The Tools And Services I Use In My Author Business

This content has been archived. It may no longer be accurate or relevant.

From The Creative Penn:

Writing and editing

Scrivener — for writing first draft fiction and non-fiction, keeping notes, organizing, and restructuring. Tutorial here for fiction and non-fiction.

ProWritingAid — for self-editing.

The Blue Garret — Kristen Tate is my (human) editor. Interview with Kristen on editing here.

Sudowrite — for expanding sensory detail like a thesaurus on steroids and co-writing assistant. Tutorial here.

ChatGPT — for character ideas, plot ideas, brainstorming, and world-building. I’m on the paid plan so I’ve been using the GPT4 model which is a step change to GPT3. More on futurist topics here.

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Publishing and Distribution

Vellum — ebook formatting. Tutorial here. Vellum is Mac only, but you can also use Atticus for Mac or PC.

JD Smith Design — Jane does my book cover design and interior print design and formatting

Amadeus Pro — audiobook recording and editing. You can also use free software Audacity. I have a home audio booth. You can find lots more detail on audiobooks in my book, Audio for Authors.

Hindenberg Narrator — for audiobook mastering to ACX and Findaway standards

Ebook publishing — Amazon KDP, Kobo Writing Life, Apple Books, Draft2Digital, PublishDrive

Audiobook publishing — FindawayVoices, ACX (for Audible, non-exclusive)

Print publishing — Amazon KDP Print (for Amazon only), Ingram Spark for wide distribution, bookstores, libraries etc.

Direct sales — Shopify, Bookfunnel for ebooks and audio, Bookvault.app for print, Kickstarter for crowdfunding.

Link to the rest at The Creative Penn where there are links to all the services mentioned.