5 Useful Tools for Independent Publishers

We know a lot of you got into independent publishing with a strong sense of self-reliance. However, even the most accomplished of us need a little support sometimes. A wide range of online tools and communities are there for your support without sacrificing your autonomy as a creator. Therefore, we have curated five of Issuu’s favorite tools for independent publishers.

Grammarly

This browser plugin will improve your writing skills across emails, social media, and documents. Grammarly gives you live AI feedback on how well you are using punctuation, style, and spelling. We all make these simple mistakes. So, online proofreading saves us all from the embarrassment of grammar mishaps.

Adobe inDesign

This is Adobe’s page layout design software. Backed with AI technology it automatically scales assets in proportion with your spread. Which means you can easily change the size of any document. Plus, they provide preset layouts for simplicity and color palettes provided by design legends like Pantone. The result is a professional and finished publication. Also, Issuu makes this process even easier with our extension that allows you to create social Stories directly from your assets uploaded on inDesign.

Related Reading: 3 Inexpensive Digital Publishing Tools by Kolor Magazine

WordPress

WordPress is the platform we use for this blog. It would hardly seem fair not to give them a proper shout out. Without advanced engineering you can fashion a professional and customizable content platform. Create pages, sidebars, galleries, contact forms and more. In addition, they have a wide suite plugins that streamline writing and designing blog content.

They even convert your pieces into AMP format which vastly improves searchability and load speed. All independent publishers should be showcasing their work digitally, and WordPress has been supporting creators in this endeavor for over 16 years.

Yoast

As previously mentioned, plugins make your writing experience far simpler. Yoast is a WordPress plugin that gives you a live SEO and Readability score. Green from Yoast means you are most likely to be found in a user search and when it is found people will understand it.

SEO depends on links, key-wording and their distribution, headline, URL, and meta description. Readability is based on things like transition words, active voice, paragraph length and sentence variety. This plugin will assure you that your prized content will be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Additionally, they have an excellent (and detailed) help section explaining how to improve and why making those changes are important.

Google adSense

This is perhaps the easiest way independent publishers are monetizing their digital presence. With a few simple lines of code you can have targeted ads displayed alongside your content. Earn money for each ad seen and clicked. Ads are formatted for desktop and mobile and tailored for your blog layout. There are millions of advertisers competing for your ad space. Plus, you can block ads that don’t align with your brand. Giving you even more control as a independent publisher. Your WordPress integrates nicely with adSense as well. See tutorial here.

Visit the Features Page and discover how else independent publishers are expanding their publication!