Manuscript Collaboration & Track Changes

When a human editor needs to leave 200 inline comments on a 90,000-word manuscript, you want track changes that the editor's tool of choice can read. The overwhelming majority of working pro editors send .docx with Word's track changes — even if you wrote in Scrivener or Obsidian, the round-trip is via Word format. For distributed-version-control approaches see writing-version-control-prose; for finding editors see writing-self-publishing-kdp.

The two industry defaults

• ★ ★ Microsoft Word + OneDrive / SharePoint — paid (Microsoft 365); the pro-editor default. Track Changes is the lingua franca; every freelance editor expects .docx with comments and revisions. OneDrive co-authoring works in 2024-26 but most editors still email files back and forth.
• ★ Google Docs — free + paid Workspace; ★ for live co-writing. Suggesting mode is Google's track-changes equivalent. Imports .docx cleanly enough that you can round-trip with a Word editor; some formatting friction. Real-time presence, comments with @-mentions, version history.

Free / OSS collaborative editors

• ★ Etherpad — Apache 2.0; free OSS; self-hostable; minimal real-time text editor; great for "brainstorm with my co-author live."
  • https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite
• ★ CryptPad — AGPL; free OSS; self-hostable; end-to-end encrypted Etherpad + rich text + spreadsheets. Excellent for sensitive manuscripts.
  • https://github.com/cryptpad/cryptpad
• HedgeDoc — AGPL; free OSS; markdown collaborative editor; the markdown-flavoured Google Docs.
  • https://github.com/hedgedoc/hedgedoc
• Nextcloud + Collabora Online / OnlyOffice — AGPL / OSS; self-hosted Office alternative with track changes.

Writing-specific collaborative tools

• ★ Reedsy Editor — free; web; designed for the editor / author round-trip; in-context comments, suggested edits; integrates with Reedsy marketplace.
• Manuscripts.io — free; web; academic-flavoured collaborative writing.
• Authorea — paid + free; academic; collaborative + reference manager + journal submission.
• Notion — paid + free; comments + suggesting; not ideal for manuscript-shaped work but some authors / editors use it for early-draft feedback.

Track-changes-specific tools

• Word's Compare — paid; built-in; .docx diff between versions.
• Draftable — paid + free Lite; web + desktop; ★ for document compare across formats (.docx, .pdf, slides, etc.); great for "what did the editor actually change."
• Diff Doc — paid; Win-only; doc compare.
• Pandoc + git diff — free; markdown / plain-text diffs are perfect; see writing-version-control-prose.

Beta-reader workflows

• See writing-beta-readers-feedback.
• BetaBooks — paid + free trial; web; chapter-level beta-reader comment tool with reactions / questions per chapter.
• Hatrack — free; older; group beta-reader board.

Round-trip from your draft tool

• Scrivener → docx → editor → Scrivener — works; Scrivener's compile is the standard out-bound; pasting tracked changes back in is the friction.
• Obsidian / iA Writer / markdown → docx via Pandoc — works, but tracked changes are lost on the markdown side; most authors do the editor pass in Word and copy back into markdown manually.
• Google Docs → docx → editor — works; the suggestions become Word tracked changes.

Manuscript exchange / submission

• Submittable — paid (free for submitters); the dominant lit-mag / contest / fellowship submission portal. See writing-poetry-lyrics.
• AAR (Association of American Literary Agents) database — free; agent search.
• QueryTracker / Querytracker.net — free + paid; track agent / publisher queries.

Pick this if…

• Working with a pro editor: Word + Track Changes (you don't have a choice).
• Live co-writing with a co-author: Google Docs (suggesting mode).
• Privacy-respecting / self-hosted: CryptPad (E2EE) or HedgeDoc (markdown).
• Editor / author round-trip + freelance hiring: Reedsy Editor.
• Diff two .docx versions: Draftable.
• Beta-reader chapter feedback: BetaBooks.