This page contains all the links to products and services mentioned in my book Getting Published is Just the Beginning: A Guide to IP Rights for traditionally published authors and creative writing students.

Author organisations

The Society of Authors (UK) https://www.societyofauthors.org 

The Alliance of Independent Authors  https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/

The Authors Guild (US) https://www.authorsguild.org 

Australian Society of Authors https://www.asauthors.org  

Canadian Authors https://canadianauthors.org/national/ 

PLR UK https://www.bl.uk/plr 

ALCS  (UK) https://www.alcs.co.uk 

DACS (UK) https://www.dacs.org.uk/ (for visual artists)

Useful books 

These are books I’ve found useful over the years. Please note that all Amazon links are affiliate links (If you use them I get a few pence if you buy something. It won’t cost you anything extra).

Tips from a publisher: A guide to Writing, Editing, Submitting and Publishing Your Book by Scott Pack. A very useful guide to modern publishing.  

How to Perfect Your Submission by Scott Pack. A companion to the book above. Again, full of useful tips. 

From Pitch to Publication by Carole Blake – a little dated now, but still a good guide to how the traditional publishing world works. Some things never change. 

Writers and Artists Year Book (and associated blog https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice) – The single most useful book about how to publish books. The WAYB is issued every year and contains a list of agents, publishers and other markets, which includes useful things like what they’re looking for, submission guidelines and contact email addresses.

Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Lebrecq – an easy to read guide to writing newsletters. I found this a useful grounding, especially when it all felt too overwhelming to take in. 

Strangers to Superfans by David Gaughran – builds on what is said in Newsletter Ninja. The tone is quite chatty, which I like. 

Let’s get Digital: How to Self-publish and Why You Should by David Gaughran is often available for free. 

The Magic Bakery – Copyright in the Modern World of Fiction Publishing by Dean Wesley Smith – a useful guide, with an alternative analogy to how IP can be sliced off and sold. 

Selective Rights Licensing – Sell Your Book to Film, TV, Translation, and Other Rights Buyers An Alliance of Independent Authors Guide. It’s very useful.  You can buy it directly from their shop https://selfpublishingadvice.org/shop/rights-licensing/, you get a discount if you’re a member of Alli. or from Amazon. (Note: The Alli link is an affiliate link. I am a member of Alli).

Choosing a self publishing service – another publication by Alli, with what to look for in a service. You can buy it, or get it at a discount when you join Alli. (Note: The Alli link is an affiliate link. I am a member of Alli).

Closing the Deal by Kristine Katherine Rusch – Another book about rights licensing. Aimed at the self published writer who wants to deal with traditional publishers for certain parts of their writing. 

How to Make a Living with Your Writing by Joanna Penn – All of Joanna Penn’s books are very good and to the point. If you don’t already, I suggest you start listening to her podcast www.TheCreativePenn.com which is excellent listening for both trad and indie published authors. 

Design resources

One of the most useful skills to learn as an author is how to make nice images – you can use them in your social media, or even to make nice pictures to use when you’re giving talks. 

Here are some design sites that make the process easy.

Canva.com A brilliant graphic design resource. I use it to make twitter posts, Facebook headers, book covers, posters, slides, images and logos for my websites. I absolutely love it. There are a lot of things you can use for free, or you can buy images ad hoc for $1. You can join the higher tier and get a whole load of extra functionality (including the one that lets you save the same post in the right size for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). They also have a handy design school section, which is good if you’re learning about graphic design.

https://designschool.canva.com/

Bookbrush.com  Like Canva, but made specifically for books. They include things like logos that say ‘Kindle Unlimited’ or ‘Kobo’ etc. They have a free tier that lets you download three images a month. If you want to do fancy things like make book covers and box set covers, you need to pay for the higher tier.

Social media scheduling tools

No one has the time to watch their social media 24/7. Oh, who am I kidding … I spend most of my waking hours linked to my Twitter account. But I’m assuming that you have a life and aren’t constantly checking social media. If you want to schedule your posts, here are a few services that you can use. 

Crowdfire – Has a free tier which allows you to schedule 10 posts on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook and a whole host of other places.. I pay for the higher tier. I like it because I can just reschedule tweets without uploading images again. 

Hootsuite – has a free tier, which allows you to schedule posts on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook and a whole host of other places.

Tweetdeck – Owned by Twitter. Free. Allows you to schedule tweets in advance. 

Newsletter providers

Mailerlite, – You can have a list of up to 1000 subscribers for free. After that they start charging. The next tier up, at the time of writing, is $15 a month for up to 2500 subscribers. All the tiers (even the free one) have all the features unlocked.

I  use Mailerlite, partly because it’s cheaper than the others, but also because I find it easier to use than Mailchimp. They also have a very helpful and responsive helpdesk (which is always a good thing, as far as I’m concerned). Also, they’re based in Europe, so pretty good on the GDPR front.

Kindlepreneur (run by the ever helpful Dave Chesson) has a course on how to use Mailerlite. He also has several articles comparing different mailing list providers.

Mailchimp – the free account allows you up to 2000 subscribers. But you don’t get access to the full range of features. The next tier up gives you a few extra features and allows you up to 50000 subscribers for $10 a month. For more features, you have to pay more. When I moved away from the service, they weren’t allowing landing pages or automation on the free tier. This may have changed now.

Convertkit – You get to have the first 1000 subscribers free. After that they charge. At the time of writing it’s $29 a month. I have never used Convertkit, but I’m told it’s reliable.

IP resources

WIPO copyright FAQ https://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/faq_copyright.html

UKIPO guides: General information site: https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/copyright

Permissions and exceptions to copyright. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/448274/Exceptions_to_copyright_-_Guidance_for_creators_and_copyright_owners.pdf

Money – Useful blog posts and podcast episodes

Mark Stay’s blog post on advances: A good breakdown of how the money works in UK publishing. https://markstaywrites.com/2019/09/18/author-advances-earning-out-and-royalties-explained/ 

Heather Demetrious’ blog post: A cautionary tale about why you should understand how the money works in traditional publishing. https://forge.medium.com/how-to-lose-a-third-of-a-million-dollars-without-really-trying-d3c343675aca 

When do I Earn out – web app: A simple tool designed to calculate how many copies you must sell to earn out your advance. Designed by author Hana Lee. https://when-do-i-earn-out.web.app/

The Creative Penn podcast episodes

Joanna Penn has been podcasting on the subject of self publishing for years. If you are interested in the business side of publishing, you should definitely go and listen to her. There are 500+ episodes on her podcast and a huge variety of blog posts on her website. 

Here are a selection that are relevant to the topics in Getting Published is Just the Beginning.

Empowering Authors Around Copyright:  https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2020/01/27/empowering-authors-around-copyright-with-rebecca-giblin/

Legal Issues Using Real People, Quotes, Lyrics and Images: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/legal-issues-using-real-people-quotes-lyrics-images-and-citing-sources/

How Authors Sell Publishing Rights: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2016/03/07/how-authors-sell-publishing-rights/

The Bestseller Experiment episodes

The Bestseller Experiment is one of the few podcasts that straddles the indie/trad divide. There’s also a great sense of community about the podcast. It focuses heavily on craft and inspiration, but ventures into publishing pathways and marketing as well. Here are some episodes on note:

The Legal Eagles https://bestsellerexperiment.com/ep32-legal-eagles/

One Page Punchups – really useful episodes where real acquiring editors read a one page submission and give criticism. It’s a great insight into what editors look for in a book. The link goes to some of my favourites. https://bestsellerexperiment.com/ep167-one-page-punch-ups-with-emad-akhtar/

The Empowered AuthorThis is a site run by Sam Missingham, who worked in publishing for years and has a lot of useful advice to share. She also does a lot to keep up with current trends. She is one of the people who gave me advice on what to include in this book. There are things like a list of book bloggers and advice for debut authors on there. Well worth a look.