Google Resources: Google Drive

Embrace the cloud.

Google Drive is a cloud-spaced saving point that is part of your Google account. If you have the internet, you can access the drive. I can’t emphasize enough how useful this app is for authors.

Again, I won’t bore you with details about how to use the drive. Simply click on the nine dots on your account and find the drive icon to access it. You can also use this as a save point whenever or drop and drag items to the folders online.

Saving your material. Social media and working environments dictate that authors need to work on the go. We use our phones, tablets, and laptops as much as our home computers. We need materials for posts, videos, comments, and more. Google Drive allows users to save all the files in a folder to access at any time. Need to do quick Instagram posts? Use Google Drive to access promotion pictures. Writing a new book, save your story bible on the Drive. You can upload pictures, videos, documents, or anything you need and have access with a click.

Sharing your work. I mentioned last week I’ve been working with other authors to create a series. We use Google Drive to share our materials, and it’s easy. Click on the drive, then right-click in a white space, and press New Folder. Right-click on the folder and choose Share With. Add all your writing partners. You can use the feature for any partners—authors, beta readers, editors, or even spouses who promise to read your book but keep losing the file. (If it’s in Google Drive, they totally can’t use that excuse.)

In our author group, each person has mad skills for promotional posts and videos. We save the pictures, memes, and vids on the Drive so anyone can use them. We also used the Drive to save covers, beta copies, preview materials, and more. A shared saving stop makes it easy to work with others. Rather than an email that gets lost, users can access materials at any time by clicking on the Drive and then Shared with Me.

We also used the Drive to share other documents for the series. With Google Docs, you can have the series bible available for all authors to access. If all have the “edit” privilege, they can add names, places, and plot lines to the bible. You can also save Google Sheets to the Drive. Spreadsheets can organize data and timelines, or even manage the profits and expenses of the project.

Google Drive is a great way to simplify sharing information. Shared folders can only help everyone in the project or your solo endeavors to be organized and up to date. My only big advice is “Name your folders well.”

 

 

Google Resources for Authors: Docs

For our next three blog posts, I’m sharing some resources available on Google. There are tons. I won’t pretend you don’t know how to use Google. Instead of doing “What Is It,” “How-to,” and “For Authors” posts, we’ll skip to “For Authors” and cover three different aspects of Google.

Recently. I’ve participated in two multi-author projects (or MAPs). It’s been a great and interesting experience. I learned so much about writing and working as a team. We used various aspects of Google to complete the projects, and it was fantastic. Let’s start with Docs.

Google docs is a free online writing program. If you have a Google account, you have Google docs. You can access the app as a website on both your phone and your computer. Also, there’s an app for all platforms. You can write with the app anytime—on the go or at home.

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Word. Which is fine because if you’re drafting, you can just write and not worry. The app is cloud-based therefore anything you write will be saved in the cloud. You can retrieve docs on your phone, laptop, desktop, or a friend’s desktop. It’s important to have access to edit and draft wherever you want and wherever you need. Google Docs will give you many of the resources that you need. Now what’s important for authors!

Google Docs offers several options for authors. If you’re working with critique partners or a multi-author project, you can get edits and critiques live on the cloud. Share your doc. Then, in the right, top corner, click the share button. Type the Gmail address of the person you wish to share with. They will get the email invite. If you click on the gear above the email address blank, you can set restrictions for editors—Viewer, Commenter, or Editor. Each role gives the other user more permissions to edit your doc. Your crit partners? Keep those comments on. Your editor? Full access. Beta readers? Perhaps Viewer only. You can get a lot of feedback quickly. Their edits will show up on the shared doc with their Gmail handle. You can accept or reject edits as you go. Also, responding to comments makes for easy communication.

You can also take my favorite app, Google Keep, and send your notes to Google Docs. You can probably tell by reading this I dictated instead of writing. You can dictate on your phone in both Keep and Docs, and it saves to the cloud. Google made it easy to dictate the blog post and access it on my editing computer hours later.

I’ve been using the app more recently. I own a Chromebook and use Google Docs for my outings to Denny’s and Barnes and Noble for writing sessions. When I get home, I can transfer any work to either Scrivener or Word. I found that Scrivener likes to mess with the formatting from Docs. You may need to type something on the page before pasting your work.

 

Calibre for Authors

I’ll put it out there straight: Calibre is indispensable for indie authors. This software formats your eBooks into various formats. It’s easy to use, and the output is a quick, painless upload to your retailer. The software is free (though I suggest you float them some money if you use it often). What more can you ask for?

If you are delving into self-pub and don’t want to format in Word or pay for Vellum, Calibre is the best choice. You can get formatting completed with one click. Sometimes, you may have to tweak the file to get it perfect. But honestly, it’s so much faster than using Word. You can change up your format to docx, TXT, ePub, PDF, and more.

So, Ginny, what do I use all these formatted docs for? I’m glad you asked.

You can use the docx, PDF, and ePub (and a few others) to upload your book to Amazon. I have not used other book retailers, but I’m guessing one format from Calibre (probably ePub) will upload easily and be book-ready for selling. You’ve worked hard to write your book, edit it, and make it perfect. Formatting should not stop you from publishing. Calibre can make this daunting process seamless.

Also, you can use Calibre to format your books for other spots. EPubs are a fantastic way to share your books with beta readers and ARC groups. The format protects you from having anyone edit them on you. EPubs are easily shared. Be sure you are giving your books to a reliable source.

You can distribute ePubs through other book-sharing sites as well. Book Funnel and similar software (StoryOrigin, Book Sprout, etc.) are great places to share your work. But you want to protect yourself. Using Calibre to format the books before you put them on one of these sites for ARC readers, giveaways, promos, reader magnets, and beta readers. Not only does Calibre format the file, but it makes the out product an actual book. In that way, the materials you are sharing for marketing look professional and clean.

Calibre will also manage your ebook library. Authors receive tons of beta-reads, ARC books, and review copies. Calibre can organize these titles into categories. Also, you can format the files into an ePub (or your fav format) to upload to a reader. Sometimes, your crit partner only wants a quick read-over to find plot holes or the likability of a character. Calibre can turn their text file into a book. Then you can’t edit as you read!

Calibre may not be the Cadillac of writer software, but it’s reliable, easy to use, and updated frequently.

And oh, yeah, it’s free.

 

 

How to Calibre

It’s time to organize those ARCs and beta books.

Download the software and install it on your computer. Again, there are options for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. There is a fix for portable devices. More on that next week.

On the main screen, the ribbon across the top shows the primary functions of the program: Add, Edit, Covert, View, Donate, News, Help, Remove, Library, and Save. You may not use all the options of the software. I’ll highlight the most used options.

Add

Adding books to Calibre merely involves uploading a file. Usually, these files will be word processing files (doc, docx, txt, etc.). Click the Add button to open the file system, find your doc, and press Open. The default for “file to open” is Book. You can click the down arrow to filter by ePub, Kindle, HTML, and more types. Narrowing the search can find your files quickly. There are other options to add books. Press the small arrow next to the Add button. The menu allows users to upload multiple books from multiple files, upload ZIP files, and more. The last option lets you manage how Calibre uploads books.

Edit Metadata

This option allows the user to tweak the metadata on a single title. Books must already be uploaded to Calibre. Select a book and press the metadata button. This opens the “behind the scenes” of the book. Title, Series, Author, Publisher, Pub Date, and cover can be changed. I usually delve in here to change the author name (as my copy of Word is registered under another name.) Do this only for your own books!

Convert Books

This option is to change the format of a book you already have on your computer. Perhaps an ARC you received won’t load up on your mobile device or looks odd on your PC. You can change the format of the book to another type. Upload the book to Calibre (using Add), select the file, and press the Convert button. The next screen will show a large version of the cover. In the upper right-hand corner, the Output drop-down menu has several formats to convert, including ePub, MOBI, docx, HTML, and more. Select the appropriate output and click the Okay button at the bottom of the screen. You can also change a book’s metadata here. But again, only change your own books.

View Books

This feature allows you to read the books in your Calibre library. Select a book before you click the button. The book will open, fully formatted, in a small window. Scroll down through the pages to read. It’s that simple. And, of course, there’s a catch. If the book is ePub, it will open the viewer. If the file is a doc or docx, it will open Word. TXT will open in a text reader. If you want to see the manuscript as a book, open the ePub file. If you’ve converted the book to multiple formats and want to see one type, first pick the desired format. Then click the down arrow next to the View button. Choose View Specific Format. On the next window, choose the format, and Okay.

Get Books

This feature allows Calibre to search through the retailers you select (left side) to find a title you wish to read/own. The list is extensive. Calibre only finds the title for you; it doesn’t purchase it. The software will direct you to the retailer to purchase/borrow the book. You can search by author, title, or keywords. It’s a great way to find those elusive titles or the best price. The arrow on the button’s side makes a quicker search by author, title, or going directly to the store.

Heart

The heart links you to a donation site for Calibre. As the software is completely free, they rely on donations. My thought is if you use the app, pay for it.

Fetch News

The Fetch News button will gather news from various sources and download it into the software for viewing. I haven’t played with this feature much. But you can choose your news source, schedule the download, and peruse the articles on your computer via the app. The articles will be in ebook form for easy reading.

Calibre Library

Once you’ve added multiple books to the app, sorted, changed, and adapted them, you can access them through the main screen or use the library. You can further sort your titles by creating small libraries for them. Maybe you want to keep the romances and horror stories separate. The library button will assist you in organizing your files. I plan on exploring this option more.

Save to Disk

This option is important for authors who have converted their documents to ePub or other book formats. After you convert, the file still resides with Calibre. You will need to save your file to the disk to access it to upload to retailers. Click the book you want to save and hit the button. Options include saving only the ePub, choosing a single folder, or saving another format besides ePub (if you have converted the file into other formats.)

Calibre has so much more. We could spend the rest of the winter with the multiple options available through this free software. In the interest of time, I’m going to leave you with this basic understanding of the app. Explore and let me know if you found so cool features I missed.

Next week, we will look at Calibre specifically for authors.