The Scrivener writing program, created and published by Literature and Latte, is one of the best tools for aspiring indie authors on a relatively tight budget. The program has a free 30-day trial (based on the days you use it, so if you open it only ten times in 30 days, you still have 20 days left on your subscription) and is relatively cheap ($45 USD for the Mac, $40 for the Windows). It’s a great program if you obsess about separating chapters and scenes because it allows each part of your book to be compartmentalized into folders. Hell, you can have a whole folder-ception going on in your book document if you organize that way.

One of the greatest benefits I’ve seen, though, is the ability to compile the book into an ebook without having to export to another program. I’ve read enough horror stories to know people have a hell of a time changing a writing document into the ebook format (.mobi, .epub, etc.), and was really glad I didn’t have to go through all that trouble when I bought Scrivener.

The second best thing? You can share it among family members in your household an endless amount of times. The keycode they give you literally works forever, so all you need to do is keep that thing around for easy install use.

With all these great (and cheap!) benefits, go check it out. It’s worth a look.