Author Photo Tools: How to Remove Backgrounds
Have you got a great snapshot that would make a great author photo, “if only…?” Here’s how to get rid of distracting backgrounds, whether it’s a tree branch growing out of your head, telephone cables crisscrossing the sky, or the shoulder of you know who. If you hire a professional photographer you can ask them […]
How to Create a Self Publisher Imprint Name & Logo
Among the items that make your book scream self-published is a free or vanity imprint, logo, and free ISBN. It’s not that difficult or even expensive to invest in your own ISBNs and create your own publisher imprint logo. Here’s what you need: Purchase your own ISBNs (see my post here) Register a publisher imprint […]
Image Creation Tools for Your Book, Website & Social Posts
Don’t know how to use professional image creation tools to make infographics, reports, and graphics for your books, website, and social media? Not a professional designer? No problem! I tried Infogram, Piktochart, Visme, Venngage, PicMonkey, and Ease.ly to create infographics, social media images, and reports, to see what kinds of tools were out there for non-pros. These are […]
How to Resize Image Files for Your eBook & Website
You want your eBook size to be as small as possible because Amazon charges you a 15 cents per megabyte download fee. You want your web images to be as small as possible so your website loads faster. In this post, you’ll learn how to optimally resize image files to strike a balance between file […]
Markdown: The Easy Way to Write, Edit & Format Your Book
Writing a book is hard! Editing a book is hard! And formatting a book is an angst-inducing challenge for many authors on the self-publishing path. There are so many new tools for authors that, until recently, I forgot about this very old and very easy way to write, edit, and format your book. It’s called […]
Two Online Book Creation Tools That Are Worth the Money
I love the convenience and collaboration of online book creation tools. Because your book lives in the cloud you can easily invite others to edit or review them. You can work on them wherever you are from any computer with an internet connection, too. There are many free book creation tools but these paid tools […]
Four Free Online Book Formatting Tools You’ll Love
Okay, you’re ready to create your book and you’re looking for some free online book formatting tools to help. Because by now you’ve finished your manuscript, your beta readers love your book, you’ve run it through a couple of electronic editors and your copyeditor has given your manuscript the green light. Or maybe you’ve got an […]
Practical Editing Software for Authors and Editors
Because professional editors are so expensive (and worth every penny), the purchase of electronic editing software can be a very smart investment to save you time and money in the long run. Here’s a review of my favorite tools, some of which offer “first-pass” or “last-pass” editing to clean up mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and one that actually helps you edit your story, kind of like a developmental editor. Magic? Yes! Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to help.
Your Advance Reader Copy: 6 Tech Tools for Sharing ARCs
An Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of your book is essential for obtaining reviews from early readers, trade reviewers, paid review sites, the media, influencers, and readers. But as a self-publisher or first-time author, it can be difficult to get book reviews. In this post, you’ll learn about ARC-specific apps and services that help you share […]
10 Ebook Conversion Tools for Docs to EPUB & MOBI
At some time or another in your publishing journey, you will need to create EPUB and MOBI versions of your book, stories, or documents. There are many reasons to do this and I hope that the information in this post will help you plan a publication and marketing strategy that incorporates sharing with early readers […]