Improve Your Writing With These Free Courses

Get ready to write, because Coupon Chief just rounded up 98 free online writing courses, tools, and apps anyone can use to boost their writing skills. 

If you’re still stuck at home due to COVID-19 quarantines, you probably have some spare time on your hands. Why not use it to better yourself with a free class that will improve your writing, make you a more confident communicator, and enhance your potential as a professional?

These courses are offered by major universities around the world, including Duke, Harvard, MIT, and more. Check out some of the courses featured on the list below! 

Business Writing 

  1. Academic and Business Writing –– California, Berkeley

  2. Storytelling in the Workplace –– Rochester Institute of Technology 

  3. Advanced Communication for Leaders –– offered by MIT 

Creative Writing 

  1. English Composition I –– Duke University

  2. Modern Poetry –– Yale University

  3. How to Write a Novel: Structure & Outline –– University of British Columbia

Technical Writing

  1. Writing in the Sciences –– Stanford University

  2. Communicating in Technical Organizations –– MIT

  3. Writing Case Studies: Science of Delivery –– Princeton University

Whether you’re starting a blog over the summer, hoping to become a bestselling author, or just want to improve your grammar, these courses will help you boost your writing skills, no matter what level you’re at!

Best Free Online Tools for Writers!

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Self-Publishing Vs Conventional Publishing: What To Choose In 2020

by Frank Hamilton

While freelancing has become a popular career choice for article writers and social media managers, fiction and non-fiction writers continue discussing their own career possibilities. There are two ways you could go: traditional publishing and self-publishing. Here is everything you need to know about self-publishing versus conventional publishing.

#1 Permissions

The first matter to consider when considering the two routes is whether or not you want someone over you to be granting you permission to do something (e.g. announce a new book, publish your book on a certain date, do Q&As, talk about character trivia). In this sense, self-publishing definitely has the upper hand.

When you are your own author, you are free to do virtually anything you wish to do. But when you have signed a contract with a particular publisher, you will need to stick to that contract. If you have a deadline for publication, you will need to have the manuscript ready by a certain date without the option of taking a vacation until you are done.

#2 Costs

This is a tricky one. On one hand, self-publishing can be fairly cheap (even free if you know how to edit your book, design a cover, and upload it in the right format to a publishing platform). But the marketing costs can still be quite significant.

On the other hand, some first-time authors going the traditional route will often have to pay for different expenses including marketing costs. It really depends on your circumstances and what you are able to do in your current situation.

#3 Autonomy

Autonomy is actually quite closely related to the point about permissions. When going the traditional path, you will still have some kind of autonomy even if you will need to stick to certain deadlines. However, self-publishing still gives you way more autonomy.

Of course, you still need to consider the benefits you get with traditional publishing even if you will have to give up part of your autonomy. Ultimately, it all depends on your own feelings and what you are willing to do or give up for the sake of your career.

#4 Career Possibilities

Speaking of your career, traditional publishing and self-publishing have very different opportunities for you as a writer. When you sign up with a publishing house, you are more likely to become a big-name author. It’s true that there have been self-publishing success stories in the past few years, but how often do they happen?

Self-publishing is still looked down upon and treated as something to be ashamed of. Self-published authors are often regarded as inferior because “they can’t make it in the traditional publishing world”. The sentiment is changing though, so if you are not afraid of standing up for yourself, then self-publishing could still be a great choice for you.

#5 Outsourcing

Ghostwriting has been around for ages now. While outsourcing is more popular among article writers, fiction and non-fiction authors start using it more often nowadays. For example, you could always hire a writer from a writing services reviews site like Online Writers Rating to write your book for you!

The main point of outsourcing and ghostwriting is to reduce your workload and give you some time to rest or make your days easier. Outsourcing is much easier when you are a self-publishing author, but it can still be done when you choose conventional publishing.

#6 Genres

Another point you will want to consider when deciding between self-publishing and conventional publishing is the genre you write in. Are you a fiction or a non-fiction writer? If you are a non-fiction author, do you write poetry, cookbooks, or something else? If you are a fiction author, what genre or genres do you write in?

Some genres don’t need a traditional publisher to be successful. Cookbooks and poetry, for example, fair pretty well in the world of e-books. Children’s picture books, on the other hand, will usually need a publisher who will release them primarily in print.

#7 Digital

Let’s discuss digital and print publishing in more detail. With so many people using the Internet daily and reading on various mobile devices, digital releases are becoming more and more common. People are not afraid of purchasing e-books instead of printed editions – and it’s not embarrassing to prefer e-books anymore.

At the same time, many printed books are being released on digital platforms at the same time as they are released in print. In this case, traditional publishing has the upper hand because it is much harder to have your books printed if you are self-publishing.

#8 Print

Even though digitally released books are so common now, printed editions are not going out of fashion anytime soon. But because self-publishing authors don’t possess the necessary funds for this, printed books are usually released only by publishing houses.

In other words, if you want your book to be available both as a physical book and as an e-book, you will need to take the traditional route. If you are fine releasing only digitally, then self-publishing is for you.

#9 Anonymity

There are many authors who love the attention and fame which comes when their book becomes a hit. However, there are also those who want to keep their lives private and go as far as publishing their book under a pseudonym. Moreover, some use different pseudonyms for different genres (especially if one of these is erotica and they simply want to stay private).

With traditional publishing, maintaining such anonymity is more difficult than with self-publishing. This is because authors will often have to go on tours promoting their books if they want to grow a dedicated fanbase and build a community of readers who will buy their books again and again.

#10 Audience

That being said, self-publishing authors need to interact with their audiences quite a lot. You can still be successful if you use a pseudonym and self-publish digitally (with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, for instance), but most of the time, you will need to reach your audience in different ways.

For example, many self-publishing authors are known for having social media profiles where they constantly reply to their readers, host Q&A sessions, and promote their books. On the other hand, most self-publishing authors can’t really go on tours for book promotions. So, in a way, this is a two-sided coin, so you will need to decide based on your own preferences.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, both routes can be profitable. Think about why self-publishing and traditional publishing can be great for you based on the information in this article – and then choose what you want to do as a writer.

Frank Hamilton has been working as an editor at review service Best Writers Online. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.

For more thoughts on self-publishing and how to price your book, check out this article.

Top 5 Apps for Writers That Help You Increase Your Productivity

by Tiffany Porter

The life of a writer is complex and exciting at the same time. On the one hand, you get paid for what you love to do more than anything, but on the other hand, being a creative creature, you never know when inspiration will evaporate. When writing is work, downtime is unacceptable. And downtime occurs when we feel insufficiently productive, inspired, and motivated because we did not properly plan the process of the project as a whole, this day or this week.

In this article, we propose fixing this situation with apps for productivity. We have compiled a list of the top five solutions that will help you always stay in the working rhythm with a huge supply of inspiration inside.

Trello

Trello is one of the leading applications in the project and workflow management market. Your success also largely depends on the organization of the workflow, so try this app. You can list all your current projects, set tasks, and write notes in one panel.  What is significant is that you can take notes for co-authors if you work in a team. Most likely your clients are also working with this application, so think about learning this tool.

Prompt! This app is also great for managing your personal tasks, and increase productivity in personal matters too. No one obliges you to use Trello only as a working tool. Plan all aspects of your life with this application and you will feel the clarity in your head. And clarity in the head means more inspiration and creative ideas for work!

FreshBooks

If you are a beginner freelancer, you have only one customer and you work through UpWork, for example, you don’t need any accounting software for now. Firstly, it’s quite realistic to keep in mind your mutual settlements with one customer, and secondly, UpWork already has a built-in billing function.

However, if you are a bird of free flight, you have ten customers, for each of whom you discussed individual conditions for cooperation, then congratulations, now you are not only a writer but also an accountant. Fortunately, Fresh Books will help our creative and humanitarian brains cope with numbers and not make mistakes.

This accounting program will help you bill your customers simply and correctly. Most freelancers use this accounting software, as it is easy to use and effective in terms of accounting. Sooner or later you will have to deal with accounting, but it is better to start preparing for this in time. By the way, all packages have an affordable price, which makes the application so attractive.

WordCounter

This is a must-have app for all newbies! Everyone who works with text often encounters the involuntary repetition of words. This online writing tools for authors will help you quickly identify words that are repeated and make your text diverse. You just need to insert your text in a special block and the app will show all the words that are most often used in the text. Accordingly, you need to replace them.

By the way, this application can also successfully work as a determinant of keyword density. If you work with texts in order to increase the position of pages in search results, it is necessary to understand which word or phrases are most often used in your text.

In addition, excessive use of a particular phrase can be rated as spam by search engines. Therefore, the golden mean between the readability and beauty of your text, SEO fullness, usefulness, and sense is important here. This application helps to balance and improve your intuitive skills in using the right linguistic constructs in the right places.

Calming Soft Music

Do you know this feeling when you know what you are going to write about, but you just can’t catch the necessary wave and get to work? This is especially true for those who voluntarily (or involuntarily, as the last few months) work from home, surrounded by family, children, pets, and pots rattling in the kitchen. At such moments, the ability to concentrate and gather all your thoughts (and strength) into a fist is critical.

We recommend using the Calming Soft Music application to disconnect from external noise, calm down, feel for a foothold, focus on the task, and feel how thoughts begin to fill your head.

You can ask a reasonable question - why not use iTunes or YouTube in the background? Well, of course, the choice is yours. Calming Soft Music has already collected melodies that will help you concentrate and start writing.

Prompt! Use these melodies for yoga, Pilates, and spiritual practices. This is the perfect two-in-one app for anyone looking for writer's inspiration within themselves

The Brainstormer

All that we see around us is an endless space for generating new ideas for your books and articles. All you need to do is just grab one of them by the tail. The Brainstormer article writer tool invites you to generate an idea for your new story with a single click.

This app will let you come up with anything. For example, you can work out ideas for a character, choose the most suitable genre, and even generate unrealistic ideas for a science fiction story. The application is available for iOS and Android, and the prices are just ridiculous - about one or two dollars.

Important note! This is certainly a useful application, but do not let it make too many decisions in your place. Remember that this is just an algorithm that combines data in a random order, and you are a creative person who is able to come up with a lot of original things with your own mind. Use this application if you feel the creative block and you need the first push, and start creating yourself further.

Conclusion

Of course, it is possible to continue the list of useful online writing tools for a very long time. We tried to collect the most useful solutions in the modern technology market. Each of the applications that we have listed is designed to solve your specific problem, but in combination, they can make you a much more successful, organized, and inspired writer. Try it all at once and see for yourself!

Tiffany Porter has been working as a Chief Writer at Online Writers Rating reviewing variety of writing services websites. She is a professional writing expert on such topics as digital marketing, blogging, design.  She also likes traveling and speaks German and French.