265+ FREE and Inexpensive Tools for Authors and Writers
Writing and selling books is a lengthy and time-consuming process, which authors have discovered to be among their areas of greatest stress. While the publishing industry is getting more automated, marketing your books demands time and effort to go around writer’s block and finish the job with a blank screen. To effortlessly allow your creativity to flow, today we’re sharing my selection of favorite tools.
I’m sure you are no stranger to tools that are helping you simplify your day-to-day writing life, however, I believe that you might be interested in knowing a few more content marketing tools that not only help save your time and effort and, on top of it all, these are also completely free of charge.
Tool Categories
- Writing Tools
- Book Formatting Tools
- Design Tools
- Productivity Tools for writers
- Animation-Creation Tools
- Video-Creation Tools
- Photo apps
- Audio-Creation Tools
- Best Organization Apps & Software
- Infographic-Creation Tools
- Presentation-Creation Tools
- Screen-Capture Tools
- Cheapest Email Marketing Tools
- Misc Tools
Let’s start.
Writing Tools
- Google Docs
- LibreOffice
- Trello
- EverNote
- Notion
- Grammarly
- Hemmingway Editor
- CoSchedule’s headline analyzer
- BuzzSumo
- WordCounter
- Focus Writer
Book Formatting Tools
- Atticus
- Vellum
- Kindle Create
- Microsoft Word
- Scrivener
- Ulysses
- Reedsy
Design Tools
- Canva
- Crello
- Simplified
- Pixelated
- Tyle
- Piktochart
- Colorcinch
- DesignBold
- Photopea
- Snappa
Productivity Tools for writers
- Friday
- Todoist
- Asana
- Trello
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Zoom
- Nifty
- Toggl
- Clockify
- Monitask
- Harvest
- Loom
- IFTTT
- Zapier
- Integromat
- Notion
- Dropbox Paper
- Clickup
- Twist
- 15Five
- Tettra
- Sunsama
- Akiflow
- TimeCamp
- TickTick
- nTask
- Evernote
Animation-Creation Tools
- Biteable
- Boomerang
- Moovly
- Animaker
- Blender
- K-3D
- OpenToonz
- Pencil2D Animation
- Plastic Animation Paper
- Powtoon
- Stykz
Video-Creation Tools
- Lightworks
- VideoPad
- HitFilm Express
- DaVinci Resolve
- VSDC Free Video Editor
- OpenShot
- Shotcut
- Blender
- Movie Maker 10
- iMovie
- Magisto
- WeVideo
Audio-Creation Tools
- Audacity
- Adobe Audition
- GarageBand
- FL Studio
- Descript
Best Organization Apps & Software
- Any.do
- Sunsama
- Trello
- Todoist
- Akiflow
- Get Plan
- Toggl
- Asana
- ClickUp
- 24me
- DayViewer
- Microsoft Planner
- Google Calendar App
- Dropbox
I’d like to invite you to join me in my quest to provide you with the best tips, tricks and hacks to help you build your author career while keeping this newsletter free and independent.
If there was ever a time to join me in this quest, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers me to create more amazing content and sustain the future of this publication. Support this newsletter — it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. You can do either by buying me a cup of coffee. Thank you.
Buy me a Coffee
Infographic-Creation Tools
- Canva
- Venngage
- Piktochart
- easel.ly
- Visme
- Infogram
- Vizualize.me
- Snappa
- Google Chart
- MS PowerPoint
Presentation-Creation Tools
- MS PowerPoint
- Google Slides
- Keynote
- Prezi
- Canva
- PowToon
- GoAnimate
- Zoho Show
Screen-Capture Tools
- CloudApp
- SnapDraw Free
- Free Cam
- Screencast-O-Matic
- OBS Studio
- Debut Video Capture
- ShareX
- Apowersoft
- CamStudio
- ScreenRec
- Ezvid
Cheapest Email Marketing Tools
- Flodesk → Lifetime offer of 50% off
- Sendinblue
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- ConvertKit
- Cake Mail
- MailerLite
- GetResponse
- SendGrid
- Aweber
- Moosend
- Omnisend
- SendPulse
- Mailjet
- Email Octopus
- Benchmark
- Sender
- RedCappi
- Pabbly
Misc Tools
- Hootsuite — To plan and track your social media activity
- Right Relevance — To find the right influencer
- Bitly — URL shortener
- GTmetrix — for checking the website speed
- Facebook Ad Library — To spy on competitors’ ads
- Ocoya — for Scheduling Facebook and Insta Posts
- Tubebuddy and Vidiq — for YouTube video Analytics
- Rapdtags — for YouTube Video Tags
- YouTube Audio Library — for Royalty-free music
- Pexels — for free stock images and Videos
- QuillBot — Paraphrasing tool that generates various synonyms
- WordHero — AI writing assistant
What would you add to the list? Tell me in the comments.
I’d like to invite you to join me in my quest to provide you with the best tips, tricks and hacks to help you build your author career while keeping this newsletter free and independent.
If there was ever a time to join me in this quest, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers me to create more amazing content and sustain the future of this publication. Support this newsletter — it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. You can do either by buying me a cup of coffee. Thank you.
Buy me a Coffee
About Chase Austin
I have spent 10+ years writing stories and marketing them. I’ve failed and succeeded over the years, and these are some of my tidbits on how I started my author business, perfected marketing, and more.
Here you’ll find resources to help you kick more ass with your words. No fluff, only actionable tips, and tricks if you are looking to make a living through writing, or just use it as a side hustle.
Things I like: Long walks, Reading about anything and everything, Telling stories and chess.
Visit me at www.thechaseaustin.com. Want to say hi, email me at contact@thechaseaustin.com.
