Best WordPress Plugins for Writers

The internet makes it possible for almost every writer who wishes to produce a best-selling book, without depending much on the support of a traditional publishing house. Self-publishing technologies are more easily accessible than it has ever been, allowing writers to create, edit, publish, and sell books online.

WordPress gives you various solutions with many plugins to help your writing skills and optimize the publication process. In this article, you can get some tips to choose the best plugins as well as information about the suggested plugins for writing and publishing books or online content.

How to Choose Plugins for Writing and Publication

Writing and publishing books or online content using WordPress plugins would at least require one of the following features:

• Organizing tools

• Publishing scheduler

• Status tracker

• Collaboration features and settings

• Grammar and spelling checker

• Publication showcase

• Print and export settings

Organizing Tools

As writing a book or editorial content would sometimes consist of series, scenes, or chapters, it will be helpful to use the organizing tools to arrange those series or content. Many WordPress plugins include drag-and-drop features as the interface will be much easier to use, especially for long-written publication series.

Publishing Scheduler

Creative writing can have various types of publication. There are comic artists, game books, or editorial teams that publish regular issues that depend so much on the publishing scheduler. Constant intervals in publication would be so dynamic and challenging as it deals with creative ideas and many teams to collaborate with to make sure it’s delivered on time to the reader, fans or followers.

Status Tracker

The flowing ideas and inspiration on some occasions could often pop out which results in random chapters or publication materials in the process of creative writing. The status can have options if the materials are in progress, or published

The status tracker for this work in progress can go side by side with the organizing tools and publication scheduler to make sure that each chapter or content material is well managed for a solo writer or editorial team. If the book consists of a few chapters to finish, it can also have a progress tracker to display at the front end to gain readers' engagement.

Collaboration Features and Settings

Sometimes a book or online publication is written by more than one author. Features for this collaboration work may include user permission to access the publication material, an interface to add co-author or editorial team members, editorial comments, and a notification system for tracking the writing progress if necessary.

Grammar and Spelling Checker

In order to maintain your writing quality, you need proofreading tools to check the grammar, spelling, typos, semantics, and redundant phrases. Every writer or editorial company needs to have these tools enabled before publishing online materials.

Publication Showcase

Gallery showcases for books or publication materials will be a crucial marketing component for any writers or editorial team. It can show the publication cover image, a summary or story intro, buying link, as well as some more details to get readers' attention. The publication genre or category could also be helpful information for the readers to browse the book's gallery.

Print and Export Settings

Online publications should also be easily accessed offline by the readers. This means each of the publications should have a print and export settings feature to convert the online writings into a downloadable file or instant print option. PDF or EPUB is the most popular file type to offer for convenient reading or to add to a personal collection reading folder.

8 Best WordPress Plugins for Writers

1. Writer Helper

This plugin is relatively new, nevertheless, it is pretty helpful for authors to write, edit, as well as to publish books on their websites.

The published book is integrated by shortcodes and widgets into posts or pages.

Pros and Cons of Writer Helper

Pros

Options to create and publish entire books or publish chapter by chapter

Options to create scenes inside the book chapter with a text editor and add media file features

Options to create a game book

Export a book in EPUB or text format

Can add authors and editors from the WordPress users

Options to set book statutes (draft, edit, publish, etc.)

Cons

Not many file format options to export the book

Many features are locked for the free version as pro modules or add-ons, such as Storyboard, Statistic, and Community

Writer Helper Users options are limited to Administrator only for the free version. Writers, editors, and readers option tabs require pro modules

2. MPL Publisher

MPL-Publisher allows you to self-publishing an ebook within your website. It can convert your posts to books or ebooks with an easy interface in many file format options (EPUB, Microsoft Word, Plain Text, JSON MPL-Publisher output formats)

Pros and Cons of MPL Publisher

Pros

Option to arrange posts as chapters using drag and drop

Options to input Metadata Settings

2 Paragraph styling with font pairing presets

Option to validate content for HTML errors before download

Cons

Only allow the author/ user to publish one book in the free version

Print-ready PDF books, or audiobooks only available in the pro version features

Cover editor feature only available in the pro version

3. Edit Flow

If you have a team-up editorial company, this Edit Flow plugin gives you completely free and open-source options to get your publication series done on time within a trackable workflow. All content materials are easily maintained using modular options which can be disabled or enabled to fit your need.

Pros and Cons of Edit Flow

Pros

Easier to track the progress of the publication materials using Calendar, Custom Statuses, Editorial Comments, and Metadata

Option to print list of all publications on Story Budget page. The list can be customized to include the editorial metadata that is set as “viable” data fields.

It can receive timely updates on the content using the Notification feature

Options to keep the users organized by department or function in User Groups.

Cons

No option to export individual publications in digital file format

Only focuses on the team publication tracker and organization

No custom gallery option to showcase or display the publication

4. PublishPress Series

This plugin has great features to organize your WordPress posts into series or issues. You can access the series organization options under the WordPress Posts' main menu.

Pros and Cons of PublishPress Series

Pros

Drag and drop functionality to arrange posts based on the same series

Option to add series to specific Series Categories

Option to schedule a post draft which is marked as a series part under the Manage Series menu

Cons

Grid and List View for Series option only available for the pro version

The ‘Manage Series’ page only lists the posts drafts that have one of the defaults WordPress categories, which could be irrelevant or not practical. The listing could be better and it makes sense to include the Series group itself or the Series Categories

5. SchedulePress

The SchedulePress plugin allows you to quickly add posts, then schedule them in rich features editorial calendar, and auto-share your post on social media platforms. It’s a big time saver and convenient for authors as this plugin provides Dashboard Widget to control the scheduled posts.

Pros and Cons of SchedulePress

Pros

Drag and drop posts in a visual editorial calendar to publish on a specific schedule by desired days and hours

Multiple author management for each post

Email notification settings for WordPress authors and users to receive alerts on published, trashed, and scheduled post

Social Profile and Templates to auto share posts

Cons

More advanced scheduler options, for instance with interval, manual, and missed scheduler handlers are available only in the pro version

No option to add and display more than one author or co-author although the plugin allows multiple users access with a different role

6. Print My Blog

A blog author may write a great number of article posts that will be considered important online resources for some readers. Yet there’s a quick way to convert a series of blog posts into offline publishing by using the Print My Blog WordPress plugin.

The plugin optimizes posts for print, PDF, and eBook on the front end and allows you to quickly print the entire blog to paper, PDF, or eBook.

Pros and Cons of Print My Blog

Pros

The Quick Print option will print thousands of posts in a few clicks at the back end

Provide custom settings for Print Buttons to let site visitors print individual posts

Removing ink guzzlers like site logo, sidebars, and footer

Avoiding page breaks inside images, between images and captions, and even right after headers

Cons

Digital PDFs, print-ready PDFs option at the back end only available for the pro version

WordPress posts to ePub eBooks, and Microsoft Word documents only available in the subscription plan

7. Proofreading

This plugin helps you to improve the writing quality content in your post, page, and all your WordPress website using the classic editor.

You’ll find the Proofreading option panel at the right sidebar with the ‘Analyze’ button to start the proofreading process.

Pros and Cons of Proofreading

Pros

Enable and disable types of proofreading category rules for proofreading

Supports many languages besides English

Cons

Not compatible with the Gutenberg editor yet

8. Author WIP Progress Bar

It’s a simple plugin in which you can generate a shortcode after customizing the look of the WIP Progress Bar for your book. The plugin calculates the progress by displaying the completion percentage. This method can increase your book fans' engagement in a fun way.

Pros and Cons of Author WIP Progress Bar

Pros

Easy interface for the Progress Bar customization

Generate a unique animated candy stripe for the progress bar

The generated shortcode can be easily modified in the WordPress editor. Quick hint if you want the different unit to measure, you can replace the default settings for Words or Pages with ‘Chapters’ for instance

Cons

No option to save the generated shortcodes in a list

No color picker feature for more color choices. The setting only provides the default available colors in a dropdown menu

No option to stylize the text but just a field form to add the font color hex code, without a proper hint nor description of what kind of data to input

Longer shortcode to generate, with lots of custom data settings in it

Conclusion

WordPress plugins for writing an online publication would be most useful if they include an organizing tool as the primary function. While WordPress posts are normally grouped by category, writing material is grouped by chapters and series, making it much different compared to WordPress posts.

The scheduler and status tracker will ensure writing productivity. Additionally, any editorial team could use a WordPress plugin that supports collaboration settings and features for team productivity.

One of the last publishing process steps is proofreading which is the key to quality. Setting up a book gallery and adding CTA buttons to print or to download a digital format book would make it easier for your readers to access your creative writing and enjoy it offline.

Frequently Asked Questions