I am an affiliate of some but not all of these tools, and I earn when you purchase using the link, at no added expense to you.
Writing & Formatting
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Scrivener, from Literature and Latte, is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, and non-fiction writers. Scrivener 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. I love Scrivener so much, I'm an affiliate! Click here to learn more.
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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.
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Publishing
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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.
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Draft2Digital is a digital publishing aggregator offering conversion and distribution services for authors. 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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Enables distribution of print books to bookstores and libraries (who will not order from Amazon) and to non-Amazon retail sites. Click here to learn more.
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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.
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Graphics & Design
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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.
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Canva is an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. Canva 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.
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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.
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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.
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Business and Administrative
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Every expert in the writing and publishing world advises that the one non-negotiable resource for every author is an email list, and in order to make the most of that resources, we need an effective and a user-friendly email service. I use Aweber.
AWeber's mission is to deliver powerfully simple email marketing software for small businesses that does 90% of the work for you (they leave the last 10% for us to have fun with!). AWeber helps small businesses and entrepreneurs chase our dreams and build awesome products that help us create deeper relationships with their audiences, while growing our businesses. Click here to learn more about Aweber. |
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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. |
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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. |
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I used to spend hours trying to gather the data I needed to assess my sales across Amazon KDP, Draft2Digital, Google Play, and Kobo--and, more often than not, I just gave up in frustration. So I was thrilled when I discovered ScribeCount, which pulls all those sales reports (and more, if you distribute to other ebook platforms), in one convenient place. ScribeCount lives up to its promise: "Easy to set up. Get started in only ten minutes."
Click here to learn more about ScribeCount. |
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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. |
For In-Person Author Events
Wheeled cart for author events - I use two cardboard fruit boxes stacked in the bottom box to hold books--the perfect number for an in-person book sales event--and the top box to hold all the miscellaneous items it's useful to have--business cards, tablecloth, swag, name badges, etc., etc. Plus, it's waterproof, so you're set even for rainy-day events!
Acrylic bookstands - I like these better than the foldable, rubber-covered wire stands because they are more stable and stack better for storage. That said, I'd love ones that stack more compactly--if you know of any, let me know!
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.) Also not that my computer equipment is Mac-centric, so you may need to look for the PC equivalent if that's what you're using.
MacBook Air - I'm a big fan of Apple hardware, and have used a MacBook Air for years. In early 2021, I got one with the M1 chip which is much faster that my old Air, and features a fanless design, which is perfect for podcast and audiobook recording. (With my old Air, I had to take all kinds of awkward measures to enable me to have my laptop in a separate room because of the incredible amount of noise the fan made.)
Docking station - I use a docking station to attach a larger monitor, webcam, split design keyboard, and ergonomic mouse to my MacBook Air. (You'll want to look for the PC equivalent if that's what you're using.)
Monitor - Much of the computer work I do--such as working with large spreadsheets or editing podcast audio and video--are easier to do with a larger monitor than I have on my MacBook Air, so I got this monitor, which I love.
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.
Webcam - Because my auxiliary monitor didn't have a webcam, I got this one. I wouldn't recommend it. Although the video is fine, I have yet to be able to figure out how to use the microphone, and I now see reviewers have complained about the mic as well. The attachment mechanism is also a bit awkward. Providing a link only so you know which webcam to avoid. <: )
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.
Rolling storage racks - These racks are great for storing your authors supplies, including books (they're very heavy-duty)--the wheels means you can scoot them out of the way when not needed. Each shelf accommodates two copier-paper-box-sized boxes.
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