These great ipad apps won’t write your book for you, but they just might make the process of drafting your magnum opus a bit less daunting. Every app on this page is one that I’ve used

Hey, if you can’t imagine parting with your moleskin, I totally understand. But if you’re ready to take the leap from “don’t I look spiffy in my beret at the cafe” to “I actually wrote 1500 words today and I know where they are,” you might want to consider Notebooks. I came to Notebooks reluctantly after misplacing more physical notebooks than I care to count. Sometimes I think of all the novels I started, all the chapters lost somewhere in the labyrinthine cabinets and closets of my home, and I get very melancholy. So recently, I bought a stylus for $1.49 off the Internet, purchased the Notebooks app, and now I have a dozen beautifully arranged notebooks, ranging from novel ideas to complete short stories, on my iPad that I will never lose. (Even if I lose the iPad, the notebooks are still in the ether.) For a cheaper and less glossy but nicely functional alternative, try Penultimate ($1.99 instead of $5.99.

Writing is all about associations. The magical ithoughts Mindmapping app helps you to gather your thoughts and see where they lead. A great tool for novelists or essayists who want to open up the creative process. Remember when your high school English teacher told you to brainstorm? Mindmapping is basically a fancy brainstorming app. If you’re a visual thinker, this app is a must.

Don’t be scared away by the alien-looking dude holding the giant pen in this app’s icon. My Writing Spot is an inexpensive, simple tool for writing your book on your iPad. There are fancier apps out there, but this one offers good bang for the buck.

Are you writing a novel? Drafting a screenplay? Pricey but utterly worth it, Autereist, billed as “a writer’s companion,” allows you to create all sorts of juicy content–novels, screenplays, story collections, blog entries, journals, and more–in an organized, intuitive way. Include web pages, audio and visual content, and research materials by project. If, like me, you’re a Scrivener junkie, you’ll love the “export to Scrivener” feature. And if you’re whiling away your writing time on social networking, you’ll love the integration with Facebook, Twitter, etc. I just wish the spelling weren’t so tricky.

We all love the giant, weighty, nuanced American Heritage Dictionary, but you can’t really take it to the coffee shop. Unless you have this app. Never use the wrong word again.

Have you set up your author website yet? This is an essential part of any writer’s online platform (see my author website).The best bet is to register your name as a domain (i.e. janedoe.com). If your name isn’t available try janedoewriter.com or some variation. I also register the individual titles of my novels. The simplest way to do all of this in one place is through GoDaddy–where you can quickly search and register your domain names and choose a hosting package for your website. . New hosting are currently on sale at GoDaddy.com.

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