Favorite Author Apps
I've been writing and self-publishing books for several years now, and I've tried out many author tools over the years. Here are my ten favorites.
1. Google Workspace
The whole suite including Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, personalized Gmail, etc. It runs my whole operation.
2. Atticus
If Scrivener and Vellum had a baby, their baby would be called Atticus. Atticus lets you write your books and format them for publication.
3. ProWritingAid
Honestly, I like Grammarly better, but I bought a lifetime deal for ProWritingAid years ago, so that's what I use. I go through each of my books once or twice with ProWritingAid during the self-editing phase.
4. Hemingway
I like to run my writing through the Hemingway app after I finish the first draft to cut out the fat. Hemingway is useful for identifying overcomplicated and passive writing. It points out any sentences that may benefit from rewording.
5. World Anvil
World Anvil is a web-based world-building app where you can keep track of your story worlds.
6. Publisher Rocket
Publisher Rocket is great for doing market research for your books. It can help you identify profitable genres and keywords for advertising your books.
7. Paint.net
For most graphics, I use Paint.net. It has most of the features of Photoshop, but is free. I've been a premium member of Canva and Book Brush before, but I didn't use them enough to warrant the cost. They are also good tools for authors though, and I have used them to make professional looking book covers in the past.
8. Autocrit
I jumped at a lifetime deal for Autocrit last year, but haven't really used it yet. It looks like a good editing tool for fiction writers though, and I plan on writing more fiction in the future.
9. Book Funnel
Book Funnel is a must-have if you want to deliver ebooks to customers outside of the big distribution sites like Amazon.com or Draft2Digital. I use it mostly to deliver lead magnets for my mailing list.
10. Mailerlite
Speaking of mailing lists, I used MailChimp and ConvertKit in the past, but now I use Mailerlite. I'm using Mailerlite right now because it's free and easy.
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