TL;DR. BookFunnel and WriteLoom solve different problems. BookFunnel is the dominant book-delivery service for indie authors: reader magnets, ARC distribution, newsletter swaps, group promos, direct-sale file delivery. WriteLoom is the workspace where you write, edit, design, pitch, and market the book in the first place. They're not really competitors. Most indie authors will use both: write the book in WriteLoom, deliver the file through BookFunnel. We wrote this article because the question comes up, and the honest answer is "you probably want both."

If you came here looking for a verdict on which one to drop, our answer is neither. They cover almost no overlapping surface area. The rest of this post explains what each is actually for, where the small overlap sits, and how the two products fit together in a typical indie-author workflow.

At a glance

What BookFunnel does well

BookFunnel has become the default in indie publishing for a reason. Damon Courtney built a tool that quietly solved one of the most annoying problems in self-publishing: how do you give a reader your book file, on the device they're using, in a format their reader app can open, without making them do file-format gymnastics?

Reader magnet delivery. This is BookFunnel's signature feature. A reader signs up for your newsletter; BookFunnel delivers your free novella or first-in-series book to whatever device they're using (Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Nook, phone, computer) in the right format. The reader presses one button and the file arrives where they read. No "did you copy that to your Kindle email correctly" support tickets. It's a meaningful conversion-rate lift on newsletter signup pages.

ARC distribution. Sending advance review copies to a list of beta readers and reviewers used to mean a spreadsheet, a Dropbox folder, and a lot of email troubleshooting. BookFunnel collapses that to a single distribution page, with optional limits (download once, expires after X days, tracks who downloaded).

Newsletter swaps and group promos. Multi-author promotional collections, where dozens of authors put their free first-in-series into a shared page, all delivered through BookFunnel, are now standard list-building plays in indie genres. BookFunnel's group-promo infrastructure is what made that workflow possible at scale.

Direct sales delivery. If you sell books directly off your website (rather than through Amazon), BookFunnel handles the post-purchase file delivery to the reader's device of choice. That removes one of the biggest friction points in selling direct.

Audiobook delivery. Newer feature, but real: BookFunnel can deliver audiobook files to listeners with the same device-agnostic flow.

Indie-author-aligned business. BookFunnel was built by people who knew the indie-author workflow because they were in it. The pricing is reasonable. The support is responsive. The feature roadmap reflects what authors actually need rather than what enterprise software vendors think they should need. That kind of alignment is rare and worth naming.

If you're an indie author releasing books to readers, you probably already use BookFunnel or you're about to.

What BookFunnel doesn't try to do

This is the part that matters for the comparison. BookFunnel isn't trying to be a writing tool. It doesn't:

• Have a chapter editor.
• Have an outliner, character tracker, or planning canvas.
• Edit your prose.
• Design covers.
• Help you query agents.
• Build synopses or query letters.
• Curate comp titles.
• Plan launch marketing.
• Format your interior for print or ebook (you upload an already-formatted file).
• Find reviewers (it distributes ARCs to lists you've already built).

That's not a knock. None of those are what BookFunnel is for. Their product is delivery, and they're excellent at it.

Where the workflows meet

The slight overlap is the ARC distribution piece. BookFunnel handles ARC file delivery once you have a list of reviewers. WriteLoom's Market studio helps you build that list of reviewers in the first place, with curated databases of book bloggers, BookTok creators, Goodreads reviewers, and indie press contacts filtered to your genre. The two tools chain naturally: WriteLoom finds the reviewers, BookFunnel sends them the file.

WriteLoom also includes a launch-marketing planner with line-item budget tracking, so you can plan how many ARCs go to which reviewer tier, what the timing is, what the asks are, and stage everything alongside the manuscript and the comp set. BookFunnel then becomes the delivery layer for whatever pieces of that plan involve sending files to readers.

If we were to draw the overlap as a Venn diagram, it'd be a sliver: ARC-related workflows touch both tools. Everything else is non-overlapping.

The full indie-author stack

Here's a typical workflow that uses both:

1. Write the book in WriteLoom. Outline in the Plan studio, draft in Write, run developmental and line edits in Edit, build the character sheets and world bible alongside.
2. Design the cover in WriteLoom. Use the Sell studio's cover designer and rater to land a cover that scores against actual genre comps from your Market studio's curated set.
3. Format the interior in WriteLoom. Export EPUB and print-ready PDF from the Design studio with typography, margins, scene-break ornaments, and theme presets.
4. Build the ARC reviewer list in WriteLoom. Market studio surfaces book bloggers, BookTok creators, Goodreads reviewers in your genre, with contact info and outreach templates.
5. Distribute the ARCs through BookFunnel. Upload the EPUB to BookFunnel, create a download page, send the page link to the reviewer list you built in WriteLoom.
6. Run a launch promo through BookFunnel. If you're doing a multi-author group promo or a reader-magnet swap, BookFunnel's group-promo infrastructure is the delivery layer.
7. Sell direct through BookFunnel. If you sell off your own site, BookFunnel handles the post-purchase delivery to whatever device the reader uses.
8. Plan future books in WriteLoom. Pitch and Sell studios keep your synopsis voice, your cover style, your reviewer relationships, and your comp set warm for book two.

You can use one without the other. Plenty of WriteLoom users will rely on Amazon and Apple Books for distribution and never need BookFunnel. Plenty of BookFunnel users write their books in Scrivener, Google Docs, or Word and have no need for a workspace. But if your workflow includes ARC distribution, direct sales, or list-building through reader magnets, the two products together cover the whole arc.

The pricing math

BookFunnel's plans run roughly $20 a year (Mini, limited features), $100 a year (Mid-list, most authors use this tier), and $250 a year (Multi-Author, for collaborative promos and higher delivery volumes). These numbers can shift; check bookfunnel.com for current pricing.

WriteLoom is $0 a month (Thread, free forever), $12 a month billed annually (Spool), $24 a month billed annually (Loom), or $59 a month billed annually (Tapestry). The most popular tier for working writers is Loom at $288 a year.

Combined, a typical indie author running BookFunnel Mid-list plus WriteLoom Loom spends $388 a year for the full creation-plus-delivery stack. For an author drafting and publishing one or more books a year, that's a meaningfully complete toolchain.

If you're brand new and not yet at the point of running ARCs or selling direct, you can start on WriteLoom Thread (free) and skip BookFunnel until you actually need delivery infrastructure. The minute you start running a newsletter with a reader magnet, BookFunnel becomes the obvious next add.

What WriteLoom does not do

So you know exactly where the lines are:

We don't deliver files to readers. Period. No reader-magnet download pages, no ARC distribution links, no group-promo infrastructure, no direct-sale file delivery. That's BookFunnel's job and BookFunnel does it well.

We don't run author newsletters. Email-list management lives in your ESP (MailerLite, ConvertKit, Substack, Beehiiv). We track the marketing plan but don't send the emails.

We don't sell books directly to readers. You'd sell through a retailer (Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo) or through your own site with a payment processor (Stripe, Shopify, Payhip) plus BookFunnel for delivery.

We don't print physical books. We export print-ready PDF; you upload to KDP, IngramSpark, or your printer of choice for actual production.

The shape: WriteLoom covers everything up to the point where the finished file leaves your hands. BookFunnel covers what happens after.

What BookFunnel does not do

To round out the symmetry:

It doesn't write the book. No editor, no outliner, no character tracker.

It doesn't edit the book. No developmental, line, or copy editor.

It doesn't design the cover. You bring the cover to it.

It doesn't format the interior. You upload an already-formatted EPUB.

It doesn't help you pitch agents or publishers. No synopsis builder, query drafter, agent database, submission tracker.

It doesn't help you find reviewers. You bring the list to it; it delivers files to that list.

It doesn't curate comps. No comp database, no positioning tool.

The shape: BookFunnel starts where WriteLoom finishes. The handoff point is "here's a finished EPUB."

Who each is for

BookFunnel is for any author who needs to deliver a book file to readers without making them do file-format work. Reader magnets, ARCs, newsletter swaps, multi-author promos, direct sales. If you do any of those, you need a tool like BookFunnel, and BookFunnel is the obvious tool.

WriteLoom is for writers who want a single workspace for the work of writing and publishing a book. Outlining, drafting, editing, designing, pitching, curating comps, finding reviewers, planning launches. We finish at the EPUB and PDF export.

Most writers reading this post will want both. A few will only want one.

Frequently asked questions

Is WriteLoom a BookFunnel alternative? No. WriteLoom is a writing workspace; BookFunnel is a delivery service. We don't compete on surface area. Most authors will use both.

Can WriteLoom deliver my reader magnet? No, and we don't plan to. BookFunnel is excellent at file delivery, and we don't see value in trying to replicate them. WriteLoom helps you build the reader magnet (write it, edit it, format it, design the cover, curate the comps for positioning); BookFunnel delivers it.

Can I use WriteLoom without BookFunnel? Yes. If you publish only through Amazon (KDP) and don't run a newsletter with a reader magnet, you may never need BookFunnel. Upload your EPUB to KDP and you're done.

Can I use BookFunnel without WriteLoom? Yes. If you write in Scrivener, Google Docs, Word, or Atticus and just need a delivery service, BookFunnel works fine standalone.

Does WriteLoom help me build the reviewer list I'll deliver ARCs to? Yes. The Market studio surfaces book bloggers, BookTok creators, Goodreads reviewers, and indie press contacts filtered by genre, with outreach templates. You build the list in WriteLoom, deliver the files through BookFunnel.

Does WriteLoom train on my work? No. We don't train any model on your manuscripts, characters, queries, covers, or marketing copy. The AI features call third-party model APIs under no-train terms. Full detail in our privacy policy.

Can I try WriteLoom before committing? Thread is free forever, no card, no trial expiration. Use it as long as you want as a permanent free tier, or as a way to evaluate the workspace before upgrading.

A closing note

A lot of competitive marketing pretends every adjacent product is a competitor. It isn't. BookFunnel is one of the best examples in indie publishing of a tool that quietly solved a specific problem and earned its place by being good at exactly that problem. We respect what they've built and we recommend them without reservation to any author who needs file delivery.

WriteLoom isn't trying to replace BookFunnel. We're trying to be the workspace where the work that produces the file happens. Once that file is ready, BookFunnel is one of the cleanest ways to get it into the hands of readers.

If you're choosing between us and them, the question is which problem you have. If you have a book file and need it delivered to readers, that's BookFunnel. If you have an idea and need a workspace to turn it into a book, that's WriteLoom. If you're somewhere in between, the answer is almost always both.

Thread is free, so you can try the workspace without committing. BookFunnel has a free tier too, last we checked. Try both. Use whichever ones fit your actual workflow.