The time to start saving money fast as an author is now.
More than ever, there are countless ways to save money fast.
It can be quite daunting knowing how to go about saving effectively in a way that doesn’t get in the way of writing and our responsibilities.
But, don’t worry.
Reading this article will put you ahead of the game! Since last year, I’ve put all kinds of money-saving apps, strategies, and tips to the test.
So, what actually worked?
I ended up narrowing it down to 10 different ways that not only saved money fast but often saved time. No matter if you are a brand new indie author starting out, or an up-and-coming author who’s been around a while, these 10 ways listed below can save you money fast.
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Table of Contents
Hire a Book Cover Designer for a Low Price
Quality book covers can mean the difference between selling many copies of a book and selling little to none.
So why doesn’t everyone have a quality book cover design? The caveat is that high-quality book covers are usually costly. As a result, some authors will opt for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) book covers.
But let’s face it. Unless you have graphic design experience DIY covers look cheap. And, if an author has a cheap or poorly designed book cover, potential readers will think the writing quality is the same. I learned this the hard way with my old book covers for my speculative fiction series, Fluctsonas. It’s unfortunate, but many do judge a book by its cover.
But, what if you could get a high-quality book cover for an affordable price? This is where Fiverr comes in. Fiverr has top-rated book cover designers who make quality covers inexpensively and quickly.
Some of them even charge as low as $5 depending on how little you need to be done for your cover. That’s a lot less than paying $100s if not $1000s of dollars that some professionals charge to make a book cover. For this reason, Fiver is a great place to save money on book covers as opposed to DIY covers (which cost money and time in the long run).
Here is the list of book cover designers on Fiverr.
One other thing. I recommend getting the source file from the designer if you want to make any changes to the cover in the future. This way you won’t have to pay again.
Self-Edit Your Book Effectively
Regardless if you get an editor or not, proper self-editing is crucial when it comes to producing a great book that sells. The less time your editor has to spend editing, the more money you will save. Or, If you’re on a tight budget, you may choose to forego an editor for now.
The best thing you can do right now to quickly enhance your self-editing effectiveness is to use a grammar tool. It’s like having an extra set of eyes looking over your writing for you.
There are a few out that are website-based like Hemingway that work ok. But, in my experience, they can be quite tedious and time-consuming to work with since you have to manually copypaste text into the tool.
This is why I recommend Grammarly. It’s easy to use, surprisingly accurate with its corrections and integrates well with Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and internet browsers like Chrome and Firefox.
The best part? You can get it for free through my special link here.
Negotiate Your Bills Automatically
All of us have bills to pay. And, many of us pay for subscriptions we don’t really need.
What if I told you there’s a free online app that can save you money on bills and subscriptions? There just so happens to be one! It’s called Trim.
Trim uses artificial intelligence to automatically cancel subscriptions you don’t want.
As an added bonus, Trim can also negotiate lower prices for bills such as internet, cable, car insurance, bank fees, and much more on your behalf. Negotiating lower prices for all of this yourself would waste countless hours and produce many headaches (trust me, I know). That’s valuable time you could be spending on the things you love like writing. Why not let Trim do it all for you? After all, it’s completely free to sign up and use.
Sign up through my link right now. Such a valuable app may not be free forever. After using it, I’m surprised it still is!
Use Images from Creative Commons
Instead of paying for the images you use for your blog or book, what if you could get images that were just as good for free? Well, you absolutely can!
Paid images can be costly and some of them can’t even be used for commercial purposes! Instead of using paid stock images, I like to use Creative Commons Zero (CC0) images.
Why?
Because they are 100% free and have no copyright. Creative Commons states that “CC0 images are images that you can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.” Sounds pretty good right?
Here are links to my 5 favorite sites with a plethora of CC0 images:
1. Pixabay
2. Unsplash
3. Pexels
4. Stocksnap
5. Kaboompics
Additional Helpful Links
1. Official FAQ for CC0 images
2. List of other Creative Commons Licenses
Though these images are free and have no copyright, I still recommend doing your due diligence (like you’d do for any image). Message the host of the image and verify that they do indeed hold the copyright as well as any model, property, trademark and any other releases necessary.
Apply for Writing Grants
Did you know that there is an abundance of grants for writers? I didn’t realize this at first but there are.
Whether you’re looking for free money, a quiet getaway to write your next book, networking, or quality exposure, there are grants for you. Because of this, grants are a great yet overlooked way to save money fast as an author.
If you don’t know where to find a comprehensive list of grants, look no further.
Here at Luster Lexicon, we’ve compiled an up-to-date list of quality grants for writers. You can view them here.
Save Money on Your Online Shopping
If you shop online why not automatically save money on things you buy anyway? I know this sounds too good to be true (I thought so too at first), but it’s not.
There’s this amazing app I’ve been using for a few months called Paribus. What it does is take advantage of price-drop and price-differential guarantees that a lot of companies offer. For example, if something you bought online for $20 has a price drop to $15, Paribus collects the difference ($5) and sends it to you automatically!
How cool is that?
As a bonus, Paribus automatically retrieves shipping refunds for you if something you bought is delivered late. Paribus does all of this for you without having to do as much as lift a finger.
Best of all, Paribus is 100% free with no catch at all. I Made $43 passively in my first few weeks of having the app. Not too shabby for a free app that took me less than 30 minutes to set up.
Click here to download Paribus for free.
Automate Your Savings
Let’s face it. Saving money can often be tedious and many of us forget to do it.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can use Digit to do the saving for you.
How does it work?
Digit uses artificial intelligence to analyze your spending habits and automatically budget a safe amount of money for you in a high- interest-bearing, FDIC-insured bank account.
It’s truly a set it and forget it kind of app for saving money.
It’s free for 30 days and costs $2.99 a month. but it’s well worth it if you spend frequently and are looking to take control of your money-saving habits automatically. You’ll find that over time it pays for itself based on the money you’d otherwise not save and the interest on that money.
Check out Digit here.
Use Cash Back Credit Cards for Things You Pay for Anyway
We all spend money on the things we need and love. It’d be nice to get cash back for all that spending, right? With cash back credit cards, you can. They’re an excellent option for saving money if you pay them off on time. And as long as you do that, you’ll see a boost in your credit score too.
I’ve used a few cards in the past to help out in that department; one being the Chase Freedom Unlimited card.
If you don’t know where to find the best cash back credit cards, I’ve got you covered.
Nerdwallet has a useful up-to-date list of cashback cards that you can apply for. Some even offer a signup bonus in addition to cash back! Check out the cards here.
Cut Down on Unnecessary and Distracting Expenses
Doing this isn’t as hard as you may think.
In fact, I did this initially by getting serious about enacting change and making a simple list of money-draining and time-draining expenses. I ranked them all on a scale from 1-10 based on how problematic they were. Then, I looked over the list and singled out the easiest of my “10” distracting expenses which was Hulu. I ended up canceling my subscription via Trim the next day. This would be the first of many expenses that were cut in the coming days and weeks. I found that by doing this I not only had more money saved up each month, but I had more time to produce better quality writing.
You can give this list strategy a try and see if it works. I hope you can have great results with it like I did.
Get Cash Back from In-Store Purchases
Have you found your routine shopping boring or mundane? It doesn’t have to be. There’s this app called Ibotta that gives you cash back on things you buy in-store.
You can save money on groceries, clothing, college supplies, writing supplies, and items from just about any other category you can think of for your lifestyle.
As I type this, Ibotta has saved users over $500 million dollars in total! It’s probably since it’s so easy to set up and use. And, best of all, it’s free!
As a bonus, it’s made shopping a lot more fun and rewarding.
Why?
Because it gets you to try new products that you’ll love due to the massive savings! You should give Ibotta a try and see if you like it. After all, what’s not to love about a fun, free app that saves you money?
Download the Ibotta app from my exclusive link here and receive a $10 bonus to your account just for signing up.
Conclusion
After much testing, I have found the best 10 ways to save money fast an author. They are as follows:
1. Hire a Book Cover Designer for a Low Price
2. Self-Edit Your Book Effectively
3. Negotiate Your Bills Automatically
4. Use Images from Creative Commons
5. Apply for Writing Grants
6. Save Money on Your Online Shopping
7. Automate Your Savings
8. Use Cash Back Credit Cards for Things You Buy Anyway
9. Cut Down on Unnecessary and Distracting Expenses
10. Get Cash Back from In-Store Purchases
Don’t wait! Start implementing 1 or 2 right away.
Which of the 10 ways to save money fast will you try first? Write your answer or any question you may have in the comments section below.
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