Which MacBook 13" Air for authors?

Question

In the next month I will purchase a MBA and welcome advice on which 13" model to get. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Bottom line: The entry level 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 13” MacBook Air (MBA) will work fine for your needs.  You can consider some upgrades if your budget is liberal.
Writing with Apple Pages or MS Word is a light-duty task so any MBA model will do.  The main considerations are how much RAM to purchase and how big of an SSD storage device.  Also consider using a large monitor (24" or 27”) with an external keyboard and mouse on your desktop.  It gives you the best both worlds of portability and desktop usability.
RAM:  It comes standard with 4 GB of RAM which will do for your light-duty needs.   I use a 4 GB MBA and I also do mostly light-duty productivity-application work (web, mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, iTunes, and some video streaming).  4 GB serves me well.  However to double this costs only $100 and may be worth it if you plan to keep it for a long time.  The memory is not upgradeable after you purchase it.  So if your budget is liberal choose 8 GB and if not choose 4 GB.
How much storage do you need?  Again this is a decision to make up front since it there is no guarantee you can upgraded it after you purchase it and you cannot change it during the warranty or AppleCare period.  (3rd-party MBA SSD upgrades are are on the market but not yet for the 2013 models.)
How much space to you use on your Mac or PC now?  That is a good indicator of how much you will use on a MBA.  If you purchase the 128 GB option you will have about 100 GB of usable space, leaving some headroom.  If you think you will use more than 100 GB then purchase the 256 GB option.  If you undersize the SSD all is not lost.  You can always offload files onto an external disk if your SSD fills up.
That’s it.  Once you make your RAM and storage size decisions you are off and running and any of the choices will work.  The 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD configuration should work fine for light-duty processing to write a book.
Play with the options at http://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs.html
$1,100:          4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD  <— This option will work fine.
$1,200:          8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD
$1,300          4 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD
$1,400          8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD
Additional costs: 
Optional purchase of AppleCare ($250).  This would extend the warranty to 3 years.  Not only does it extend the warranty but it give you 24/7 Apple consulting so if you ever have a question you can ask Apple directly.  Without AppleCare you get 90 days of free consulting and a one-year warranty.
Backup disk (not optional):  You will need at least one 1-TB external disk for Time Machine (or other) backups.  Time Machine is the automatic backup program built into OS X.  Cost: ~$75.
Optional large monitor:  A 24” or 27” monitor would cost $200 to $250.  You would also need a video adapter ($10) a keyboard ($40 for a used Apple wireless keyboard) and an Apple Magic Mouse ($25 used).  That is a total of ~$300.
http://www.amazon.com/BlueRigger-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Adapter-Cable/dp/B007KB 3VIU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1385516326&sr=8-2&keywords=mini+displayport+to+dvi
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keyword s=apple%20wireless%20keyboard&sprefix=apple+wire%2Caps%2C235&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aap ple%20wireless%20keyboard
Software:
iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) will come for free with Mavericks OS X.  So you are set.  If you prefer the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), that will cost $140 for a Mac edition.  iWork will read and write MS-Office file formats.