My Notes on Self-Publishing
When you decide to self-publish (or like me, had no other option!), the onus of work lands squarely on you alone – or so it seems. Some items on the long to-do list, like formatting, can be taken care of with free or paid software like Vellum (super easy and well worth it for me!). While other items, editing, cover design, are likely best outsourced.
One consistent piece of advice I read on blogs and in articles regarding self-publishing was to hire an editor and cover designer. Your work will rapidly be dismissed as amateur if either of those items appear shoddy – i.e. hire a professional.
Where to start and find the right team? I’ll admit I was cynical. I produced and directed a feature film and while we had an amazing team to make the film, we were ripped off by unscrupulous film distributors who took money from foreign sales and never paid us; from promoters/PR groups who promised us large amounts of followers – which turned out to be fake Twitter accounts; and well-meaning strategists who we paid and then received cookie-cutter lists of how to promote your film. Not helpful.
At book club meetings, or talking with other people, they often ask, where did you find your editor? Who did your cover design? I am so grateful to have a wonderful team helping me and I wanted to share their information. So here are some of the valuable sites I found and the incredible people I have been fortunate to work with:
www.nybookeditors.com Finding the right editor is crucial. You need someone to read through the forest you have created and you want that person to understand your tone and vision. There are various levels of editing, from helping fix your grammatical errors to suggesting changes in the book. I was connected with Anne Cole Norman. She did a test edit where she gave me notes on the first ten pages of my first book. Right away I knew Anne got my voice, which was essential to me, and I liked the way she communicated. She’s awesome, I love her, and she is now editing my third book!
www.reedsy.com Reedsy is a UK literary platform that connects authors with everything from cover designers to marketing people, PR, etc. You can read bios and reviews from a variety of professionals with a wealth of experience and then ask up to five of your favorites to submit a bid for the work you need.
I met my cover designer, Caroline Teagle Johnson on Reedsy (and it was a tough choice as there were so many great design artists). Caroline is fantastic – if anything she gave me too many great options that it was difficult to choose between them. Once again, I cannot say enough nice things about Caroline. She has brilliant ideas, is so kind to work with, she’s there for changes and modifications and putting up with me jumping between her design options. She is now working on my third cover design.
After publishing my first book and hearing too many friends in the same town tell me, “I didn’t even know you wrote a book?” months after it was published, I realized my marketing plan of not telling many people fell somewhere between inept and asinine. So, for book two I went back to Reedsy and found Louise Newlands, who I adore. Louise brings a wealth of experience from her time in the literary world and works so hard on so many levels to create a real campaign… I feel like I have a massive team working with me from this one brilliant woman who goes way above and beyond. She took over social media, has creative design ideas for ads, videos, works with my recently hired PR group (Books Forward), and on and on, Louise ROCKS! You can find her on Reedsy and www.louisenewlands.com
Now, get back to writing.