Writer s Toolbox Resource List

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1 Software Tools: (no affiliate links) Writer s Toolbox Resource List Windows Office 365 ($9.99/month or $99/year); Scrivener ($40 one time purchase) Software from Literature and Latte, different versions for Mac and PC; Learn Scrivener Fast Joseph Michael s premier course about everything Scrivener; Evernote.com (free version) best note-keeping tool ever Michael Hyatt s directions for organizing Evernote; Pinterest.com (free) just the best memory tool ever; Feedly.com RSS reader and aggregator; Google Alerts Get the latest news about any search term right in your inbox; NaturalReader.com (free version) reads text aloud WordPress.org (self-hosted sites) blogging platform 1 Canva.com (free version) graphics design PicMonkey.com (free version) graphics design MailChimp.com (free version) mailing list service to keep you legal BookDesignTemplates.com (Joel Friedlander) Offers both Word and InDesign Book Templates; Calibre-ebook.com Free software offered by Kovid Goyal; excellent resource for producing different formats of your ebook; MyIdentifiers.com Bowker, the ONLY official place to buy your own ISBNs; Vellum Beautiful digital book templates for Mac users;

2 Organizations: American Christian Fiction Writers - an association of Christian authors; Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) - a global association of indie authors; Romance Writers of America (RWA) Lots of chapters; Society of Children s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) tots through young adults; Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Interesting membership requirements; Mystery Writers of America (MWA) Stringent membership requirements; Publishing and Distribution Platforms: kdp.amazon.com Kindle Direct Publishing. Go here to publish your ebook to Amazon. CreateSpace.com Go here to publish your paperback book and list it on Amazon. IngramSpark.com Additional place to publish via Print on Demand; more marketing channels than CreateSpace and Amazon. 2 Draft2Digital.com An automated way to format and upload to many vendors at once (for 10% of the sales price). Best for prolific authors Smashwords.com Ebook distributor. The world s largest distributor of indie ebooks. Founded by Mark Coker; home to the famous meat grinder. Offers 60% of list price from major ebook retailers and up to 80% list at the Smashwords Store. Unless you own a Mac computer; this is probably the way to go to get into the ibooks store. ACX.com Audiobook Creation Exchange. Find a voice artist and publish your audio book on Audible.com, Amazon, and itunes. Major Digital Book Retailers: Amazon. Sells 60-80% of all ebooks, more for some authors and titles. Apple ibookstore. Widely considered the No. 2 ebook retailer in U.S. Barnes & Noble Nook Press. Quickly losing ground to its competitors. Kobo. Gaining ground, international presence. Important for the Canadian market.

3 Industry-Leading Blogs: Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Loads of information and food for thought for authors and independent publishers. Daily Writing Tips (Maeve Maddox) - Quick dose of writing lore; it s like taking a daily vitamin. Indies Unlimited - Congregate with other like-minded authors. Kristen Lamb s Blog - Refreshing, challenging insights straight from Dallas. Kristen is the founder of WANA (We Are Not Alone). You ll want to get involved with that too. Seekerville - An alliance of thirteen authors writing about writing. Writer Beware - Guardian angels who shine light on the scammers and thieves who prey on authors. Advanced Fiction Writing (Randy Ingermanson) - Spend all week here. Helping Writers Become Authors (K.M. Weiland) - Excellent resource. 3 TheBookDesigner.com Book design and book cover information from Joel Friedlander; The Creative Penn Created by Joanna Penn, one of the foremost authorities on indie publishing; The Digital Reader Publishing news and commentary; The Hot Sheet Jane Friedman s and Porter Anderson s digital magazine about the publishing industry, $59/year; Good e-reader Site for the Android Good e-reader; also great information; Michael Hyatt Leading industry blogger about building your platform;

4 Recommended Books: Let s Get Digital 2K to 10K: How to write faster, write better, and write more of what you love The Christian Writer s Manual of Style The Emotion Thesaurus Self-Publishing Attack! Elements of Fiction Writing The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing: Updated & Revised Second Edition Plot Versus Character Zen of ebook Formatting How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer s Journey Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View Structuring Your Novel Bootstrapping for Indies The Chicago Manual of Style (16 th Edition) Self-editing for Fiction Writers Stein on Writing Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors David Gaughran Rachel Aaron Robert Hudson Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi James Scott Bell (and any of his other books) Orson Scott Card Jane DeLeon and others Jeff Gerke (and any of his other books) Guido Henkel Randy Ingermannson Kristen Lamb Joanna Penn (and her other non-fiction books) Jill Elizabeth Nelson K.M. Weiland (and her other books) Simon Whistler You may also subscribe to the online version. Renni Browne and Dave King Sol Stein Kathy Ide 4

5 Stephen King on Writing Indie Author Survival Guide Rock Your Revisions How to Self-Publish Your Book The IngramSpark Guide to Independent Publishing Stephen King Susan Kaye Quinn Cathy Yardley Jane Friedman Brendan Clark (Yes, it s available on Amazon.) 5