When it comes to writing books, traditional writing tools like Google Docs might not be the best option. Luckily, there are some paid writing apps that are specially designed to help writers produce the best books they can. One of these apps is Squibler, which is made for writers who want to benefit from premium features to help them write a high-quality book.
But is Squibler really worth it? Find out the answer as you read our unbiased Squibler review!
- What Squibler Is
- The pros of Squibler
- The cons of Squibler
- Whether we think you should use it
Table of contents
There is actually another tool that I recommend more called Atticus. It's not just a great writing program built for authors, but it's also the best book formatting platform on the market. If you want to know why it's our favorite, check out our comparison of the best writing software on the market, of which Squibler ranks #13.
What is Squibler?
Squibler is a digital writing platform that caters to writers of all types—whether you're an author working on your next novel, a student organizing your thesis, or a professional preparing reports.
Here are some of the audiences that Squibler claims it is good for:
- Fiction writers
- Nonfiction writers
- Online content writers
- Screenwriters
- Documentation and Knowledge Management writers
- Technical writers
- Journal writers (for just a private journal)
Squibler aims to streamline the writing process, providing a centralized platform for drafting, organizing, and managing your writing projects. It has a lot of different features that let you write, edit, collaborate with an editor, and even comes with an AI writing assistant.
But let's take a look at where Squibler really shines.
What Qualifies Me to Review Squibler?
This is an excellent question. The bottom line is that I've been in the publishing industry for well over 10 years, and I have a lot of experience working with various writing tools like Squibler, Scrivener, and a lot of others.
Plus, I've worked with hundreds of authors, many of them well known, and have a decent sense from what they've told me, and what others in my audience have mentioned in surveys, about what book writing tool they like the most.
So with that, let's take a closer look at Squibler.
Pros: Where Squibler Stands Out
Squibler offers several appealing features that help writers quickly and conveniently finish their books. Here are the elements that I like the most about Squibler:
1. Organizational Features
If you’re working on a book, Squibler allows you to create a chapter within a draft, which is very helpful since it enables you to write chapters separately instead of having to write big chunks in one place. Squibbler separates your work and divides it into smaller sections in these drafts so you get to focus only on the chapter you’re working on.
Additionally, you get to move any chapter you want by dragging and dropping them, which is also a great feature when you’re working on a book as you don’t have to do all of this annoying, time-consuming cutting and pasting. This feature is particularly useful when you have a lot of chapters in your book and want to move them with ease.
You’d be also happy to learn that a table of content is added to any project you write in Squibler. This table of content shows any changes you make to the chapters’ order. But the chapter number is not corrected by Squibler, so you need to correct it manually.
2. Writing Templates
There is a nice selection of book writing templates offered by Squibler. Writing templates are a great way to relieve some stress while working by helping you better structure your project. The app provides you with some general templates to help start, in addition to other special templates that are suitable for certain topics. Some of the templates that Squibler provides are Adventure, Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, and Non-fiction.
3. Exporting Options
Once you complete your project in Squibler, you can export it to different types of formats, including Kindle, TXT, DOCX, and PDF. keep in mind, though, Squibler’s table of content is not recognized by Kindle. So you’ll need to use another writing tool to do this on Kindle.
4. Smart Writer
This is one of the standout features of Squibler, their new AI-powered smart writer.
Let's say you've reached a particular scene, and you just don't want to write it all out. Perhaps it's a fight scene, or a particularly painful set of dialogue. Well you can describe what you want, and the smart writer will give it to you.
As with any AI tool, the output will likely need some tweaking, however, I've found that just getting something on the page can save the author a huge amount of headache, even if you have to go back and rewrite the whole thing over again.
And I actually found the output to be not half bad.
Now, a tool like this is great for the average author, but if you're an AI enthusiast, this isn't going to be as robust as a platform like Sudowrite, which is entirely structured around the concept of AI for fiction writers. But most authors aren't going to need that. Most authors are just going to want a great way to describe someone crossing a room that doesn't sound boring. And an AI tool like what Squibler offers may be exactly what you need. It's not the main feature, and it's not supposed to be, but it will definitely help the well-rounded author.
Also, the free version gives you 20,000 words, and the paid version gives you unlimited words, which is extremely generous given the costs of using AI.
5. Elements
If you're looking for a writing program that acts as a place to write your first draft AND a place to create your story bible, then Squibler might be right for you. The Elements feature lets you add all your notes for:
- Characters
- Companies
- Features
- Objects
- Persons
This is a great way to mark down any particularly important information that you need to know at a moment's notice while writing your book.
6. A Robust Free Version
Even though the premium version of Squibler can be kind of pricey, you actually get a lot with the free version, and for a lot of authors, you won't need more than what the free version offers. It includes all of the main features, but just puts limits on how much you can do overall, limits like only 20,000 words for the AI Smart Writer, or only being allowed up to 5 projects.
There are definitely reasons why you would want to upgrade (like the limited “files”, where chapters count as a file, or the ability to export to all formats), but there is more than enough for any author to get started.
Formatting Has Never Been Easier
Write and format professional books with ease. Never before has creating formatted books been easier.
Click here to see it in actionCons: Where Squibler Falls Short
On the downside, Squibler has a few features that affect its quality as a writing tool for books. Here are the elements that I don’t like about Squibler:
1. Pricey
Squibler offers you multiple premium services if you subscribe—for $20/month or $16/month when billed annually—including import and export features, Squibler editor, the ability to share work, templates, corkboard, notes for brainstorming, split screen, tracking, and goals.
However, Squibler's price is likely to be a turn-off for some authors, especially when compared to other writing apps that cost less and have even more robust features than Squibler does. We’re not saying that Squibler is not worth it, we’re just saying that you should explore other cheaper options before you decide to subscribe to Squibler.
This is especially true if you DON'T need the AI Smart Writer.
That said, if you DO use the Smart Writer, $20/month is actually quite generous for unlimited words, and might be one of the best AI options out there for fiction writers, given the price.
You can also sign up for a 14-day trial to see if Squibler meets your expectations. To subscribe to the app or sign up for the 14-day trial, visit Squibler’s official website Here.
2. Not Fast Enough
Another annoying issue that you could face while writing in Squibler is that the app is not fast enough. Squibler is pretty slow when clicking on chapters and trying to see its subsections. So you may get disappointed by the fact that the app does not always run smoothly, especially that it’s a paid, online app.
3. Limited Formatting
Even though Squibler does output to PDF and an Ebook file, it still lacks considerably in decent book formatting. That's why I would recommend Atticus as the better tool, because it's a robust formatting platform that also happens to be a writing program similar to Squibler.
And it's also a lifetime product, so you won't be paying an annual fee.
The Final Verdict: Who Is Squibler Best For?
Squibler is built to be the ultimate tool for all writers, appealing to a lot of different audiences. They claim to be good for all of the following:
- Fiction writers
- Nonfiction writers
- Online content writers
- Screenwriters
- Documentation and Knowledge Management writers
- Technical writers
- Journal writers (for just a private journal)
This is nice, because not a lot of programs can work for all of these content types. Especially if you do technical writing, screenwriting, or documentation.
However, since I specialize in book writing, my main recommendation is primarily that subset of authors.
So is it a good option for fiction or normal nonfiction writers?
Overall, while it can provide a lot of value and might be worth it for a certain subset of authors (particularly those that want unlimited AI generation), I do not recommend that you get the paid version of Squibler, as you can easily get many of the same features with better programs like Atticus or Scrivener. Plus, (with both alternatives) you only have to pay for it once, and you get it for life (note that Scrivener does have you pay for some of the larger updates).
That said, Squibler does have a decent free version, so if it intrigues you, there's no harm in trying it out for yourself. But I am going to recommend another program like Atticus instead.
Squibler provides users with many wonderful features that are super helpful and unique. But if you don’t think that you can handle its negative sides, I recommend that you try different, cheaper options to help you write your book, such as Scrivener or a more powerful option like Atticus.
FAQs
Is it possible to write in Squibler without internet connection?
No. Squibler is a web-based writing software that you can’t run unless you have an internet connection.
How do I cancel my Squibler subscription?
You have two options to unsubscribe to Squibler: by contacting the customer support or via your account management page.
Is Scrivener better than Squibler?
All things considered, I'd say Squibler and Scrivener are roughly equal, but in different areas. For one, Squibler has some elements that Scrivener doesn't, like project management, elements, and (importantly) collaboration. And of course there's the AI-powered Smart Writer, which is not something that Scrivener offers.
Scrivener, on the other hand, does not require you to subscribe and pay monthly. Instead, it requires you to pay $49 for Windows and macOS or $19.99 if you possess an iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone, and then you can use it for life. But Squibler requires a monthly subscription of $20, which is cool if you need it for the AI writing features or to collaborate with other authors. But it's not great for the average author who just wants a cheap way to work on their book.
So, overall, choosing between Scrivener and Squibler will depend on your needs. If you are a single author with no special needs and you want an offline place to write your book, Scrivener might be better. But if you want some AI assistance, and/or collaboration or other needs provided by Squibler, then you might want to give it a look.