A Look Inside: Writer’s Toolbox
Before I dive into all the fancy tools I use to write and produce my books, let me just tell you that I am a strong believer in getting things done with the basics. You don’t need all of these things to write. You don’t need all of these things to produce a book or write a blog or anything of the sort.
When I started writing, I used none of these things… well, except a computer, pen, and paper. But you get the idea. I added these tools as they became relevant to me and my self-publishing business, and I will make note of those things as I get to them.
But, if you’re interested in the things I use to run my author business, here is a look inside my writer’s toolbox.
The Basics
Computer
Alright, I’m a bit spoiled here - I will completely admit it. When I started writing, I had a basic HP laptop that I was using for school. I’d been using it for years so it was nothing fancy, but it had a big screen and didn’t hurt my eyes.
Now that I have a solid office and don’t travel as much as I did (I was a softball coach in grad school when I started writing fiction, now I’m a mom and full time author), I opted for a desktop computer. I have a Sceptre monitor that I can adjust for my eyes and I did splurge and get a Mac mini with the M1 chip. The idea is that these two items will last me… well, until they die. I don’t need to upgrade every time they come out with a new computer (unless Apple forces an update that crashes my system and makes my computer obsolete - true story, this happened to my old Mac mini).
For the off chance that I am not in my office, I do have a Macbook Air that I use. Basically, I switched to Mac because the writing software I use works better on it and I like to use their cloud platform to access my files wherever I am (including on my phone).
Pen
Alright, I have a few favorites because I am obsessed with writing utensils. I also use all of these with my planner (it’s my second creative outlet) but also with outlining or writing on the go.
Notebook
Basically, if it has paper, I like it. Typically I stick to spiral bound, simply because I like that they can lay flat. Sometimes the soft and hard bound notebooks interfere with how I write and the spine can get in the way.
Organization
Passion Planner
I will go to the grave shouting about how much I love my Passion Planner. You can find examples on Instagram of how I use my spreads for managing my writing business, tracking my projects, and time blocking. Their weekly spread is great for time tracking and bigger projects while their daily planner is ideal for individual planning (I often use the daily to write out chapter outlines or take notes / research).
Writing and Publishing
Scrivener
My go to writing software. I started out in Word but quickly fell in love with Scrivener. There is so much benefit to having all my books in one place, especially when it comes to organization of chapters, scenes, and more. I have an entire blog post here.
Vellum
A recent purchase of mine that has turned the days-long process of formatting my books into less than 30 minutes. I cried the first time I used it because what used to be my least favorite part of the publication process is now my favorite. I have so much more design freedom in Vellum than trying to manipulate everything in Word. I wish I had bit the bullet and purchased this when I first started writing because it changed my life.
Amazon
Yes, I use Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for distributing my books. I don’t have a ‘team’ to help me write, produce, and market my books so keeping them on one platform, though limiting my audience reach, makes my life easy. Especially when I’m the one doing all the work across the board.
Marketing and Artwork
Canva
Canva is where I design all of my graphics for social media as well as the graphics you see inside my books. Chapter titles, mock covers (and real covers), instagram posts, and more are all produced here. There’s also the option to schedule posts if you purchase their pro plan, which opens up more than just the scheduling feature. It has been worth every penny.
SendFox
I recently switched to SendFox for my newsletter service. Before, I stuck to the free plans on other mailing servers but those soon became too limiting. The bright side of SendFox is that they are only a one-time fee to set up and after that, you get some amazing tools.
BookFunnel
Newsletter swaps and group promotions are huge to help get your book in front of new readers. BookFunnel does a lot of the heavy lifting for me, including integrating with my newsletter so I don’t have to copy and paste emails every time someone new subscribes to my newsletter. They also have a great ARC platform to send my books to advanced reviewers.
iPad
I dabble in artwork when I need a creative outlet but the words aren’t coming. My iPad works wonderfully with Procreate so I can do some design and mess around. Sometimes that art makes it into the world (character art!), but mostly this is just a personal thing that I mess around with.
Light Pad
Another personal splurge is a light pad to help me trace things into my planner or notebook. Sometimes it’s to help me practice a new handwriting technique, other times it’s to make little design borders around my planner. Either way, this isn’t a critical piece of my author business (except when I use it to create personalized bookplates) but it’s a fun thing that I do in my spare time.
Website
Last but not least, this website! I like a clean layout so I do splurge a little by having my website hosted by Squarespace. Free sites are great (for a while, I used Wordpress), but I like the ability to just focus on the design and my own material rather than spend time coding and formatting a website. With all the effort it takes to manage a page and adjust the coding, my time is better spent writing and producing books. It also results in less hair pulling on my part!
