Self-Publishing: Free Software Essentials

At the end of January, I bought a new laptop. I'd been using a netbook and so making the switch to a full-size laptop with full capabilities meant that I could download a lot more software and have everything I really needed in order to make my work look as professional as possible. It's a PC, so of course it came with Microsoft products--including, interestingly, an Office Starter program that has actually proved quite useful. I ended up downloading a number of Windows-compatible programs that I've either used in the past and loved or that have come highly recommended and I haven't figured out how to use yet but am excited about.

Open Office
This is a free, open-source office suite comparable to MS Office. You can even save your work in Office-compatible formats. I've used it for years and love it. The word processor is the program I used to write and format my first four books. It's reliable and totally easy to use, especially if you're already familiar with Word.

Calibre
When I first started poking around the MobileRead forums, I saw that a lot of people were talking about this program. In addition to being a library management program, it can convert ebooks from one format to another. This is going to be useful when I finally get around to formatting my work for sale on AllRomance... I hope. I haven't used it yet, but most users seem pretty happy with it.

MobiPocket Creator
This program is the one I've been using to convert my Word files to Kindle-compatible files for sale on Amazon. I haven't had any problems with it (despite the fact that a lot of users in the KDP forums seem to have trouble). It has been very easy to use and has made nice-looking books each time.

Scribus
An open-source desktop publishing program, I read about Scribus somewhere online (I'm a bad researcher, I can't remember where) and thought it might be useful for creating book covers whenever I decide to self-publish hardcopies. I haven't really played around with it, but it seems pretty powerful and it looks like it could create professional-looking graphics.

Photoscape
This is free photo editing software with really basic capabilities. It's great for people like me who aren't visually-minded or editing-savvy. I like it a lot--I've used it for all of my covers and I'm happy with the results.

GIMP
More photo editing software, this free and open-source program is a lot like Photoshop. My dad is a photographer and he likes it. I'm not smart enough for all the tools and potential available in this program, but I hope to be one day. You'll have to go to CNET for the download.

I also downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird with the Lightning add-on for my email and calendar and Intuit's website building program since that's the company I use.

Free Alternatives to MS Word

In the years I spent as a student monkey and as a corporate monkey, MS Word was the go-to word processing software. Before that, from when I was about eleven, I used MS Works, or Notepad or WordPad. After my first couple of laptops crashed and died on me, I decided that I needed a cheaper alternative to Word that would still give me more features and better control than Works. I hadn't even started looking for word-processing software when I stumbled across a link for OpenOffice.org.

I love it. When I did my initial research on self-publishing, I thought that I would have to shell out for a new copy of Word, or at the very least dig out my old copy. But once I carefully read the Smashwords Style Guide and used OpenOffice to implement the instructions successfully, I realized that I didn't need Word at all. 

When I format The Cowboy Next Door, I'll be sure to do screenshots so I can share how to format in OpenOffice. It's so easy that I got it right in one try.

There is another free alternative out there called LibreOffice. I've read some good things about it but I haven't switched.

OpenOffice and LibreOffice are both Mac-compatible. I've never used them on a Mac, but I have a friend (and phenomenal beta reader) who has; she has never reported any problems.

Documents can be saved in Word's .doc and .docx formats and you can create HTML and XML files, which makes them easier to share. You can do almost everything in these programs that you can do in Word, they're free, they're easy to download, and they have tons of excellent reviews. If you're programming-inclined, you can even help to update it.

If you're wanting to self-publish with little-to-no startup cost and you don't have Word already, these programs are worth downloading and learning to use.