resources
Being a self-published author means you have to do a lot of things yourself. And the entire process can be so overwhelming. Having the right recourses can help you get inspired and take action.
Below you can find a list of author resources. Bookmark this page so you can get back to it as often as you need without having to find it again. And share this page with your author friends. The list is in no particular order. Some resources are free, for others you will need to pay. But we made sure to only list paid resources that will be such a timesaver that it will make its money back in the long run.
If you know an author resource that is not listed here, please send an email to info@cutting-edge-studio.com so we can add it to our website. That way, we will have an ever-growing list with amazing content and resources. One website where you can find everything you need. We find that only fitting, since we call ourselves a one-stop-shop.
MAILERLITE
Become an email marketing expert with advanced tools made easy for you. Includes live 24/7 support and the latest features like landing pages and automation.
Sign up through the link below to get a free 14-day trial to premium features.
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PLUTIO
The most streamlined way to run your business and get work done.
Manage projects, communicate with clients, share files, create proposals, send invoices and get paid - all from one app.
Get an exclusive 10% discount on any of their plans. Use the coupon code: Plu20io19
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GUIDE TO GETTING REVIEWS
In this StoryOrigin blog, both basic and advanced tactics to building a review team are covered, including how to find reviewers, collect and vet review copy requests, and automate your review team manegement.
free
KDROI
The Ultimate Kindle Book Promotion Tool
Submit your Kindle book promotion to over 32 sites in 15 seconds without leaving Amazon, filling in mindless forms, or outsourcing to Fiverr.
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PUBLISHER ROCKET
This is by far THE program that can help you sell more books. Finding the right keywords and categories for your book, keywords for your ads, and seeing what your competition is doing is very important, but as any author knows, it is a daunting task. And yes, you can do this manually, but it will take a lot of time. Rocket allows you to save this time and the results it generates are even better.
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AMAZON BOOK DESCRIPTION TOOL
OK, so you have a good cover, title, and your description is all set up in a word file. But when you want to upload it to your KDP dashboard, you see that you need some sort of HTML code to upload it. Argh… Don’t worry, this tool will do it for you—for free!
FREE
SELF-PUBLISHING SCHOOL
If you’ve always wanted to write a book but are not sure how to get started, or you’ve already published some books, but the number of books sold is not what you hoped for, then this program is definitely the one for you. There are more programs like this out there and yes, some are a bit cheaper, but this one is by far the best and complete course there is. For more information and to get a $250 discount, click on the button below.
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STORYORIGIN
Whether you are a new author or a bestseller, Story Origin is all you need. Newsletter swaps, reader magnets, setting up review copies, creating universal book links, they’ve got you covered. It helped me to boost my email list from 300 to almost 2000 in 3 months, and my list is still growing every day. And the good thing is, it’s currently completely free!
FREE
DESIGNRR
Your lead magnet needs to look professional in order to help you stand out of the crowd. A simple plain text PDF won’t cut it. Use Designrr to create and format stunning looking PDFs, flipbooks or even ebooks in a matter of minutes. And if you use our link, it will only cost you $27 (one-time fee).
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CATEGORY FINDER
Forgot which categories your book is listed in? Use the NerdyBookGirl website to find out.
FREE
BARCODE GENERATOR
Have you bought an ISBN and need to create a barcode? On the bookow website, you can create one for free!
Tip: if you don't want a price on your barcode because you might change it later, enter 90000 in the price field.
FREE
HEMINGWAY APP
The Hemingway App is a great free tool for writers aimed at refining and strengthening their prose. Paste in a selection of your work, and it’ll identify passive sentences, hard-to-read sections, adverbs, etc.
FREE
PLAGIARISM CHECKERS
Read this blog to find out about great tools to help you avoid plagiarism in your book.
FREE
GRAMMARLY
Grammarly offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax.
You can use this tool via the website, as a browser extension, or as an app that you download to your computer. It helps enhance your writing skills by highlighting grammatical mistakes and areas of improvement.
FREE
PRO-WRITING AID
Pro-Writing Aid offers world-class grammar and style checking, combined with more in-depth reports to help you strengthen your writing. You will also get a detailed report for every section you evaluate in its online editor. It allows you to checker grammatical and punctuation mistakes while also checking for structural issues like overuse, repetition, clinches, and a writing style and sentence length.
FREE TRIAL AVAILABLE
PAID
BUY YOUR ISBN
The most important identifier your book can have is the ISBN. As the U.S. ISBN Agency, Bowker is the ONLY official source of ISBNs in the United States. ISBNs provide unique identification for books and simplify the distribution of your books throughout the global supply chain. Without an ISBN, your book will not be found in most bookstores, either online, or down the street from your house. You can buy your ISBN’s here.
PAID
SELF-PUB PODCASTS
Carla King’s Self-Pub Boot Camp offers friendly educational resources like video’s, podcast, books, and more.
FREE
BOOKLIFE
Publishers Weekly’s website Booklife is dedicated to indie authors. They offer success stories, help authors to get more reviews, and more.
FREE
SIX FIGURES AUTHOR PODCAST
The Six Figure Authors Podcast is a publishing show with a focus on marketing. In each episode, the hosts discuss topics crucial to developing a successful publishing career, interview insightful guests in the field, and/or answer questions from listeners.
FREE
SELF PUBLISHING FORMULA
The Self Publishing Formula community is a group of energetic indie authors who use social media advertising to build their careers. Get Mark Dawson's free videos on how to attract many new readers to your mailing list, just visit selfpublishingformula.com.
FREE
SELF PUBLISHING SCHOOL TV
Welcome to Self Publishing School TV! Learn how to publish a book and become a best selling author as you master the art of self publishing. On this YouTube channel, authors and entrepreneurs are being interviewed weekly. Get inspired by there stories.
FREE
NICK STEPHENSON
This channel covers all the fun stuff - how to write a novel (without wanting to drive your head through your desk), how to grow an audience, advertising strategies, and email marketing tips. If your an author - or aspiring author - you'll find something here to help. Nick Stephenson is a USA Today Bestselling author of fiction (thrillers and sci-fi), non-fiction, and also teaches authors how to find their first 10,000 readers.
FREE
CREATIVE PENN
On this channel Joanna shares information and inspiration about writing fiction, writing non-fiction, self-publishing, book marketing, and making a living with your writing.
FREE
VIDDYOZE
At Cutting Edge Studio we create awesome book trailers for a very reasonable price, leaving you to do what you do best: write a bestseller. In order to do that, we use a variety of video editing softwares, often using more than one to create a professional book trailer.
Do you want to try creating simple videos yourself? Then try Viddyoze. Ideal for creating book reveals and logo animations. Use our link to get a $30 discount!
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ELEMENTOR
At Cutting Edge Studio we offer webdesign for a very reasonable price, leaving you to do what you do best: write a bestseller. But if you have some extra time on your hands and are thinking of creating your own website, take a look at Elementor. It's a Wordpress plugin that enables you to create stunning websites.
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