(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr. Find out more at my newsletter.)
Hey all! I collect various creative resources at Seventh Sanctum’s Nexus page, and I figured it’d be worth posting them now and then as I expand them.
This round has a lot of self-publishing resources! Let me know of any other resources you’d like to see so I can keep adding them!
Art Sources
- Free
- Royalty Free
- Canstockphoto – A great source for royalty-free art, photos, and more. Has a subscription system and a pay-more-get-more credit system.
- Shutterstock – The classic source for royalty-free art, photos, and more. Has both monthly and specific purchases available.
Book Covers
- Premade
- Go On Write – Premade covers for books – pick one that looks right and the artist will change the title and author appropriately. A great bargain, and even has series of covers at discount! Will do custom work to.
- Services
- Paper and Sage – A reliable source of both premade and custom book covers.
Book Reviewers
- Review Sources
- Midwest book review – Will review books for free, but it’s a matter of choice.
- Self Publishing Review – A classic paid review service (where a pool of reviewers is available) for books. Not always a guarantee of the best reviews of course, so you take your risks . .
- The Indie Review – A large, constantly-updated list of indie book reviewers.
Contact Management
- Mailing Lists
- Mailchimp – Mailchimp may have some restrictions, but it’s the go-to for easy mailing list management, which is perfect for authors and artists. It also integrates well with other tools.
- Professional
- LinkedIn – The classic business networking site, and pretty unavoidable for most professionals.
Generators
- Generator Sites
- Chaotic Shiniy – A diverse source of generators in a variety of styles.
- Darkest of Nights – Fantasy-oriented generators.
- Donjon – Generators for a variety of genres and game systems, some of which provide graphics as well!
- Dropping-the-form – Generators for various settings.
- Eposic – Generators – among other imaginative efforts.
- Fantasy Name Generators – And there are a LOT of them here. About anything you could want, and a few you didn’t know you needed.
- Feath – Generators of various types, conveniently categorized.
- Generator Blog – Links out to many other generators.
- Generatorland – Lots of generators and generator tools.
- Mithril and mages – Generators for a variety of genres.
- Name Pistol – Band name generators.
- RanGen – Random generators, from fantasy to helpful writing tools.
- Serendipity – A generator site with some setting and name generators.
- Seventh Sanctum – A large collection of custom-build generators.
- Springhole.net – A site of generators and other creative tools.
- Squid.org – Home of a complex name generator with many, many options.
- The Force – A powerful name generator with multiple options.
Graphics
- Graphic Tools
- Gimp – Aka The GNU Image Manipulation Program. A free, open source graphic tool that will take care of almost all of your graphic needs (barring a few limits like CYMK conversion and the like).
Helpful Tools
- Relaxing Backgrounds
- 4 Ever Transit Authority – Ride the bus through randomly generated art deco cities. A great program to run in the background or on your TV or monitor to relax you while you create.
- Anomolies – A relaxing background display/artgame that creates surreal spacescapes, often with strange nebulas and sites that resembe anything from devices to lights to disturbing lifeforms.
- Panoramical – Available on Itch.io And Steam. Panoramical is an audio/visual remixer where you can tweak settings in multiple environments, turning them into audio/visual displays. Find your favorite setting, leave it on, and relax.
- Station To Station – A simulated train ride through imaginary environments. Run it in the background or through your television while you create to help relax you
Self-Publishing
- Audiobooks
- Cards
- Drive Thru Cards – Self-publishing for card games, both physical and downloads.
- eBook
- Draft2Digital – A service that distributes to multiple eBook platforms.
- Itch.io – Itch.io doesn’t just do games – it also allows for people to publish books, and is very open-minded.
- Kobo Writing Life – Distribute your eBook via Kobo
- Nook Press – Distribute your eBook via Nook
- Smashwords – A wide-ranging ebook distribution service.
- Physical And Ebook
- Ingram Spark – Ingram’s eBook and physical book publishing platform. Wide reach, but may require some setup fees and has some limitations.
- KDP – Amazon’s full-service print and Kindle publishing service. Warning, the eBook distribution is only through Amazon.
- Lulu.com – A print and eBook creation and distribution service.
- RPGs
- Drive Thru RPG – Self-publishing for RPGs, both downloadable and in print. Also supports related merch like calendars.
- Video Games
- Itch.io – Itch.io is a supportive, indie-oriented game store site. It also has a lot of self-published resources for game development, as well as supporting books of all kind.
Writing Tools
- Ebook Creation
- Word Processing
- LibreOffice – A full, free, open source office suite. Beyond the free price, it’s fantastic ad using ODT format and creating PDFs.
- Writing
- Scriviner – A writing tool that combines note taking, tracking, and writing into one application.
- Writing Checking
- Grammarly – A pricey but powerful service and software for checking grammar, spelling, and even plagarism if you need. There are free, limited options.
- Hemmingway – A grammar checking tool with both web and desktop versions.
- Pro Writing Aid – A subscription-based writing checker service/tool.