What is the best editing software for fiction writers?
For fiction-specific reports, ProWritingAid and AutoCrit lead the list above; Fictionary focuses on story structure, and Marlowe on a report for a finished draft.
Editing Software for Writers
Grammar checkers, style editors and manuscript-analysis tools for self-published authors. Each has a BookBird Author Score from what its own site confirms (including whether your text is used for training), what it costs and how many people search for it.
Prices and data checked October 7, 2026 · Author Score computed by a published formula, not paid for
The short answer
- ProWritingAid 8.8 Free plan; paid from $120 a year
Fiction authors wanting line edits plus whole-manuscript story feedback - Grammarly 8.1 Free plan; paid from $144 a year
Authors wanting grammar checks inside Word, Google Docs and browsers - AutoCrit 8.0 Free plan; paid from $180 a year
Fiction authors self-editing a full draft in a browser - LanguageTool 7.3 Free plan; paid from $69.90 a year
Authors writing in several languages, inside Word or Google Docs - Marlowe 7.0 Free plan; paid from $29.95 one-time
Novelists wanting a structural critique of a full draft, per report
All editing software, scored
10 of 10 shown · How the Author Score works
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1
8.87/7 author jobsFree plan; paid from $120 a yearFree plan + paid plans, one-time option18K−45%searches a monthweb · Windows · Mac · browser extension
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2
8.15/7 author jobsFree plan; paid from $144 a yearFree plan + paid plans2.7M−61%searches a monthWindows · Mac · web · iOS · Android · browser extension
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3
AutoCrit
Online manuscript editor with fiction-focused editing reports and story analysis
Editing & grammar
8.06/7 author jobsFree plan; paid from $180 a yearFree plan + paid plans4.4K−24%searches a monthweb -
4
7.35/7 author jobsFree plan; paid from $69.90 a yearFree plan + paid plans8.1K−42%searches a monthweb · browser extension · Windows · Mac · iOS
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5
7.05/7 author jobsFree plan; paid from $29.95 one-timeSeveral ways to pay, one-time option30+50%searches a monthweb
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6
Hemingway Editor
Readability editor that highlights hard sentences, adverbs and passive voice
Editing & grammar
6.64/7 author jobsFree plan; paid from $19.99 one-timeSeveral ways to pay, one-time option12K−52%searches a monthweb · Windows · Mac -
7
5.64/7 author jobs$96 a yearSubscription1.9K+31%searches a monthweb · browser extension
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8
5.63/7 author jobsFreeFree1K−74%searches a monthweb · browser extension
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9
PerfectIt
Consistency and house-style checker for long documents, from Intelligent Editing
Editing & grammar
5.14/7 author jobs$115 a yearSubscription1.3K−14%searches a monthWindows · Mac -
10
4.44/7 author jobs$168 a yearSubscription880−23%searches a monthweb
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Prices in USD from each vendor’s own site, checked October 7, 2026. Searches: US Google searches a month for the product’s name, with the change over 12 months. Score out of 10, by one published formula; nobody pays to be listed.
How to choose editing software
Line edits or the whole story?
Most of these tools work on sentences: grammar, spelling, passive voice, repeated words, readability. Grammarly, LanguageTool and Hemingway Editor are in that group. A few read the book as a story. AutoCrit and ProWritingAid add fiction reports on pacing and dialogue, Fictionary looks at scenes and structure, and Marlowe writes a report on a finished manuscript. If your draft has plot problems, a grammar checker will not find them.
Can it take a whole book?
A novel is several hundred thousand characters long. LanguageTool and Slick Write state limits below that, so you would check a book chapter by chapter. ProWritingAid, AutoCrit, Fictionary, Marlowe and PerfectIt say they handle a full manuscript.
Where does it work?
If you draft in Word, Google Docs or Scrivener, a tool that works inside that app saves copying text back and forth. Grammarly and ProWritingAid run as browser extensions and desktop apps; PerfectIt is a Word add-in for Windows and Mac. AutoCrit, Fictionary and Marlowe work on files you upload.
What happens to your manuscript?
Grammarly’s own trust page says your text is used to improve its models unless you opt out. ProWritingAid, AutoCrit, LanguageTool and others state that they do not train on it. The product pages give the wording and the source.
None of these replaces an editor’s judgement; our guide to copy editing vs proofreading explains what a human still catches. For a quick check of one chapter, our free readability checker flags long sentences, passive voice and adverbs without an account, and ProWritingAid vs Grammarly compares the two most searched tools side by side.
How the BookBird Author Score works
Built for self-published authors, from facts anyone can check: each vendor’s own pages, read on October 7, 2026, and US Google search volumes (Google Ads data via DataForSEO). Nobody pays to be listed, and no score is adjusted by hand. We did not test the apps by writing a book in them; the score measures what they do for an author, what they cost and how widely they are used.
- Author jobs, 50 points. Each category has a list of jobs an author needs that kind of software to do. A job counts only when the vendor’s own pages say the product does it; a job they do not mention earns nothing, and the product page says which ones.
- Editing & grammar: grammar and spelling, style reports, fiction reports, handles a whole manuscript, works in Word, Google Docs or Scrivener, custom dictionary or style rules and your text is not used for training.
- Cost, 25 points. What one year costs a single author on the cheapest plan with a USD price. A one-time licence is spread over 3 years. A free plan, or a platform that takes no upfront fee, earns all 25; the dearest product in the category keeps 5.
- Adoption, 25 points. How many people in the US search Google for the product by name each month: 20 points on a log scale against the most searched product in the category, and 5 for the trend, comparing the last three months with the first three of the year.
The score is the points earned divided by the points that could be checked, on a 10-point scale. A part with no data (no USD price, no search volume) is left out rather than guessed. How long a product has existed is not scored: few vendors state it. Review sites are not used: for most of these products the profiles rate the whole company or hold a handful of reviews.
| Editing & grammar | Author jobs /50 | Cost /25 | Adoption /25 | Score /10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ProWritingAid | 50 | 25 | 13.5 | 8.8 |
| Grammarly | 35.7 | 25 | 20 | 8.1 |
| AutoCrit | 42.9 | 25 | 12.6 | 8.0 |
| LanguageTool | 35.7 | 25 | 12.5 | 7.3 |
| Marlowe | 35.7 | 25 | 9.6 | 7.0 |
| Hemingway Editor | 28.6 | 25 | 12.7 | 6.6 |
| EditGPT | 28.6 | 13.6 | 14.3 | 5.6 |
| Slick Write | 21.4 | 25 | 9.3 | 5.6 |
| PerfectIt | 28.6 | 11.3 | 11.5 | 5.1 |
| Fictionary | 28.6 | 5 | 10.5 | 4.4 |
Questions
Is there free editing software for authors?
Grammarly, ProWritingAid, AutoCrit, LanguageTool, Hemingway and Marlowe have free plans, and Slick Write is free. The free plans limit how much text or which reports you get; each product page lists the plans.
Is Grammarly good for books?
It checks grammar, spelling and tone across apps and handles a long document, but it has no fiction reports, and its own pages say your text is used to train its models unless you opt out.