Here are my Author-y tools, linked and categorized for convenience! (Yes, they are in the Links section of the sidebar, but not in any particular order)
Are Self-published Books Right for You? Take the quiz.
Writing tools:
- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Thesaurus
- Cool Baby Names My favorite site for names, meanings, and ethnic origins for naming characters
- Google Translate I use this for naming things with non-English names
- Forvo Hear how to say the words from Google Translate that don’t have the little sample.
- The Language of Flowers What different flowers mean symbolically
General Tools:
- The Copyright Office You must copyright to protect your work!
- http://www.sxc.hu For free royalty-free photos (be sure to check the image restrictions first)
- Istock Photo For paid royalty-free photos
- Dreamstime For paid and free royalty-free photos (They’ve now limited you to 10 free images unless you pay on their plan. Boo!)
- Free Video Clip Sites for making trailer videos
Formatting:
- 2epub.com Convert files into other files for use on reader devices.
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- Smashwords Style Guide The best guide I have seen on how to format an ebook
- Sample Art Contract
Social:
- Bookblogs A social media site about books, reading, writing, and reviews.
- Goodreads A social media site about books, reading, and reviews.
- Library Thing A social media site about books, reading, and intense details
- Shelfari Yep. Another social media site about books. An unholy mix of Goodreads and Library Thing from the loins of Amazon.
How To:
- How To Design a Book Cover
- How to Get Bloggers to Review Your Book
- How to Run a Google Adwords Campaign I haven’t done this…
- How To Launch a Book Tour
- How to Write a Book Critique/Review (This is one of a series, my favorite installment.)
- How to Market a Book according to: Askville, CreateSpace, Penguin,
- How to Price a Book
- How to Publish Your WordPress Posts on Blogger Automatic posting–this works!
- How to Self-Publish Well
- How to Write a Synopsis
- How to Make a Video Trailer
- How to Make a Video Trailer 2
- Free Video Clips
Promotion/publicity:
Self-Publishing Sites:
- CreateSpace Print books through Amazon
- Kindle Direct Publishing Amazon’s ebook publishing site
- Pubit Barnes and Noble’s ebook publishing site
- Smashwords All ebook formats
Kate Policani 