Near the end of the year, I put together a list of tweets of some of my favorite tools for keeping mu cool. They ranged across tricks & websites for tracking/analyzing your sales, places to get stock photos and make promo pics, and ways to format & convert your ebooks. It was a tangle of all my favorite bookmarks and programs, presented in 140 chars or less.
Okay, here we go. Off the top of my head, the List Of My Favorite Tools & Tricks To Not Lose My Cool, Vaguely Grouped By Type…
— Bree (@mostlybree) December 30, 2015
You can follow the tweet above back to the thread, or just browse the list below. (Keep in mind, brevity and abbreviations because, you know. Twitter!)
Bree’s Favorite Tricks
Book Report – a nifty way to watch & analyze your Amazon sales. Free if you make < $1k/mo on Amazon, $10/mo if more. https://www.getbookreport.com/
Google Keep – simple, easy to organize/tag virtual To Do list. Browser, Android or iOS. Free. http://keep.google.com
Kindle Sales Total Bookmarklet: Tired of adding up your MTD sales or page reads in KDP? Enjoy. It’s magic. http://www.ericjamesstone.com/blog/2012/05/21/bookmarklet-to-add-totals-to-kindle-sales-stats/
Spreadsheets – I made my own so they’d be as nitpicky & precise as I like them. Have one! Or two! http://www.breebridges.com/downloads/
Sigil – Free epub editing software. Super useful if you need to fix small things in an ePub. http://sigil-ebook.com/
Trackerbox: When you need to track ALL the vendors, and multiple pennames. Free trial, $59.99 to buy: http://www.storyboxsoftware.com/tdownload.htm
Kindle Previewer: When you need a quick preview of your book, or to quickly convert epub to mobi: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765261
PicMonkey – $4.99/month photo editing software. Make super pretty promotional pics without photoshop skills. https://www.picmonkey.com/
Dreamstime: Save up promo images & grab a monthly subscription to get ALL THE STOCK PHOTOS you could ever want. http://www.dreamstime.com/
The Windows Snipping Tool: Seriously, I screenshot everything and his makes my life beautiful. Just saying. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/use-snipping-tool-capture-screen-shots#1TC=windows-8
Redirects. Still. Always. http://www.breebridges.com/formatting-tricks-2-linking-with-redirects/
InstaFreebie: Give away books & let the winner decide their own format. Plus optional newsletter subscriptions! http://www.instafreebie.com
RescueTime: No one wants to know how much time they’re actually spending on twitter. But you probably need to know. http://rescuetime.com/
Send to Kindle: A shocking % of people don’t know how easy it is to review your MS on your phone and/or kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle