That could be a best-seller!

i'd better get cracking - i could do with the cash.

is there any software out there useful for the job beyond microsoft word? i was wondering whether there is a worthwhile program out there which helps you to keep track of references and allows you to search and cross-reference within what you have written to help you keep track? i noticed that so called authoring software tends not to be well thought of... or maybe there are techniques and plug ins for word which allow you to do these kinds of things?

the reason i ask is this book idea is likely to be monstrously complex to stitch together, and anything which helps to organise the work would be a major bonus.

Niki -

You don't need visuals at all with poetry! Go into word, heck they have many templates in there that do pretty page numbers if you'd like something pretty. I have several poetry books from friends and it's all about the poetry. People will read your words, they're not too worried about artwork!

Start small. Make a *little* book with your 20 favorite poems in it. Lulu and the others will even help you make a pretty cover without any effort at all. If you're in word do File - Save As - PDF. Then you can email a few of us the PDF to look at, and we can give you suggestions!

Janimal - Word does let you add in an index and table of contents and references and all of that fairly easily. I have a Champagne book and a Sangria book which are about 100 pages each I think. It's very easy to just select words and have them automatically go into the index or wherever you want.

I think you're talking more about organizing your thoughts though, yes? That is sort of like when I write a "how to do low carb" book and am figuring out which parts to put where? Is that what you meant?

yes, i was more talking about organising my thoughts - being able to quickly cite anywhere a particular subject is brought up, so i can be coherent without needlessly repeating myself. i realise that a lot of that is down to writer skill but i was hoping that something might be able to do a kind of databasing job on the body of the work.

table of contents and referencing seem less critical, and more straightforward than this in particular.

I know logically that might make sense, but in terms of a human being reading it you really don't want to be sending them to X and Y and Z. That gets really confusing for a reader. It is actually far better to repeat yourself, to explain a given concept three different ways in three different places. Often times it is the third time when it really sinks in. So I would advocate coming up with different ways to explain the same idea, and allow your book to keep bringing them up.

i wasn't thinking in terms of cross referencing for the readers benefit, but only for my own while i'm writing.

Ah! OK I understand now.

I've never used any tool like that. My non-fiction books are about weddings and courtships, about low carb, about dreams, about sleeping well, about Champagne cocktails, about Sangria ... in none of the cases did there really need to be any real cross referencing. I did several "how to program in ASP" books and even there it was laid out so first I covered the functions, then the operators, etc. So there were never any situations where I needed to worry about that sort of a thing.

I wonder what kind of software could help with multi layered writing ...