For Authors
These are some of the courses and tools I personally use as an author and highly recommend. Everyone's author career and experience is different but these have personally worked for me and my goals. The below contain some affiliate links and I may earn commissions on purchases which helps sustain my author career but in no way is a conflict on how I feel about using these products, services or books.
Vellum - Book Formatting Program
I use Vellum to format my own eBooks and Paperbacks which has been unquestionably the smartest purchase I ever made. Having control over changing back matter whenever I need is a must have for any author. I have created beautiful interiors for my books and it was easy to learn how to use.
Please note: Vellum can only be used with a Mac.
Elevenlabs - AI Voice (Audiobook Creation)
I have used Elevenlabs to create AI generated audiobooks and found the program to be easy to use with a variety of voices to choose from. The program is subscription based and incredibly economical, allowing you to cancel your subscription once you have finished creating your audiobook. It's a great inexpensive way to provide audiobooks to readers.
ScribeShadow
Scribeshadow is a subscription model program that can translate your published books into many different languages in minutes. I've used this program to translate all of my books and can personally say how easy it is to use.
Translations can help boost your income and help you find new readers. Use my referal code 20VSITLA to get 50% off your first month.
Lori Jackson Design
Lori is not only talented but she's also wonderful to work with to design the perfect cover for your book. I was lucky enough to find Lori early in my publishing career and she has designed ALL of my book covers. People really do judge a book by it's cover and that is one thing you should leave up to the experts. Highly recommend Lori.
Convertkit
Newsletter Provider
Having a newsletter is a great way to connect with readers and it's something that you as an author control instead of relying on social media to serve your latest release to followers. There are a lot of options out there with varying cost. I use Convertkit because I love the customer service, ease of use, and deliverability rates. It's easy to create templates and visual sequences.
Strengths for Writers with Becca Syme
1. Relator
2. Harmony
3. Developer
4. Input
5. Intellection
What does all that mean? This is something you will learn in Becca Symes Strengths for Writers class. It's all about understanding your top strengths so that you can use them to help you be a better writer. I can't recommend this class enough as it has helped me to make those little changes that make a big impact.
Wix Website
Having a professional website for any author is a must have. It allows your readers to have one place to find information about you and your books.
The website I use is Wix. I have easily created a professional site with the use of a variety of templates that are offered.
Wix's customer service is excellent and anytime I've had a problem or quesiton, the support staff have been great to work with and solve my problem every time. Wix has a variety of plans that fit your needs.
I also used Wix to create a business email that I use for my mailing list.
Write Better Faster with Becca Syme
Having the knowledge of what your stregths are is a big part of this course and the lectures are geared towards helping you understand how your personality/strengths impact your writing. We all want to be better and faster at writing but how we get there is a different journey for everyone. I highly recommend this course not only for the valuable information you get in the lectures but the one on one coaching and follow up calls that support the learning.
Bookfunnel
Bookfunnel is essential to my author career goals. I use it to distribute Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs), and deliver ebooks, and audiobooks for my direct shop. I also join promo's using my reader magnet, which is offering a free book for joining my newsletter as well as joining sales promos. I also deliver bonus material for my books. So, you can see that I use Bookfunnel for so much of my business and find their customer service excellent as well as being easy to use.
Canva
PicMonkey
Canva is a tool I use to create professional graphics, teasers, videos, and slideshows for my various social media platforms.
The tool is easy to use and there are lot's of resources available to learn some tips and tricks. I've even created book covers and paperback wraps using Canva that are not only beautiful but very professional. Canva is a subscription based program for their Premium tier, which is reasonably priced but their free version has lot's of options.
Create beautiful designs of all kinds using Canva. You can check out my social media to see how I use Canva.
PicMonkey is my go to tool for creating beautiful book covers, especially titles. There are alot of advanced tools that PicMonkey has that Canva does not. The two together can create a really awesome homemade book cover. There are a lot of resources out there to help and is less of a learning curve than photoshop. PickMonkey is a subscription based service and very reasonable for the Pro version but also has a free trial.
You can check out my latest release Silent, Night, Holy Secret to see how I've used PicMonkey to great a beautiful title.
Other Books by Paula Dombrowiak
