Author Resources
Hello Fellow Authors!
In today's blog I'm going to share some of my top recommended resources for authors. I link to a bunch of different free and paid sites and options, and I am an affiliate for some of these links. However, I would never recommend something that I don't use or haven't gained value from. I believe in transparency and honesty, which is why I only share the products that I believe have made the biggest impact on my career.
Let's dive in!
Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner or have any experience in finances. This information should not be considered as financial advice.
Banking
Setting up for success
When you're first starting out as an author you may be in the situation where you're just doing it for fun or as a hobby. Either way, I STRONGLY recommend setting yourself up separate finances. Afterall, you never know when you might end up hitting that unicorn book.
I subscribe to the Profit First philosophy - whereby I, as the owner, take profits first and then apportion only what remains for expenses. Confused? Check out the below resources for how to set yourself up for success.
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
If you're Australian and want to see how this applies for the Australian market (including for GST), I highly recommend Profit First Professionals Australia and their training.
Profit First 101 - For Australia and New Zealand
Banks
If you're considering which banks to sign up to, I can safely say that I've used a fair few. But let me break down who I use for international markets and for domestic markets.
Domestically, I use Macquarie and NAB. Both of these banks offer fee less transactions for every day spending, and Macquarie in particular offers savings accounts that have up to 5.5% interest.
Internationally, I use both Wise and American Express.
With Wise, I can hold money in 40+ currencies, and convert between them at the real exchange rate whenever I need. This has saved me quite a bit in international fees when receiving and sending money from places like Amazon, and while travelling for signings. It’s free to sign up, and there are no monthly fees, you simply pay a transaction fee when sending or converting money.
I use my American Express card to pay for most of my domestic expenses, and some international. For example, my Amex is used to pay for most advertising. This allows me to collect points, which I can then use to purchase items for the business or use towards business travel.
My one word of caution for Amex would be to ensure you're a credit card person. I pay my balance off as soon as it comes in, and I religiously track every purchase that is made on it. If you're someone who has accumulated a lot of debt in the past, maybe give that option a miss and look for a points debt card instead.
Invoicing and payments
I also use Paypal, Stripe and I offer Afterpay for my Author Website. These are stock standard offerings and connect to many platforms. For example, I have used Jotform as a way for readers to preorder books for events. It links automatically in with Paypal, which has saved me a lot of time and money.
At events, I previously used a square device and had great experience with it domestically. However, now that I have my own shopify store and am doing a lot more overseas trips, I've found that setting up a QR code through my Shopify store for readers to purchase via their own devices on the day works a lot better.
I now set up the pages on my website for readers for each event which I then activate the day of the signing. I can set these pages to be in the local currency, which saves the readers a fair chunk in conversion fees. I also don't have to worry about my square not working, or about exchange rates which can always be an issue if not checked regularly.
Accounting software
I've used a few different accounting softwares but I have to say that after being trained on it, Xero is my favourite. I pay for a higher-end plan, but the ability to track all my foreign income and currencies has saved me HOURS at tax time. Not to mention that you can set up budgets, track your spends, add in individual currencies for your Paypal, wise etc (i.e. USD, CAD etc), and get trends overtime. I also run my payroll through here, and have it set to file my tax and activity statements.
Affiliate programs
Kobo
Amazon
Apple
Marketing
Marketing design
Free -
Paid -
Scheduling
Free -
Paid -
Training on ads
Free -
Paid -
Direct Sales
Free -
Paid
Writing craft
Free -
Books
Training
Paid -
Mindset
Miscellaneous