3 Essential Pieces of Equipment Every Author Should Consider for Their Business (Perfect Gift Ideas)

All right, it's holiday season and maybe you're literally gearing up to grow your author business for the new year or shopping for others or just looking to score Black Friday deals. Whatever the case, maybe if you're an author or you're going to be an author and you want to turn your book into a business in 2025, well, these equipment pieces that I can't live without might be exactly what you're looking for. If you're looking for some new equipment ideas or gift ideas, well, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and author of four books. And guess what? I'm getting ready to work on Book five in the upcoming year. And, well, yes, we're also launching some book marketing software, so I hope we're connected so that you're the first to know about all the good stuff we have going on around here. But as I was making a list for my mom because she always wants to know what to get me each year, it got me thinking about some of my favorite pieces of equipment. You know, things I need, things I use every day that every author may want to consider, especially if they plan to grow their content creation to market their book and build their brand. And now YouTube has this cool feature where I can tag a product somewhere down here or somewhere I'm still figuring it out. And if you buy it through that link, my channel, depending on the product makes a few bucks. So that means everyone is winning, especially with Black Friday sales. Anyway, first thing, I highly recommend every author invest in a good microphone. My favorite one for years was this snowball right here. It is a low cost mic and works great for podcast interviews. One day though, after I used it for years, it started flopping and it just kind of died from love and use and I got lazy and I started using my iPhone, headphones on everything. But as I was thinking about GIFs, I was thinking maybe I would get one of those or one of the other yeti products like a Yeti Nano or Yeti Pro. And for recording my audiobook, because a lot of people have asked, self, promote and succeed. I recorded it on the Yeti caster mic set that we have in our office. It's a fantastic setup and my studio was not super soundproof. They have some soundproofing, but because of this mic's quality and how easy it was to use, it sounded great. So I can highly recommend this for audiobook recording and verify that medium level soundproofing is all you'll need. If you set this up for your audiobook recording. And of course you want to check out how my audiobook sounds, to make sure, go to self promoteandsucceed.com audio and you can download it for free. So besides sounding great when you're doing interviews, podcasts, or recording your audiobook, you also want to look great. Because almost everything is being filmed these days, lots of people ask me for tips on creating good videos. Well, sound and lighting are key. Even when I'm filming in my office, I have a light that helps just shine right on my face. Now a lot of people use ring lights for this and they can be really good. But if you wear glasses, I find they create this weird circle in your eyes many times. Which is why I like lights like this one because they don't create that weird circle. I also don't like lights that are attached to my computers, so I like ones that have a separate stand like this one and the one that I have in my office. Now this one works for a desktop computer filming, which by the way, you'll do more than you might think if you're new because you're going to be filming media interviews, podcasts, or even for television and live streams. And they're all shot on your computer from the comfort of your office or your home. So good lighting and a great microphone are essential. But if you're doing videos like this one, you probably want more of a setup. I'll share what I use for that in a second. Good lighting is crucial for good video content, and a portable ring light can help have flattering light in various settings. But my personal setup for our studio was purchased from Amazon and it's this Mount Dog Soft by Mount Dog softbox lighting package. I'll take a picture of it, but this is what it was on Amazon. There's no link to that that I can share below for ease, but this is how we have it set up. And yes, we have a higher end camera, although even that's getting old now. And honestly the newer iPhones shoot the same quality because well, they've just developed their camera so much on that. So you don't really have to invest in a fancy camera. We shoot in the house right now. I've done a lot of studio settings for shoots, even used YouTube space in LA for many shoots which felt cool. And we've rented studio space as well. But. But for efficiency of time we've just set up our own space in our house so we can do the shoots in Badge. Now in the future we might Change that up. But for now, that's what we do. So you don't have to spend thousands or have a really complicated setup to get high quality production these days. And if you're not going to shoot a ton of video content like I do, just stick with a tripod, some good softbox lighting, and a good mic system and off you go. Personally, I'm in the market for a good new lav mic system, that thing to shoot and connect to my camera. So if you have something you love for a good quality shoot, well, let me know below if you can't live without that lav mic now. I'm not done yet. I have one more thing that I can't really live without these days, and I think every author needs something like this, whether it's this one or something like it. And that is a fantastic backpack so you can take your writing and your work on the road. I'm really particular with my backpacks because I change locations all the time. Between my home, office, my office office, and of course, travel. I need to have a secure space for my laptop, my notebooks, my charger, my phone cables. And this particular backpack that I'm going to show you in just a second has a place for stashing cash. It has a place for my sunglasses so they don't get squished. And it feels a bit like a turtle shell. So it really does feel like I'm taking my home on the road. My favorite part though is that I can expand it if I'm just doing it overnight or even two, I can do it with this bag because it handles everything. I think this bag is the best. This bag is truly the best. It's my nomatic. If you're going to an event like Author Nation or some other conference and you need to carry six or seven books with you, yeah, this bag can do it. Now I can go on and on about other equipment ideas because my iPhone is something I can't live without. And I've also fallen madly in love with my mouse. I didn't use a mouse at all for years, but my son got one and I started playing with it on his computer. And then I realized I've been missing out all these years using the trackpad, and so now I feel lost if I don't have it. I also need my laptop stand so that my neck and back don't kill at the end of the day and that my eye is at eye level when we're doing zoom calls. But I won't bore you with all my favorite equipment. These are three things that if you haven't considered getting them for your author business, have highly recommend. We all have our different preferences, and you might have your own ideas of what is must have equipment for every author that is building content around their book. So let's chat about it below because I'm curious and I want to check out other cool things. So go ahead, tell me in the comments below. And if you're creating video content for your book, well, how much should you tell in your videos? That video is for you right here or this is the next one YouTube thinks you should watch. I'll see you there.