Yes, it takes much more effort to write in LaTeX than in a "normal" word processor. Though, for managing complex things (e.g. citations, equations, being able

Yes, it takes much more effort to write in LaTeX than in a "normal" word processor. Though, for managing complex things (e.g. citations, equations, being able to change formatting of everything in a consistent way), a typical word processor is not enough. And when it comes to typesetting, people - show me something even close to the level of LaTeX beauty. I bet that with LaTeX default(ish) settings I can create a book with better typesetting than 90% found in a bookstore. Disclaimer: wrote quite a few dozen things in LaTeX, my PhD thesis included. For casual writing and blog posting I use Markdown or Google Docs. But for a book, I would go for LaTeX (or at least - convert to it at some point).