THE INDY AUTHOR
  • Home
  • About & Contact
  • Podcast
    • 061 - Google Play
    • 060 - Mastering Action Sequences
    • 059 - Newsletter Swaps and StoryOrigin
    • 058 - Author Newsletters
    • 057 - The Pros and Cons of Pre-orders
    • 056 - Crowdfunding for Authors
    • 055 - Costs of Self-publishing a Book
    • 054 - Futurist Trends We Can Prepare for Now
    • 053 - Learn from TV and Movies
    • 052 - Building a Resilient Indy Business
    • 051 - Podcasting as Content Marketing
    • 050 - First Responders
    • 049 - Ruminations on Book Launches
    • 048 - Protagonist and Antagonist Voices
    • 047 - Backstory and Flashbacks
    • 046 - Writing Coroners
    • 045 - Exercise
    • 044 - Using Aggregators versus Direct
    • 043 - Killing Suspense
    • 042 - The Importance of Metadata
    • 041 - Writing Convincing Villains
    • 040 - Storytelling Lessons from Investigative Reporting
    • 039 Building a Writer Community
    • 038 - Graphic Novels
    • 037 - How Cozy is Cozy?
    • 036 - Frugal Tips for Writers
    • 035 - Police Procedures
    • 034 - Connecting through Video
    • 033 - Barriers to Creativity
    • 032 - Hybrid Publishing
    • 031 - ebook Pricing
    • 030 - Common Writer Wisdom: Is it Right for You?
    • 029 - Fostering Creativity through Digital Minimalism
    • 028 - Writing the Killer Query
    • 027 - Why to Stop Blogging
    • 026 - Weaving Your Day Job into Your Books
    • 025 - Mastering Book Descriptions
    • 024 - Three Hard Truths
    • 023 - Reaching New Readers through Translations
    • 022 - SEO for Authors
    • 021 - Building Communities in Podcasts and In Person
    • 020 - Working with Libraries & Bookstores
    • 019 - Judging a Book by Its Cover
    • 018 - The Importance of Masterworks
    • 017 - Story a Day
    • 016 - Drawing Back the Publishing Curtain
    • 015 - Five Things I Wish I Knew Before I Was Published
    • 014 - Collaborating on "Taking the Short Tack"
    • 013 - Writing in Time
    • 012 - Top Firearms Mistakes Writers Make ...
    • 011 - Making the Move to Full-Time Writer
    • 010 - Update from The Indy Author
    • 009 - Craft and Business of Short Fiction
    • 008 - Screenwriting
    • 007 - Faster Fiction
    • 006 - Importance of Storytelling
    • 005 - Image-intensive Books
    • 004 - Using Media Outlets
    • 003 - Small Press Publishing
    • 002 - Creativity Tips
    • 001 - Introducing The Indy Author
    • For Guests of The Indy Author Podcast
  • Podcasting for Authors
    • Podcasting Resources
    • Descript >
      • The Anatomy of Descript
      • Best Practices | Tips | Tricks
      • Descript Q&A
  • The Short Tack
  • Resources
  • Tools
  • The Craft
    • Getting Past the Fear of (First Draft) Commitment
    • Scalability
    • Professionalism
    • From Dead in the Water to Favorable Winds
  • The Voyage
    • Reading Your Work Aloud
    • Preparing to Request an Author Blurb
    • Navigating Indy
  • For the Armchair Sailor
  • Editing Services
  • Events
  • For Libraries
  • Blog
  • William Kingsfield Publishers
  • Online Store
  • Press Kit

Tools of the Trade

Writing & Formatting

SCRIVENER
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Scrivener, from Literature and Latte, has a steep learning curve, but the available power of the tool is well worth the effort to learn it. I especially appreciate the ease with which you can rearrange chapters, color code chapters, and track word count progress. Click here to learn more.
 VELLUM
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Vellum’s tagline is “Create beautiful books,” and to that I would add “with ridiculous ease.” Vellum’s price tag is high, but it is well worth the time it would take you to fuss through print and ebook formatting yourself, and will quickly earn back the money you might spend on a formatting professional to do it for you. Make the investment, you won’t regret it. I like Vellum so much, I am an affiliate! ​Click here to learn more.

Publishing

KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING (KDP)
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Amazon’s ebook and print book arm; the must-go-to platform for any indy author. For print books, KDP offers print-on-demand, so there’s no need for anyone to warehouse copies of the book—they are printed as they are ordered. Click here to learn more.
DRAFT2DIGITAL
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Use this service to get to many other ebook platforms, such as Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and others. (You can use it to publish to Amazon as well, but the KDP platform is quite easy to use and it’s worth it to go direct to Amazon using KDP to save the cut D2D would otherwise take.) I like D2D so much, I'm an affiliate! Click here to learn more.
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INGRAMSPARK
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Provides distribution to bookstores (who not order from Amazon). ​Click here to learn more.
ACX
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Amazon’s audiobook creation arm; acts as a matchmaker between authors / publishers and narrators / producers. One of the most appealing aspects of ACX is that it’s possible to create an audiobook with no up-front investment if you find a narrator who is willing to entertain a royalty share option. (Or you can spent big bucks to hire a well-known narrator, which buys you an automatic lister base of people who follow that narrator.) Click here to learn more.

Graphics & Design

UNSPLASH
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This is a great resource for beautiful—and free—images for your promotional material or social media. It’s recommended to credit the contributor, and I highly recommend doing that (for example, putting a credit on the copyright page of your book if you use the image for a book cover). It’s extraordinarily generous for these artists to make this lovely images available for free, and crediting is the least we can do to support them. Click here to learn more.
CANVA
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An easy-t0-use design tool that enables you to create professional-looking graphics for social media, presentations, even e-book covers. The free version is fantastic, but I upgraded to the Pro version when I needed to upload fonts in order to create covers for my ANN KINNEAR SUSPENSE SHORTS to match a redesign of the novel covers. Being able to create the covers myself more than paid for a year's subscription to Canva Pro. I love Canva Pro so much, I'm an affiliate!. Click here to learn more.
99DESIGNS
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Another fantastic design resource is 99designs—I got the logos for William Kingsfield Publishers and The Indy Author™ through their services. Design professionals enter a contest for your business, so if you manage the contest correctly, you can get a lot of great options to choose from. I like 99designs so much that I am affiliate! Click here to learn more.
 DIY BOOK DESIGN FREE BOOK MOCKUP MAKE
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Enables you to create sharp-looking 3D book mockups to use for social media or promotions. Note that if you want to create a mockup of a print book, it's best to get a separate spine image from your book cover designer to ensure all the elements of the spine and front cover align correctly. Click here to learn more.


Business and Administrative

UPWORK
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I have found many of the people who support William Kingsfield Publishers LLC and The Indy Author™ through Upwork.

Click here to learn more about Upwork.
QUICKBOOKS
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QuickBooks enabled me to identify a $400 mischarge from a vendor, and makes it easy for me to stay on top of income and expenses on a day-to-day basis via an easy-to-use dashboard. I love QuickBooks so much, I am an affiliate!

Click here to learn more about QuickBooks.
TRELLO
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I put any commitment that has to happen as a specific time--e.g. my daily writing sprint with two fellow authors, any meetings or appointments--on my Google Calendar, but for all my other to do's, I use Trello. I organize my to do's--represented as "cards" in Trello--into three lists: "Time Specific" for those that need to be done on a particular day, "Doing" for less time-bound actions that I have started, and "To Do" for those that I have not yet started.

Each card can contain checklists, so, for example, I have a card called "DAILY TASKS" that has a checklist of all the actions I need to take daily. I've also implemented an automation that, when I check off the last item on the daily checklist, removes the checks from all the items and changes the card's due date to the following day.

​Although Trello offers paid plans (that include more extensive automation capabilities, among other features), I find I can do everything I want to do with the free version.

​Click here to learn more about Trello.

Equipping Your Author Space

Here are some piece of equipment that have made my author life better. (Links to Amazon are affiliate links, but these product are likely available elsewhere as well.)
Split design keyboard - This keyboard has saved my wrists because it enables me to have my hands in alignment with my arms when typing. Available in Mac (add the wrist rest and lifter option) and PC configurations.
Under desk treadmill - I use this under an adjustable-height desk in my office (where I record The Indy Author Podcast). I can get some exercise while watching educational videos or movies!
Compact elliptical exercise machine - I have this in the den, where I do most of my writing. It's very sturdy, the motion is smooth, and it takes up very little space! If I'm pondering what will happen next in a story, I can hop on this for a few minutes.

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  • Home
  • About & Contact
  • Podcast
    • 061 - Google Play
    • 060 - Mastering Action Sequences
    • 059 - Newsletter Swaps and StoryOrigin
    • 058 - Author Newsletters
    • 057 - The Pros and Cons of Pre-orders
    • 056 - Crowdfunding for Authors
    • 055 - Costs of Self-publishing a Book
    • 054 - Futurist Trends We Can Prepare for Now
    • 053 - Learn from TV and Movies
    • 052 - Building a Resilient Indy Business
    • 051 - Podcasting as Content Marketing
    • 050 - First Responders
    • 049 - Ruminations on Book Launches
    • 048 - Protagonist and Antagonist Voices
    • 047 - Backstory and Flashbacks
    • 046 - Writing Coroners
    • 045 - Exercise
    • 044 - Using Aggregators versus Direct
    • 043 - Killing Suspense
    • 042 - The Importance of Metadata
    • 041 - Writing Convincing Villains
    • 040 - Storytelling Lessons from Investigative Reporting
    • 039 Building a Writer Community
    • 038 - Graphic Novels
    • 037 - How Cozy is Cozy?
    • 036 - Frugal Tips for Writers
    • 035 - Police Procedures
    • 034 - Connecting through Video
    • 033 - Barriers to Creativity
    • 032 - Hybrid Publishing
    • 031 - ebook Pricing
    • 030 - Common Writer Wisdom: Is it Right for You?
    • 029 - Fostering Creativity through Digital Minimalism
    • 028 - Writing the Killer Query
    • 027 - Why to Stop Blogging
    • 026 - Weaving Your Day Job into Your Books
    • 025 - Mastering Book Descriptions
    • 024 - Three Hard Truths
    • 023 - Reaching New Readers through Translations
    • 022 - SEO for Authors
    • 021 - Building Communities in Podcasts and In Person
    • 020 - Working with Libraries & Bookstores
    • 019 - Judging a Book by Its Cover
    • 018 - The Importance of Masterworks
    • 017 - Story a Day
    • 016 - Drawing Back the Publishing Curtain
    • 015 - Five Things I Wish I Knew Before I Was Published
    • 014 - Collaborating on "Taking the Short Tack"
    • 013 - Writing in Time
    • 012 - Top Firearms Mistakes Writers Make ...
    • 011 - Making the Move to Full-Time Writer
    • 010 - Update from The Indy Author
    • 009 - Craft and Business of Short Fiction
    • 008 - Screenwriting
    • 007 - Faster Fiction
    • 006 - Importance of Storytelling
    • 005 - Image-intensive Books
    • 004 - Using Media Outlets
    • 003 - Small Press Publishing
    • 002 - Creativity Tips
    • 001 - Introducing The Indy Author
    • For Guests of The Indy Author Podcast
  • Podcasting for Authors
    • Podcasting Resources
    • Descript >
      • The Anatomy of Descript
      • Best Practices | Tips | Tricks
      • Descript Q&A
  • The Short Tack
  • Resources
  • Tools
  • The Craft
    • Getting Past the Fear of (First Draft) Commitment
    • Scalability
    • Professionalism
    • From Dead in the Water to Favorable Winds
  • The Voyage
    • Reading Your Work Aloud
    • Preparing to Request an Author Blurb
    • Navigating Indy
  • For the Armchair Sailor
  • Editing Services
  • Events
  • For Libraries
  • Blog
  • William Kingsfield Publishers
  • Online Store
  • Press Kit