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Book writing software for novelists who see the whole book at once.
Calamus is novel writing and book formatting software in one place: capture ideas, draft, world-build, then compile a retailer-ready EPUB or PDF. One tool, synced across Mac, iPad, and browser, from the first word to the finished book.
Find out the moment Calamus launches and learn more about what we built for you.
- Focus Mode
- Binder
- Outliner
- Corkboard
- Snapshots
- Tagging
- Moodboard
- Ideas
- Research
- Compile
- Social Media
- Supports 1,900+ Google typefaces
- Real pagination
- World Building
- Formatting
- Series
- Desktop App
- Calamus Ideas for iPhone
- Sync
- Online App
- iPad App
- Text Message Format
- Email/Letter Format
- Story Beats
- Timeline
- Snap-to-Grid & Freeform
- Fiction & Nonfiction
- Multiple Pen Names
- Library
- Quotes
- Word Bank
- Pomodoro Timer
- Writing Log
- Writing Streaks
The full suite
Usually writing and publishing a book takes two or more apps.
The Calamus writing app is a dedicated all-in-one tool for idea curation, drafting and organizing a manuscript, developing world-building or research, formatting and typesetting, showing authentic writing statistics, and marketing quotes and material from the book.
We’re excited to have built the first full suite of writing software that helps writers and authors go from start to finish, completely: capturing ideas on their phone to marketing and sharing book content on social media. From the beginning to the reader.
Mac, iPad, iPhone and browser
Your book stays in sync on every device.
Capture ideas and post quotes from your book with the Calamus app for iPhone. Write offline in the native Mac and iPad apps, on a plane or with unreliable wifi, and your changes sync as soon as you are back online. Use the browser version for a quick session on any computer with an internet connection.
Browser
Mac
iPad
iPhone
ab initio ad lectoremfrom the beginning to the reader
Idea capture
Catch a thought on your phone, wherever you are, and find it waiting on your desk. Share a quote from your book saved and tagged for your social media database or queue anywhere. Use the iPhone’s built-in Pomodoro timer to commit to a full writing session.
Manuscript editor with modes
Full Panel, Focus and Composition Modes, a Binder for chapters and scenes, and Snapshots behind all of it.
Fiction & nonfiction
Built for both, rather than a novel tool with nonfiction bolted on afterwards.
Compiler & formatter
Every trim size retailers accept. US/UK and international print sizes, mass market to large print. Supports 1,900+ Google typefaces. One manuscript, every distributor: Amazon KDP, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Barnes & Noble, the same source formatted right for each.
Social media marketing
Pull quotes from your own book, schedule them to Bluesky, and share a line or a buy link from your phone.
The writing log
Watch the work add up.
Calamus measures the day as you write: words added and words removed, per book. Tell it about a sitting yourself and that sitting is carved out of the measured day rather than added to it, so nothing is ever counted twice. What comes out feeds your writer dashboard, and sits beside the Snapshots timeline as a record of how the words actually got there.
- Words added and words removed, measured per book, per day
- One day streak for the writer; three pen names is one habit, not three
- Log a sitting by hand or send one from the Focus timer, on any device
- Feeds the writer dashboard and the Writing Record beside your Snapshots
Multiple modes for your mood
Full Panel, Focus, and Composition Modes
Viewing modes designed for all kinds of situations: Full Panel mode for when you need everything at your fingertips, focus mode when you're overwhelmed. Composition mode works everywhere, native app and browser, adjusting to large screens and small. (But we do love a big screen mode!) Choose the panels you need for reference, then resize or close them as you write.
See the full Editor- Full Panel Mode keeps every control within reach.
- Focus Mode for when you are easily distracted; just you, your manuscript, and binder.
- Composition Mode on native apps and browser experience, at any screen size. (We love big wide screens for this!)
- Pull up the panels you want, then resize or close them as you need.
Compile
Generate a fully formatted, finished book and publish everywhere.
World Building
Every character, place and invented word, consistent across a series.
World-Building Codex Database
One linked database for everything your world contains, stored in the project rather than in a folder of loose documents beside it. One Codex serves a whole series, so a detail set down in book one is still there in book four.
Fourteen kinds of entry
Each category carries the fields it actually needs, so a character and a map are not the same blank notecard.
- Characters
- Locations
- Factions
- Magic Systems
- Lore
- Cultures
- Languages
- Timeline
- Glossary
- Lineages
- Regions
- Maps
- Storylines
- Items
Tag as you write, rename with confidence
Select a name in your prose to link it to its entry. The link is stored against the text, so it survives edits and resolves both ways: the scene lists what it references, the entry lists where it appears.
- Rename an entry and every mention is listed with the sentence around it
- Tagged mentions start ticked, bare ones are left to your judgment
- Nothing is written until you confirm, and the button says how many
- Name Check flags a spelling that does not match the Codex, and never corrects it for you
Relationship map
Every link between two entries is drawn, with your own wording for it written along the line between them, so who is related to whom, who works for whom and who is lying to whom is something you read at a glance rather than reconstruct from notes.
Launch pricing
One purchase. No subscription.
Calamus (iPadOS, macOS, browser) is in Beta testing and isn’t open for purchase yet. Leave your email and we’ll let you know the moment it is while we show you everything it can do to change your entire writing and publishing experience for the better.
Calamus is a one-payment, no subscription, no renewal date writing software application for iPadOS, macOS, and browser. Calamus Ideas for iPhone is sold differently: it is free for anyone who owns a fully licensed copy of Calamus, and it is available for download on the App Store. Writers who do not own Calamus (the iPadOS, macOS, and browser app) can subscribe to Calamus Ideas on its own for $4.99/month, available for purchase in that app.
What’s included
- Unlimited books, unlimited words
- The full manuscript editor: Full Panel Mode, Focus Mode, Composition Mode
- Compile to EPUB & PDF, every retailer trim size
- Supports 1,900+ Google typefaces
- The full world-building codex: characters, locations, factions, magic systems, lore, cultures, languages, timeline, glossary, lineages, regions, maps, storylines, and items
- Every future update on existing modules
How the trial works
- No card, now or when the 14 days are up
- Everything here except Compile
- Your manuscript downloads any time: DOCX, RTF, Markdown, plain text
- In your browser; the native apps come with the full version
- Seven days of account access when it ends
- One trial per email address
Works with every platform
Compile once. Publish everywhere.
Compile formats each file to the requirements of the retailer you are publishing to, including trim size, embedded fonts and running heads, all from the same manuscript. Export an EPUB or PDF ready for every major store and distributor, with no separate formatting pass for each one.
Ideas, Writing, Creative Vibing, Compiling, and Marketing: One Tool.
Calamus is in Beta testing; join the waitlist, learn about how Calamus will help you grow as a writer, and be the first to know when you can start writing and publishing with Calamus.