Yes! Both GSuite (which I just found out is now called Google Workspace, whoops 😅) and Apple’s suite are fully compatible with Microsoft Office’s spectrum of files 💪🏽
I’ve tried to love Plottr. I really, really have. But the cards shift position so damn easily in my iPad and phone, and it caused so many problems. My ipad is where I do most of my organizing. So I switched to Trello… same idea, … ish. I *loooooove* Trello for planning my year out, plotting, organizing content for social media, and literally everything else in life. I even have a housecleaning board, lol. It’s a yearly fee, but it is worth it in my opinion. Just throwing it out there since you mentioned Plottr :)
I believe they still offer a free tier for two or three boards. Great for trying it out! Plus you can use ONE board for an entire series, when you do it right. That's what I do. :)
I thought about Tertulia, but I didn’t like its limitations on customization for the things that are needed to boost SEO, establish branding, etc. I’m also—for these articles—focusing on minimizing monthly costs, hence the Substack recommendation. I do like Tertulia as an “at least I have something professional” option! It’s just still a monthly expense or an annual expense that might be too much for many of us 😅
It is very limited, you're correct. But it's a great starting point... and the cost is lower than some other websites. Which is why I mentioned it. I agree with the branding and SEO though. 100%.
I’ve recently realised how much more I’ve spent in the last couple of years compared to what I’ve earned from writing. So I’m keen on seeing what I can cut back on. I think I have too many free/cheap resources, but I don’t utilise them as well as I should be.
But so far my biggest expenses have been illustrator and book printing. I’m branching out from children’s books to short story collections so hopefully those costs will drop a lot for my next book!
Great info! This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm interested in. In this article I'm particularly intrigued by Quill and Courier - I'll definitely be looking into them!
Just a note about IngramSpark: They no longer have revision fees as of earlier this year. When every other platform seems to be adding fees, they took theirs away. (Not that it fixes any of their other issues. But if it was the revision fees keeping you away from IngramSpark, you don't have to worry about that anymore.)
Another good resource you might want to look into is Affinity. It was originally three programs (Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher) that were sort of like the Adobe products, and you could buy each for a one-time fee. Affinity was recently bought by Canva, though, and now they offer the whole thing for free. So if you're looking for an alternative to Photoshop and InDesign—without the ongoing subscription fees—that's something to try. (I bought all the Affinity apps years ago and have used them extensively for formatting my print books and for cover design.)
I also second using Affinity. When it came time to formatting my paperback and ebook. It was easy enough once I found a YouTube tutorial on how to format in Affinity.
Right now, my author website is separate from Substack. Like, I host my own domain elsewhere, then I have my Substack. But now I am considering just merging them into one. It sounds like it's worked well for you.
My only disagreement with what you wrote is about GSuite (I'm assuming you mean Google Docs, Sheets, etc when you say this?). Google scrapes your data and uses it to train AI, which I am not crazy about. The only stuff I put in there is stuff I don't care about being leaked online. Which maybe this is your philosophy too, as I see you use Scrivener for the important stuff (writing).
Now if only Substack would create a feature that lets us email previously published articles to ourselves.... because I need to download and save this one!!!
I’m so frustrated about the Google thing now 😭 But thank you for pointing that out because it made me go looking and I also discovered it’s officially “Google Workspace” now, NOT “GSuite”. Ugh. Anyways, I found some contradictory articles but I’ll link both here for you and others to check out as far as Google WORKSPACE (🤪) says about training Gemini:
The irony is, I didn’t even know they were about to do that (or not, depending on who is telling the truth) when I moved to the Apple suite 😅 I’ve been using Scrivener for much longer, and before then I was using LivingWriter and even tried Reedsy (which I don’t recommend). But I DID do all my editing projects for clients in Google Docs because it was easier to communicate! Ugh. UUGGHHH 🫠
Also! I forgot to say this in my prior comments: thank you for the StoryOrigin recommendation. I've heard good things about BookFunnel, but I haven't been sold on it. I do want to give StoryOrigin a try now. :)
I know, it’s SO frustrating. I’m being extra cautious these days and not putting anything I value (like my unpublished manuscripts) into Google Workspace. All I have in there at the moment are some spreadsheets related to house buying (because I don’t care if they scrape that, haha).
But Scrivener and Apple rule — off to read your article about your MacBook Air being a publishing powerhouse. That’s my goal for my amazing brand-new MacBook Pro that I bought last year (seriously, I love this thing). :)
This is a fantastic list of resources! I'll mud wrestle you over Bookfunnel, because I absolutely love that platform and the $20 a year option buys you a lot.
I beta tested StoryOrigin back before it turned paid and liked it a lot. Do they deliver audio as well?
Also worth noting, Draft2digital.com is a great low cost formatting service if you can't splurge on Vellum. I used it for years before buy a refurbished MacBook that I use just for Vellum, which is amazing.
So I looked at the wrong tier for BookFunnel’s pricing 😅 They did raise the prices again for everything, but $30/ year for the lowest tier still isn’t bad. I might give it another go! I just wasn’t loving how blunt and seemingly rude people were, even customer service when I experienced a hiccup. I’ll be fair and recognize maybe it was a bad month for everyone 😅 But then when I found out half their features are free elsewhere, it kinda killed my drive to use them or even recommend them. I’ll still take another look, though! 💕
StoryOrigin *does* work with audiobooks! I think they even have a Review Copy feature for them.
Good to know about D2D! I didn’t trust it enough to try it 😅
I'm sorry you ran into that with Bookfunnel. I can see why that would be totally off-putting to me too.
Good to know about StoryOrigin re. audiobooks. I can pass them along to anyone who asks. With direct sales, having a delivery service that backs you up is so important! Of course the subscribers would also go ballistic if the newsletter magnet goes wonky so no matter what it's important!
OMG, I feel the sting of this. Back when I published with Kensington I paid for a gorgeous website...that I couldn't update myself. I had to email the designer whenever I needed to make a change. My current website isn't as pretty but man, I love the control.
When I admin’d for a company in Chicago, I noticed their website was designed by a studio in Arizona and they kept having me email the designer only once a month “to keep costs low”. I was like…guys…this is Wix. I’ve been using Wix since 2004. Keep costs LOW low by pulling the contract and hand me the controls 😂
I currently use Microsoft Office suites, if I switch to G suites will I be able to open word documents?
Yes! Both GSuite (which I just found out is now called Google Workspace, whoops 😅) and Apple’s suite are fully compatible with Microsoft Office’s spectrum of files 💪🏽
Thank you for this post. You're so great not only showing alternatives, but giving us your insight about everything <3 Looking forward for Part 2!
Great list of options. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for this! You're so great at offering alternatives! I am really appreciating these posts.
I’m so happy it’s helping! I’m also learning in the comments and am grateful for our community! 💕
I’ve tried to love Plottr. I really, really have. But the cards shift position so damn easily in my iPad and phone, and it caused so many problems. My ipad is where I do most of my organizing. So I switched to Trello… same idea, … ish. I *loooooove* Trello for planning my year out, plotting, organizing content for social media, and literally everything else in life. I even have a housecleaning board, lol. It’s a yearly fee, but it is worth it in my opinion. Just throwing it out there since you mentioned Plottr :)
Did Trello get rid of its free tier? 👀
I believe they still offer a free tier for two or three boards. Great for trying it out! Plus you can use ONE board for an entire series, when you do it right. That's what I do. :)
Also, Tertulia is a very affordable website option for authors and it is ridiculously easy to set up.
I thought about Tertulia, but I didn’t like its limitations on customization for the things that are needed to boost SEO, establish branding, etc. I’m also—for these articles—focusing on minimizing monthly costs, hence the Substack recommendation. I do like Tertulia as an “at least I have something professional” option! It’s just still a monthly expense or an annual expense that might be too much for many of us 😅
It is very limited, you're correct. But it's a great starting point... and the cost is lower than some other websites. Which is why I mentioned it. I agree with the branding and SEO though. 100%.
Nice article. Found you in one of my promos on StoryOrigin and I can't say enough good about that platform either.
I’ve recently realised how much more I’ve spent in the last couple of years compared to what I’ve earned from writing. So I’m keen on seeing what I can cut back on. I think I have too many free/cheap resources, but I don’t utilise them as well as I should be.
But so far my biggest expenses have been illustrator and book printing. I’m branching out from children’s books to short story collections so hopefully those costs will drop a lot for my next book!
Great info! This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm interested in. In this article I'm particularly intrigued by Quill and Courier - I'll definitely be looking into them!
Just a note about IngramSpark: They no longer have revision fees as of earlier this year. When every other platform seems to be adding fees, they took theirs away. (Not that it fixes any of their other issues. But if it was the revision fees keeping you away from IngramSpark, you don't have to worry about that anymore.)
Another good resource you might want to look into is Affinity. It was originally three programs (Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher) that were sort of like the Adobe products, and you could buy each for a one-time fee. Affinity was recently bought by Canva, though, and now they offer the whole thing for free. So if you're looking for an alternative to Photoshop and InDesign—without the ongoing subscription fees—that's something to try. (I bought all the Affinity apps years ago and have used them extensively for formatting my print books and for cover design.)
I also second using Affinity. When it came time to formatting my paperback and ebook. It was easy enough once I found a YouTube tutorial on how to format in Affinity.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll definitely be looking into Affinity 👀
Fantastic article!
OMG I love this. Thank you so much for sharing!
Right now, my author website is separate from Substack. Like, I host my own domain elsewhere, then I have my Substack. But now I am considering just merging them into one. It sounds like it's worked well for you.
My only disagreement with what you wrote is about GSuite (I'm assuming you mean Google Docs, Sheets, etc when you say this?). Google scrapes your data and uses it to train AI, which I am not crazy about. The only stuff I put in there is stuff I don't care about being leaked online. Which maybe this is your philosophy too, as I see you use Scrivener for the important stuff (writing).
Now if only Substack would create a feature that lets us email previously published articles to ourselves.... because I need to download and save this one!!!
I’m so frustrated about the Google thing now 😭 But thank you for pointing that out because it made me go looking and I also discovered it’s officially “Google Workspace” now, NOT “GSuite”. Ugh. Anyways, I found some contradictory articles but I’ll link both here for you and others to check out as far as Google WORKSPACE (🤪) says about training Gemini:
https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/generative-ai/generative-ai-in-google-workspace-privacy-hub
https://www.inc.com/leila-sheridan/cybersecurity-experts-warn-that-most-gmail-users-dont-realize-this-ai-setting-is-already-turned-on/91292379
The irony is, I didn’t even know they were about to do that (or not, depending on who is telling the truth) when I moved to the Apple suite 😅 I’ve been using Scrivener for much longer, and before then I was using LivingWriter and even tried Reedsy (which I don’t recommend). But I DID do all my editing projects for clients in Google Docs because it was easier to communicate! Ugh. UUGGHHH 🫠
Also! I forgot to say this in my prior comments: thank you for the StoryOrigin recommendation. I've heard good things about BookFunnel, but I haven't been sold on it. I do want to give StoryOrigin a try now. :)
I know, it’s SO frustrating. I’m being extra cautious these days and not putting anything I value (like my unpublished manuscripts) into Google Workspace. All I have in there at the moment are some spreadsheets related to house buying (because I don’t care if they scrape that, haha).
But Scrivener and Apple rule — off to read your article about your MacBook Air being a publishing powerhouse. That’s my goal for my amazing brand-new MacBook Pro that I bought last year (seriously, I love this thing). :)
This is a fantastic list of resources! I'll mud wrestle you over Bookfunnel, because I absolutely love that platform and the $20 a year option buys you a lot.
I beta tested StoryOrigin back before it turned paid and liked it a lot. Do they deliver audio as well?
Also worth noting, Draft2digital.com is a great low cost formatting service if you can't splurge on Vellum. I used it for years before buy a refurbished MacBook that I use just for Vellum, which is amazing.
So I looked at the wrong tier for BookFunnel’s pricing 😅 They did raise the prices again for everything, but $30/ year for the lowest tier still isn’t bad. I might give it another go! I just wasn’t loving how blunt and seemingly rude people were, even customer service when I experienced a hiccup. I’ll be fair and recognize maybe it was a bad month for everyone 😅 But then when I found out half their features are free elsewhere, it kinda killed my drive to use them or even recommend them. I’ll still take another look, though! 💕
StoryOrigin *does* work with audiobooks! I think they even have a Review Copy feature for them.
Good to know about D2D! I didn’t trust it enough to try it 😅
I'm sorry you ran into that with Bookfunnel. I can see why that would be totally off-putting to me too.
Good to know about StoryOrigin re. audiobooks. I can pass them along to anyone who asks. With direct sales, having a delivery service that backs you up is so important! Of course the subscribers would also go ballistic if the newsletter magnet goes wonky so no matter what it's important!
OMG, I feel the sting of this. Back when I published with Kensington I paid for a gorgeous website...that I couldn't update myself. I had to email the designer whenever I needed to make a change. My current website isn't as pretty but man, I love the control.
When I admin’d for a company in Chicago, I noticed their website was designed by a studio in Arizona and they kept having me email the designer only once a month “to keep costs low”. I was like…guys…this is Wix. I’ve been using Wix since 2004. Keep costs LOW low by pulling the contract and hand me the controls 😂