One of the hard things about being an independent author is having to learn all aspects of the publishing business. Writing, researching, editing are just the beginning. Then there are marketing, graphic design, layout, and for most, blogging and social media.
It’s all kind of overwhelming, like thinking you are jumping into a swimming pool, thinking you can easily swim across. Then you realize it’s the size of an ocean.
Along the way I’ve found a few great resources to help manage all these different tasks. Here are some of the best:
Fiction University’s Revise your Novel in 30 Days
I was struggling to come up with a method for revising my novel. Something more organized than just reading through and fixing mistakes that caught my eye. I wanted something more systematic.
Then I stumbled on the Revise Your Novel in 30 Days plan. What a difference! Each day described a specific area to focus on, to find what needed to be revised. Questions were raised I never would have thought of.
I wasn’t able to keep up with the pace (I’m more on the 120 day plan), but my revising efforts now have a plan and a purpose.
We’ve all heard of Pinterest and how people get lost in it, wasting hours on end. But it can be a real tool for authors.
Having trouble describing a setting? Search Pinterest for some images of what you’d imagine it looks like. Same with a person. There are boards called “Fashion through the Ages” or “Romantic Castles.” Repin the images you like on your own board for future reference.
Research
Having trouble with your research? This blog post is a treasure trove of places to look.
Along those lines, The Art of Manliness blog often has great informational articles, like this one about battle cries. Other topics they’ve covered are surviving in the wilderness and cleaning a gun.
Images
We all need them: book covers and blog posts just wouldn’t be the same without vivid and compelling images (although I can think of some great covers without images. But those are the exception.)
Most of us don’t have unlimited funds, and paying for images can get expensive.
Recently I came across two websites that allow their images to be downloaded, absolutely free, for any legal purpose, no attribution needed. Sounds awesome, right?
There are only two downsides I’ve found with them so far. The first is that they don’t have a huge selection, although what they have is pretty good. The other is that many of the images are far too small to use for a book covers, and many are even too small to use in a blog post (or at least as your featured image.)
But for most blogging purposes, these free images will work just fine, so you can save your pennies to pay for a high-quality image for your book cover.
The two sites are:
What resources have you found that are helpful? Please share them in the comments!