Free Instruction for Authors: An Abundance of Awesomeness

POSTED ON Aug 1, 2016

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Writing > Free Instruction for Authors: An Abundance of Awesomeness

Hey, it’s the depths of summer here in the northern hemisphere. You know what that means: long days at the pool with the kids; vacation notices bouncing back from my emails; work days that seem to end a lot sooner than in other months.

Over here at The Book Designer world headquarters, we rarely take a break from our self-assigned task of helping you publish your books better, faster, and more efficiently. And, of course, to have some fun while you’re doing it.

In my travels online, I’m constantly on the lookout for great resources you can use to meet your own publishing goals. Since that might require help with writing, editing, book design, typography, cover design, marketing, copywriting, blogging, social media, publicity, blog tours, advertising and a few more tasks, there’s a lot of territory to cover.

What really gets me excited is when I find outstanding content that writers (okay, mostly bloggers) have posted for free. I mean authoritative, deep, useful content. The kind of thing you might ordinarily have to pay good money for.

Over the years I’ve mostly distributed these “found treasures” to the folks on my email list, and when I do, I usually get a ton of “Thank you!” emails from subscribers.

So I thought today would be a good day to share three of my favorite of these amazing free resources with blog readers too. Here they are.

An Abundance of Awesomeness: Free Instruction for Authors

Each of this is an in-depth resource that may take quite a while to fully explore, but each is written by an expert in the field and will repay your efforts many times over.

Learn Blogging and Monetization

Yaro Starak‘s short course in How to Make Money Online

People are always asking me how to get started blogging, and how to start to make money online. I’ve studied both intensively, but if you’re just getting started, learn from the fellow who taught me blogging.

Yaro provides step by step guidance, a wealth of resources, tons of advice, and it’s all on one web page, which is pretty awesome. And, it’s completely free. If you need a hand up to get a blog or website up and running, or want to figure out your best monetization options, this is a perfect place to start.

While you’re there, make sure to grab a copy of Yaro’s awesome Blog Profits Blueprint (affiliate). That’s what got me started on my own blogging journey.

Learn Typography

Matthew Butterick‘s book on typography, Butterick’s Practical Typography.

It’s difficult to learn typography, but attorney and author Matthew Butterick has created one of the best resources anywhere to help you understand the basics of this craft. The “book” itself is published on the website, complete with all the accoutrements of a book you might find in a bookstore or on an e-reader.

The site also has its own navigation tools, and of course, the typographic design is admirable. Butterick is also the designer of the typefaces used on the site, which are available for sale. If you get value from his work, you can find out how to help pay for the book while you’re there.

Learn Ebook Publishing and Marketing

Martin Taylor‘s Digital Publishing 101 for eBooks

This is one of the most extensive courses available online, and it’s only half of what you’ll find on this site. The other half is a complete course in marketing ebooks.

The author relies on his wide experience in the field, having worked with hundreds of publishers around the world facing the challenge of major digital change in their business. He knows what works.

The course includes extensive instruction on everything from rights and permissions to creating ebook covers, to production, distribution, and just about anything else you can think of.

And best of all, just like Butterick’s Typography and Yaro’s blogging and monetization course, it’s absolutely free. You don’t even have to opt in to use these tools.

Of course, if you see the value in these tools, it just makes sense to explore the other things these authors have available.

So enjoy your first week of August, and let me know if you’ve found any great freebies for authors lately.

Photo: bigstockphoto.com

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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