SPA Girls Podcast – EP30 – Self Publishing Resources
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This week we talk about our favourite self publishing resources to help make your writing life just a bit easier. From writing tools like Scrivener and writeordie.com to editing support with grammarly.com or the best courses on Udemy and CreativeLive.com, we’ve packed this episode full of information for self publishers!
If you want to know the best resources for self publishing authors (or at least our opinion on that…!) then listen in to this episode!
Our Resources – we have our individual favourites, but often use the same ones.
Cheryl
KDROI – Sends your book out to free platforms – growing all the time. Be aware of the day of promotion and make sure your book is free. Small one off cost.
UDEMY – Site for courses. Wait for specials. There are so many you need to pick a topic and browse them. Check reviews and you can often get a sample. Often there are step by step and screen shots to make it incredibly easy to learn what you need to. A range of prices but around $25.
KDSPY – A great research tools. Lets you check out your favourite genres and authors. Highlights keywords, best-selling niches that at used. How many books were sold in particular categories. Check availability as its not in all countries right now. Small one off cost.
Shar
Writeordie – An app that keeps you writing in spurts. 15 minutes is a good prompt. Has several levels, including Kamakazee which deletes your work if you don’t write quick enough. None of us use this level!
Creativelive – More expensive than Udemy. If you’re interested in upskilling, then you will be in for a lot of well-worth it video training. They rebroadcast free so you can see what they have on offer at any given time.
MarieForce yahoo e-mail group – self publishing e-mail swap, and also a facebook for authors. Authors swapping ideas and offering information with Marie popping up with gems of wisdom and putting things in to perspective in an honest way.
Wendy
Grammarly – an automated program that allows you to check your work for grammar, spelling etc. Will have an explanation why something is wrong. Free trail.
Natural Reader – Will show up your mistakes by reading your work back to you. Punctuation, flow, grammer etc. There is a free down load option as a trial which you can use on your PC or MAC to start with, and purchase the full program later should it prove valuable to you. You can stop and start the reading, so you can follow and make notes. Free.
Jutoh – A formatting software for all platforms. Eg Mobi, epub etc. There is an accompanying tutorial but we have found that u-tube offers some great tutorials which are more step by step with a lot of screen shots. Jutoh will save you money as you will be formatting your books all the time when you are adding links or changing covers etc. A one off cost – very reasonable.
Trudi
Pomodoro – working in sets of approx. 25 minutes or whatever works for you. You can compete with yourself or others to encourage output. Ticks like a clock.
Scrivener – A program that you write in to or you can download a file. Novels or documents are broken down in to sections and/or chapters, the headings of which will be lined up on the side of your work. You can write notes and it also has a virtual corkboard. It is very visual, making it easy to follow and see gaps in your plot etc. One off cost.
Podcasts – An endless resource for writers. Covers most of the industry in a personal way. Some are visual as well, unlike ours, and can be interactive. Free. Some are listed here:
Marie Force Author support group https://www.facebook.com/groups/AuthorSupportNetwork/
MarieForce yahoo group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/selfpublish/info
Joanna Penn https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-creative-penn/id309426367
The Self publishing podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/self-publishing-podcast-writing/id522665152 David Wright, Johnny B truant, Sean Platt
http://www.storygrid.com/ Sean Coyne
http://sellmorebooksshow.com/ Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen
Lindsay Beroker – sci-fi and fantasy http://www.lindsayburoker.com/
Mark Dawson http://www.selfpublishingformula.com/
Gretchen Reubens – happier podcast – 25 mins focusing on positive habits. https://gretchenrubin.com/podcast/
Other links
Write or die http://oldandbusted.writeordie.com/
Utube – you can find a how to video on just about anything. Check dates for the most current.
Pomodoro – http://pomodorotechnique.com/
Scrivener – https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.html
