Writing a book is a long and sometimes tedious process, so I wanted to give you some tools to make it easier.
On the Tools we Love Page in the Resources section of the Author Nation website, there are lots of tools to help you. For now, I’ll suggest three tools to help you get the words out and start the editing process.
Dictating Your Book
Do you hate writing but can talk for hours? Dictate your book and transcribe what you write with one of the many tools available. I suggest looking at Temi which uses speech recognition software rather than human transcribers. Temi will cost you $0.25 a minute so every one hour will cost you $15.00.
You can use this in many ways:
- Dictate and transcribe.
- Have a colleague or book coach ask you questions, record the interview, and transcribe.
- Teach a class or workshop, record it, and transcribe.
Editing Your Book
Once you have your book on paper, time to edit. I recommend ProWritingAid. It’s what I use. It will find patterns in your writing – overuse of certain words or too many long sentences. It will help you break those patterns so your writing is more interesting and digestible for the reader. It looks at style, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Investing in ProWritingAid will teach you a great deal about your own writing and help you improve which will save you editing costs. You will still need to get your book edited but it will cost less and your manuscript will be cleaner.
Listening to Your Book
It is always good to hear your book read out loud. You’d be surprised at how much that can help you write in a manner that is easy to read and understand. For that, you can use Natural Reader. You can drop your file into the software and it will read it for you. You can sit back and hear how it sounds. Are things hard to grasp? Then rewrite to simplify or divide ideas up more.
On the Tools We Love page in the resources section of Author Nation, you will find other helpful tools to get your book written, on the page, instead of living in your head. Until it’s down on paper, no one can help you, because we can’t read your mind. We don’t have an app for that yet. We’re working on it…
Author Nation is your go-to resource for becoming a successful nonfiction author, from planning to promotion and everything in between. Download the resource for the stage you are in.