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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Please Read, by Paul Andrulis

As of 2/20/2013 I am setting up this blog specifically for other authors. Almost everything needed by Indie Authors for writing is covered by copyrights or usage limitations which make it illegal or expensive to use when writing, editing, creating a cover, or publishing a book. I have had to scrounge long and hard to find this information, and am willing to share the sources with my fellow writers and Indie Authors.

It is to provide links to free public domain or creative commons licensed materials which can be used commercially to publish a book, or programs which are stated by their sources to be used for such as well. I use most of these sources myself in my book creation process.

On everything listed, to the best of my knowledge and research the information is correct, but it is your duty to check this out for yourself.

Custom book covers I can do as a sideline, and some are available on my personal blog >My Blog Here<. (Should open in another window.) However, I seriously advise you learn to do this yourself as well as I provide links to the necessary programs. If you find one irresistible though, I will not complain. ;)

ALL PAGES WILL BE UPDATED AS NECESSARY. 
I WILL NOT BE ADDING NEW PAGES. 

Other links

This page will contain links to other uncategorized items of author interest.

Writing advice links

Coming soon

Images

Public domain images:

This list comprises a huge number of photographs in the public domain, or just free to use. The Wikipedia link itself contains even more sources.


I will add more as time permits. Enjoy!

These sites are public domain sources, and may be used commercially according to their statements. Please note that the federal government websites allow commercial use of most things. Please read the terms of use on each site before downloading anything. This is always good advice causal of individual sites changing policies over time, laws changing, etc.

http://morguefile.com/

http://www.incredibleart.org/links/clipart.html

http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

 http://www.defenselink.mil/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources

http://www.buyoutfootage.com/

http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/research-writing/63-public-images



Free: Please read the terms of use on each site before downloading anything.

http://www.wpclipart.com/browse.html



Fonts

Most of the fonts on your computer are not free. They are actually licensed by Microsoft  Adobe, and other corporations, and must not be used in commercial works unless you specifically have a commercial license for their use. Standard windows fonts are generally only free for private use.

These links are sites for free fonts for commercial use, which means that they may be use by an Independent Author for a commercial book. These fonts represent lists of good font sites, some with absolutely HUGE collections of free fonts.

*** Please note that GPL license free fonts are a writers bane. Any work they are incorporated into must be free of charge due to said font use, according to the GPL license itself. Avoid them like the plague.

 I will add more as time permits.

Free Fonts for commercial use: (In good faith as stated on the websites themselves)


http://openfontlibrary.org/en

http://www.1001fonts.com/  ***Note. Check each font license on this particular site before download.




Computer Programs Page

Numerous computer programs exist which claim the be good for this and that purpose. However, many of the free programs available aren't worth the time of day. Below is a rather limited set of program links organized by topic. These are by no means inferior products, but are actually good quality free programs for various tasks at the time of this writing.

Check the EULA's to make sure they are still free.

Powerful graphics software for cover design:

http://www.jpchacha.com/chasysdraw/index.php *** Comparable to Photoshop, and FREE.

http://www.getpaint.net/ *** A good layer based free graphics design program. Not nearly as powerful as the others though.

http://www.gimp.org/  *** The Gimp VERY powerful layer based graphics program comparable to Photoshop  Very steep learning curve though. GNU license does not affect graphics created with it.


Epub editors:

http://code.google.com/p/sigil/ *** Awesome free epub editor. Unfortunately, the only one I could find both free and good quality. Others are free, but buggy or very limited features.


Word Processors: 

http://www.abisource.com/download/  ***Light but powerful Abiword