This part of the website is for writers. Each of us learns that writing skills are not the only thing required of authors. Even traditionally published authors must learn how to market themselves and their books. It takes a whole tool box full of abilities to get a book from idea to publication to your readers hands.
Through out my career I’ve collected and continue to collect resources and tools that help me do it faster and more efficiently so I can do what I really want to – write. Some of us will become successful enough to hire assistants, cyber or those we meet with in person. Maybe others can trade skills with each other.
Some of these resources are links to other writers. In my experience, I’ve found that most authors are friendly and helpful. It’s the one “industry” where people are genuinely interested in helping you be a success. Those who have achieved great successes are the most giving people I’ve ever met.
Since I don’t review these repeatedly, please check these links and resources out on your own. They were good when posted and I will not purposely post any link that would do damage to you or your computer. I am not endorsing them. You need to maintain your own “due diligence” when using or purchasing any services or products. Some of the links are for free tools or services, some are reasonably priced. It is up to you whether you decide they are within your budgetary constraints. DO NOT spend money that you need to pay bills and everyday expenses for living and taking care of your needs and your family’s needs. Just a word to the wise.
Use the tools and tips that work for you. Each one of us is an individual. I have either used or know someone who has used many of these resources. I am a researcher and read about or come across new resources all the time through my connections with other authors, as well as those active in the publishing field. I hope you’ll find some sources that will help you in your career from this list.
I’ll be adding to the list as time goes by and I learn about other links or tips. I don’t pretend to know them all. If you have some to share feel free to send a comment.
Industry Information:
Publishers Weekly
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
This is the industry magazine/website that covers everything of importance in the contemporary print publishing world and lately is including more information about digital publishing.
Digital Book World
This is the Publishers Weekly for exclusively digital publishing. Where Publishers Weekly includes information about digital publishing, DBW is dedicated to digital publishing.
The Independent Book Publishers Association
The Alliance of Independent Authors
http://allianceindependentauthors.org
Based in London, England, this Alliance is an international, non-profit, professional association for self-published authors. Its founder, best-selling author Orna Ross, launched the group at the 2012 London Book Fair. With members all over the world, ALLi gives education, support, advice, contacts, and community to author-publishers. They foster ethics and excellence in self-publishing.
Book Works
The Association provides membership profiles, a forum and resources for self-published authors. The association has a “best book of the year” competition.
Marketing and Promotion:
How to Do it Frugally
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s website and books are great resources for hybrid authors and indie authors who wear all the hats and are looking for useful information about all aspects of self-publishing.
Miscellaneous Resources:
7-Zip
A program that allows you to condense large files into Zip files that are up to 10% of the original file volume, which makes them much more efficient for storage.
Apache Open Office
http://www.openoffice.org/product/index.html
A word processing program that is free to download. It is an alternative to MSWord. I’ve talked with a few writers who have used it, and they liked it. However, when you submit a manuscript to a publisher or to a conversion program, whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing, the industry standard is MS Word. Open Office may be a good alternative to other writing programs that helps you get your book organized, but you will still need to change your manuscript file over to Word before you submit it to a publisher. For those who hate working in MSWord, this may be an answer.
Bitly – Shorter urls
This is a free tool to shorten long urls for blogs, tweets, Facebook or anywhere else you want to use them.
Book Design Templates
http://www.bookdesigntemplates.com/
Joel Friedlander’s book templates for Microsoft Word will save you hours of formatting time. He provides everything you’ll need for for fiction, nonfiction and children’s books.
Cute PDF Writer
This is a free downloadable alternative to the industry standard Adobe Acrobat PDF program, which allows you to create a digital document that will look the same no matter what computer, screen or format you use for viewing it.
Dropbox
This is an online site that provides cloud storage for documents. You can work on a document anywhere, save the document to Dropbox, and pick it up at another location – even with a different computer – and it will appear just as it was originally saved. It also provides interchangeability between Mac and MS operating systems. Handier and more secure than carrying a thumb drive.
Indiegogo
One of the top 10 crowdfunding websites, they have projects for many topics.
Kickstarter
The world’s largest website for fundraising/crowdfunding projects.
The Logo Creator
http://www.thelogocreator.com/
The laughing bird software available on this website gives you the ability to create logos and graphics for your website, customize a YouTube channel, and design book covers at a reasonable price for any writer
SurveyMonkey
Develop your own surveys and polls for research for free.
TextWrangler
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
This is a program that you can use for text editing.
Other Valuable Sites
Aerbook
https://aerbook.com/site/index.html
Free or paid memberships allow you to sell books directly from your social media.
Oyster
Offering over a million books, this is a website you can place your books on subscription. The readers pay a monthly subscription fee.
Scribd
This website offers books by subscription at a monthly fee, including audio books. It provides a subscription outlet for your books.
Preditors & Editors –
Preditors & Editors is the resource mentioned several times in this book as a place to check the professional reputations of agents and publishers. It also provides information on other services as well.
Writer Beware® The Blog
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/
This blog keeps writers informed about scams and unethical organizations or practices in the publishing industry.
Sales Rank Tracking for Author Book Sales on Amazon
