Best tools for small publishers
- Small presses typically use a six-tool stack.
- Per-book workspace: WriteLoom or Notion.
- Editorial collaboration: Word with Track Changes.
- Design and formatting: InDesign, Vellum, Atticus.
- Distribution: KDP, IngramSpark.
- Communication: Slack or Discord.
Small publishers typically use a six-tool stack: a shared workspace per book (WriteLoom, Notion), editorial collaboration (Word with Track Changes, Google Docs), design and formatting (InDesign, Vellum, Atticus), distribution dashboards (KDP, IngramSpark), communication (Slack, Discord), and a press-wide calendar (Airtable, ClickUp). Each tool has a job; together they let 3-5 staff ship 10-20 books a year.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Small presses fail more often from operational chaos than from quality problems. A coherent six-tool stack — each tool doing one job — is the difference between shipping ten books a year and shipping four. Tool consistency across books also makes onboarding new staff and freelancers significantly easier.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Per-book workspace: WriteLoom or Notion.
- Editorial collaboration: Word with Track Changes (industry standard).
- Design and formatting: InDesign for print, Vellum or Atticus for ebook.
- Distribution: KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital.
- Communication: Slack or Discord plus email for external.
- Press-wide calendar: Airtable, ClickUp, or WriteLoom.
Chapter iii·Example
A small press with three staff and ten books a year uses WriteLoom for per-book workspaces, Word for editorial, Vellum for ebook, InDesign for print, KDP + IngramSpark for distribution, Slack for team chat, and a WriteLoom press-wide calendar. Seven tools, all integrated, has not changed in two years.
WriteLoom holds per-book workspaces plus the press-wide calendar, so the six-tool stack becomes four or five.
See WriteLoom for teams