One of my favorite writing apps for beginning authors is Reedsy Studio, but is it worth upgrading to the paid plans? There’s no doubt that you’ll get some great tools out of the premium service, but is it worth $125 per year, especially if you’re on a tight budget?
Before I dive right into breaking down the premium services from Reedsy Studio, I would like to point out that I’ve written and published two books from the app. Both were completely written before my account was upgraded.
So, that goes to show that you can write and publish a book for free from Reedsy Studio. Though, I need to point out that one of my books was written using the free planning boards before they became part of a premium paid plan.
With that being said, there are some functions that might pique your interest if you have a bit of money to spend. In this post, I’m going to highlight the ones I find the most beneficial.
Upgrading Reedsy Studio to the Paid Plans
One of the great things I love about Reedsy Studio is that the free version can easily get you started. Plus, you’re able to export your book as an ePub for free, which some other apps don’t allow.
However, there is quite a bit more you can do by upgrading your account.
There are two major points to Reedsy Studio: the Craft add-on and the Outlining add-on. You can choose to pay for one of these or bundle them together.
Let’s take a look at some of the best things you’ll get by upgrading Reedsy Studio.
Best Features of the Outlining Add-on
I’m starting with the Outlining add-on because it’s the one I get the most use out of. The Craft add-on has some nice features, but I absolutely love utilizing the planning board in Reedsy Studio.
Unlimited Boards, Folders, and Notes
Reedsy Studio has a built-in section for keeping track of your story’s elements in the Outlining add-on. You can use this for character development, research notes for your manuscript, and worldbuilding aesthetics, all while organizing them into folders.
While writing Shadows of Atlantic City, I utilized virtually every aspect of the planning boards. I even saved the URL of a video from YouTube for research purposes regarding a weapon a specific character has in his possession.
I’m also a plotter, meaning that I outline my stories and make adjustments as I write. The planning boards made this easier for all of the books I’ve been working on, and it’s easy to keep all of my thoughts and ideas organized as I see fit.
Using the Attributes
Whether you’re building a character or planning out a location, the attributes of the notes are an amazing touch. You can add numbers, text, description boxes, checkboxes, links, dates, and relationships with other elements in your story.
One thing I plan on creating is a checklist for ways to market specific books. I can then check them off as I go, which is helpful to remind me that certain things need to be done. In fact, you can create a checklist for just about anything regarding your manuscript.
Another function that comes with upgrading Reedsy Studio is the “Add Q&A” tool. You can create a question for yourself or collaborators while providing an answer to help flesh out characters, locations, or plot lines.
Pinning Notes to the Manuscript
A useful function in Reedsy is being able to pin notes to the manuscript as you write. This can be research for certain scenes, a character bio, a story outline, or anything else you need access to while writing.
It limits how often you have to revisit the planning board while writing your book.
The thing to keep in mind, though, is that you can only pin one note at a time to your manuscript in Reedsy Studio. You’ll have to go back into the planning board to pin something else should the need arise.
Templates for Plot, Character, and World Building
A recent addition to the Outline add-on is the list of templates you can use for development. These templates include character development, location creation, and plenty of worldbuilding elements.
If you don’t like the templates, they are great for giving you ideas for creating your own notes in the planning board. They may point out an attribute or ask a question you didn’t think of for your character or plotline.
I doubt I’ll use the character templates much, but the locations and worldbuilding templates are first on my list of things to utilize.
Best Features of the Craft Add-on
At the time of this post, there aren’t a lot of additions in the writing portion of Reedsy Studio that really stand out. That’s probably why the Craft add-on is much cheaper than the Outline section.
Still, there are some useful tools you can get by upgrading the Reedsy Studio Craft portion.
Customizing Goals
I am a big fan of setting goals and deadlines. They are often motivational, and I like knowing how much I have to write per day to get the first draft done. Not to mention setting customized goals as micro challenges for myself.
For instance, you can set up a 3,000-word challenge for the day, or perhaps you can create a challenge to write 10,000 words in a week.
In the free version, you can only set a deadline and the days you write. Reedsy Studio will then show you how many words you have to write per day to hit that goal. But upgrading lets you create goals specific to your daily, weekly, monthly, or customized needs.
Most Used Words and Phrases
The most used words and phrases section is useful for those who have a habit of being redundant. Repeat phrasing or an overuse of specific terms can lead to poor development. Reedsy Studio will scan each chapter as you write and show the most prevalent words and phrases you use.
This function is essentially a front-line editing element to tighten your manuscript. At a glance, you can get a feel for the layout of the chapter and make adjustments if it seems too repetitive.
Besides, I find it interesting to see how often I use certain words and phrases as I write.
Dark Mode
For those who don’t want to write with a white screen blasting in your face, you can always switch on the built-in dark mode feature. Ever since Reedsy implemented this in Studio, I’ve turned it on and left it running.
Although you can use an extension or plugin for dark mode on your browser, I found that they sometimes have issues running properly. At least with the built-in dark mode function, it works as intended and doesn’t interfere with other plugins, such as the Grammarly Chrome extension.
Case in point, I found several dark mode plugins that disable or obfuscate the Grammarly extension’s underlines for grammar and spelling while writing. Sometimes, browser add-ons just don’t play well together. I don’t experience that issue using the built-in dark mode function of Reedsy Studio.
Would I Keep Paying $125 Per Year?
With all of that being said, would I consider paying the $124.99 for upgrading both the Craft and Outline add-ons for Reedsy Studio? Personally, using the upgrade for the planning boards has been a game-changer while putting together my books.
For example, I used the planning boards quite extensively when writing Shadows of Atlantic City. I went so far as to add the image of characters taken from various movies as a way to help describe appearances. Essentially, I “cast” my books using real movie stars and describe them accordingly.
Anyway, the Outline add-on is easily my go-to for upgrading. The planning boards contributed greatly to putting together an amazing book.
What about upgrading the Craft add-on? That one is a bit more difficult for me to justify. I love customizing writing goals, the dark mode function, and seeing my most used words and phrases. But are those three elements worth $4.99 per month?
Considering how much time I spend using Reedsy Studio, paying $59.88 for the entire year for the Craft add-on isn’t all that much of an expense. I pay more than that for tools I rarely use at the moment. And I surely spend more than that per day on coffee from Dutch Bros.
I don’t know if I would pay more than $5 a month for what is offered compared to the free version. It’s a great writing app, but the additions just aren’t as extensive as they are in the planning board. Still, I think it’s easily worth the $5 per month.
Overall, upgrading Reedsy Studio is comparable to a lot of services out there. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of writing apps charge significantly more while offering less. So, from a perspective of value for the money, upgrading both add-ons is a good idea.
I’d love to see more editing functions or something with a bit more meat to the Craft add-on, though. Perhaps a few more formatting options while exporting your books would be a great additional element.
Reedsy Is Constantly Working On New Features
One of the main reasons why I continue to use Reedsy Studio is that they are constantly adding new functions and features. Since I started using the writing app a few years ago, they have added so much that I’ve had to change my reviews and tutorials constantly for both the blog and YouTube channel.
In fact, there are several that I have to update thanks to the addition of the templates in the planning board.
I don’t mind, though. I’d rather a company be actively working on improving the platform than have something that is just there and never progressing into anything better, even if I have to keep updating content to match.
Due to all of the things Reedsy offers, it’s an all-around great organization for authors of all skill levels. And I’m eager to see what they release next.
Did you know they had a writing challenge to complete 50,000 words throughout the month of November? There’s a bit of a vacuum that NaNoWriMo left behind when it went belly up, and it’s neat to see the different writing groups try to fill that gap.
That’s just one example of how Reedsy actually puts in the effort to keep writers engaged. The writing Studio is just the tip of an exceptionally large iceberg.
What is Your Favorite Paid Writing Tool?
I am constantly trying new writing apps to determine which is the best for me. And so far, Reedsy Studio has remained at the top of my list. Not only does it have a clean writing surface, but all of the features it provides check most of my boxes.
Even the free version is a strong writing app for those who want to try Reedsy Studio for themselves. I wrote and published Kingmaker using the free version before the planning board was even a thing in Reedsy, and it came out nice and clean. In fact, the printed versions were everything I wanted them to be.
The best writing app is the one that works best for you. Whether it’s LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, Scrivener, or Reedsy Studio, it all comes down to personal preference.
What writing tool checks all of the boxes for you?
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