# We've had software for writing, what about software for publishing?



## sashamerideth (Dec 14, 2011)

I'm about a third of the way there with my first novel, and was thinking...

How can I track who I have submitted to, what I sent, when it was sent, and what their reactions were.  I am geeky enough to roll my own database, but surely someone else has already done it.  What do you use?

My second question, I am seriously considering self-publishing and just not bothering with the whole agent/publisher submission thing.  How can I keep track of where I have put my books, and any revenue that may come in from them?  Probably the same program above will do this, maybe not the financial stuff...

Last question, I am using yWriter5 right now, and I have read that I should take what comes out of yWriter, and feed it through something else to get it ready as an epub, mobi, or for Kindle.  Basically, I want to get my manuscript set up and sent to just about every place that I can get paid for putting my book.  What software will best help me take my will-probably-be 60k word work from a text, RTF, or HTML formatted book, add in my cover art, and get it out there for people to buy?  

Learning as I go, and preparing for the day when I can announce to all of you, "Hey, I have a book, go buy it please."


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## Steerpike (Dec 14, 2011)

When I published my Kindle book, I followed some online guidelines that suggested formatting the work in MSWord, with it set to indent paragraphs automatically, and with hard page breaks entered. Then, save as a filtered web page and do some minor editing to remove superfluous HTML tags. For Kindle, this method worked very well, and the resulting book looked exactly as I wanted it to. The only other code I needed to add was the code to put the image on the first page of the actual book (which is optional).


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## Telcontar (Dec 14, 2011)

I've never been into the thought of writing software beyond a simple text editor. When I look at the feature list it isn't really doing anything I can't do myself with a modicum of organization. Same would go for publishing software. Everything you mentioned I already keep track of in a spreadsheet.

If you're going to self publish, _absolutely_ get organized. Your finances especially, which is a huge concern amongst new authors starting to earn income from their writing. I'm actually gearing up to do some self-publishing right now as well, and in the near future I'm going to be getting a file cabinet, the sole purpose of which is to help keep track of my finances and other authorship-related concerns. 

Finally, all those formats are XML based, I think, so there are no doubt auto-converters for various file types. As Steerpike said, you'll want to make sure your original document does some specific things - use styles for indentation, not tabs. Try reading the Smashwords Style Guide. Even if you don't intend to publish through them, it has good information in it.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Dec 14, 2011)

sashamerideth said:


> I'm about a third of the way there with my first novel, and was thinking...
> 
> How can I track who I have submitted to, what I sent, when it was sent, and what their reactions were.  I am geeky enough to roll my own database, but surely someone else has already done it.  What do you use?



A spreadsheet. The number of submissions I send out would never be high enough for me to need something more high-powered than that, and on the off chance that I really do, I can dump it to CSV and import it into something later.


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## Steerpike (Dec 14, 2011)

Duotrope has a tracker that does the basics.


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## MichaelSullivan (Dec 24, 2011)

sashamerideth said:


> I'm about a third of the way there with my first novel, and was thinking...
> 
> How can I track who I have submitted to, what I sent, when it was sent, and what their reactions were.  I am geeky enough to roll my own database, but surely someone else has already done it.  What do you use?



I've not used it but there is a site called QueryTracker that does exactly what you are describing.



sashamerideth said:


> My second question, I am seriously considering self-publishing and just not bothering with the whole agent/publisher submission thing.  How can I keep track of where I have put my books, and any revenue that may come in from them?  Probably the same program above will do this, maybe not the financial stuff...



No the above program won't do that.  I suggest something like QuickBooks - You will need to track income and expenses for tax purposes.



Last question, I am using yWriter5 right now, and I have read that I should take what comes out of yWriter, and feed it through something else to get it ready as an epub, mobi, or for Kindle.  Basically, I want to get my manuscript set up and sent to just about every place that I can get paid for putting my book.  What software will best help me take my will-probably-be 60k word work from a text, RTF, or HTML formatted book, add in my cover art, and get it out there for people to buy?  

Learning as I go, and preparing for the day when I can announce to all of you, "Hey, I have a book, go buy it please."[/QUOTE]


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