My Favorite Writing Tool! - Scrivener
I have been a big fan of Scrivener, from Literature and Latte, for over 10 years! I originally began with Scrivener on a Macbook laptop and I was instantly hooked. Then, when it came out for the iPad I was totally thrilled. My iPad with Scrivener goes almost everywhere with me and all of my books and stories are there. This amazing writing tool works on Mac, Windows, and iOS. I save my writing to the cloud and locally for when there's no wi-fi. I use this for outlining, background, plotting, and for the actual writing. And I love being able to compile to a eBook or PDF format for sending to my beta readers or publisher. There is entirely too much to highlight about this amazing writing tool here. Head over to the Literature and Latte site to take a look.
Artisan Books Reviews
I want to give this site a mention. I found out about Artisan Books via Twitter and I checked out their site. Wow, I am impressed! While I'm currently not in a position to do some marketing with them, they are on my radar and I highly recommend them to any author wanting to do some marketing and promotion. Or, if you are just a reader and want to see some reviews before picking your next read, give them a look.
Beautiful DAWN, by Justin Trissel
I wanted to give a shoutout to my friend, Justin Trissel. He recently released his debut novel about a Post-Apocalyptic time when a woman from the protected confines of a walled in city, meets a "savage" man from outside the walls. To learn what happens you will need to get the book or wait for me to finish mine - at which time I'll be posting a review here and on Amazon. Go check it out!
OneNote = My Brains!
When I was in school, I carried around a small notebook everywhere. It was my most prized possession. It was full of story ideas, invention drawings, lists of chemical formulas (C8H10N4O2), new words with descriptions, algebra, jokes, scribblings, and just about anything I found fascinating. Yeah, I was pretty geeky. Well, I guess I still am. I no longer carry a paper notebook around. But, I do have a desktop computer, an iPad Pro, and an iPhone. And I run the OneNote application on all of them, and on my work computers as well.
Simply put, OneNote is a software application for taking notes. For me, it's my brains! I keep all my story ideas, research items, pictures, web clippings, readings, presentation notes, conference notes, to-do lists, addresses, work tasks, events, ... Well, you get the picture. Regardless of where I am or which device I'm using, OneNote is there with me. I can take notes on my iPad and they automatically show up on my desktop and iPhone. It has saved me on many occassions when I came up with an idea, stumbed across a web tidbit, or just wanted to squeeze in a little writing. And the best thing is that OneNote is free!
I have looked at other, similar products. Only because I sometimes get a little frustrated with some formatting glitches, especially when trying to copy or paste to/from Scrivenor. I've looked at Paper from Dropbox, which is very slick, but very pricy. I used to use Evernote all the time, but they started to fall behind in the features, as compared with OneNote, and it was a paid subscription service. Trying to Manage Google docs & sheets is just too cumbersome. And when I'm writing, Scrivener is my main tool, but OneNote has my story universe for reference.
STUFF I RECOMMEND FOR WRITERS (& READERS)
Whenever I do book readings, speak with other writers, or discuss the craft via forums and social media, I get a lot of questions about what tools I use, what books I recommend, services I use, what processes I use, and where did I learn all of this. Well, as with any profession or creative craft, I dove in and learned by doing, and by asking those same questions myself. Much of what I have learned and many of the processes I utilize are discussed in my blog (old and new), but that requires a ton of reading and lots of searching. So, I decided to build this section of the website for providing a single place where other "creatives" can come and find out a little about what I use, and what I recommend for new, intermediate, and even experienced writers.
Be sure to come and check out this page on a regular basis. As I continue to discover new products, services, and tricks - I'll be sure to share that information here, and in the blog if you want a fuller story. Enjoy, and if you have any specific questions about any of the items mentioned here, feel free to shoot me a note via the Contact page and I'll be happy to respond when I can.
Marketing Multiplied, by Peter Thomas and Mike Moore
Now, why am I writing a post about a non-fiction, business based book, on marketing? Well, one reason is that this is written by two gentlemen I work with. Another reason is that I got to help out with feedback on the content and layout. But, most importantly, this is pretty much the only source of truth when it comes to describing Channel Marketing and how to apply the various methods of channel marketing. As a writer, I never really gave much thought to the process of marketing, aside from writing blog posts, using social media, and asking book stores for book signing events. However, this book describes the various methods of marketing to, with, through, and for partners. In the business world, a partner is a business who wishes to represent your products to their customers. That business gets a cut of the profits for every sale. As a writer, my channel partners are Amazon, Draft2Digital, iBooks, and any outlet who could carry my book. So, this book has given me a lot of ideas of how I could, for example, market my books to the local book store, how I could market my books with the local book store, how I could market my books through the local book store, and how I could help the local book store do marketing of my books to their customers (for partners). The local book store is my partner.
A lot of the content of Marketing Multiplied is targeted to the big business product and service providers, such as SAP, FireEye, Ford Motor Company, Google, etc. But, there is much that can be gleaned from learning how the "big boys" do it, and then apply some of those principles to the "little guys" - such as us independent book authors and publishers.
So, if you want to get a great education on marketing for either the business world, or for your own personal book marketing techniques, Marketing Multiplied is a great resource.
Just click the picture if you want to take a look or go to the website for more information.
The Successful Author Mindset, by Joanna Penn
I not one of those writers who reads books about the technical aspects of writing. In fact, I'm afraid to read those for fear of ruining my voice and style that represents me. However, books that discuss the mentality of what it means to "be" a writer, to think like a writer, or to live as a writer - those are very appealing to me. I stumbled across this book when I discovered Joanna Penn on Twitter. Just the title alone caught my eye. I visited Joanna's web site (thecreativepenn.com) and I listened to an exerpt from the book. I was instantly hooked. I bought the audio version, I've listened to it twice so far, and I may even buy the printed book just to have it proudly sit in my bookshelf and reference it every now and then. Yes, I love it that much! Joanna does an incredible job of explaining what we all face as writers. The rolling eyes of our friends and family members when we tell them we wrote a book. The feeling of tepidation when trying to figure out what our vision of success is as a writer. She explains how to face the doubters and march on. I found myself nodding in agreement with all of her statements explaining what a new writer faces. Then I really got excited when she started discussing how to face true success as a writer and what she has personally learned in her growth to becomming a successful, internationally known author and speaker.
Now, allow me to apologize before you continue reading this review. I very rarely try to convince anyone to buy something. I'm not a sales guy. I'm a writer. I don't like being pushy. But, if you have any doubts about whether this book is for you or not, if you're a want-to-be writer, if you are an established writer, if your best friend is a writer and you want to understand them better - get this book! I'm not telling you this, just to get a few cents in return (if you buy from my link), or to gain some prestege with Joanna. I'm very serious about the value this book has brought to me and I know it will do the same for you.
More recommendations coming soon.