISSION is priced at $2.99 and has a very attractive visual layout. It's sort of like looking at a page in a notebook with stickie notes on it. Essentially, you enter in the story information (Title, word count genre and notes) and then you enter in all your prospective markets (Example, mine has Samhain Publishing, Loose ID etc) For the publisher, there's spaces to enter, Name, genre, word limit, status (open or closed) pay, responds in, editor, type (print/online/both) and address and notes.

Now, you've just sent out a submission, sending your story to Samhain. You tap the story title you sent, and the publisher you sent, then enter in the date...it will generate a date for when you should expect a response, and when you do get a response, you can change the status from Waiting, to YES!, Nope! or Withdrawn.

I have a few issues with this app. It's nice to see a list of all your submissions...but I have NO CLUE how the list is organized. It's not alphabetical, it's not sorted by sent date...it seems to be totally random. I would think they'd be sorted by either sent date, or status (ones you're waiting to hear about on top) but alas, that isn't so.

The second app is called STORYTRACKER, and is a bit more expensive at $6.99. It does all the same things as Total Submission, but it does sort the submissions by send date, and has the option of allowing you to enter in how much money you've made from a sale. This is a little hard to handle when you get monthly royalty checks, unless you're super on top of it, but if you are selling to magazines, it might be nice to see how much a story or article earned, first at each market, then in total. It's not as visually attractive, but it is easy to use and clearly shows what you need to know.

Both apps have a serious omission for authors who write longer works. When you write novellas or novels, you don't get paid by the word, line, paragraph, page or submission. You get royalties. Neither apps take this into account on the pop up menu for the pay section. It's not a huge deal, because you can enter the royalty rate in the notes section, but it's clear the designers were intending it to be used by people who write short stories or articles for magazines.

So, if you're a serious writer, and want to keep track of your submissions on your ipad/ipod/iphone these are both good choices. Another note, Total submission is only for ipad, where Storytracker is for all devices.

As always, if you have any good apps for writers, let me know. I'm always looking for something new to try and a new way to procrastinate.