I received a message over the weekend—you know, those two days during which most folks do not focus on career-related work—from someone who asked to hire me to edit his manuscript then market the book. How flattering!

I declined the opportunity.

First, the potential client did not do his research and, at a minimum, check out my website or LinkedIn profile. I do not provide book marketing services. I never have.

Second, the potential client requested those services at a “highly professional level” in exchange for 20% of the royalties earned from future book sales. I don’t know a single professional, including myself, who will work for the promise of potential money. That’s called “working on spec.”

Any book published today must compete against millions—yes, millions—of books in the marketplace. Amazon alone lists more than 1 million books in its digital library. That means any book must have two of the three—a name brand author (e.g., Stephen King, Nora Roberts), a strategic marketing effort, a robust marketing budget—to stand out from the overwhelming competition. That marketing effort takes strategy, rigorous execution, and money. Marketing can only build awareness and, at the very best, generate demand. It cannot force people to buy. The speculative nature of marketing means that those who are expert at it deserve and should receive compensation regardless of whether the book actually achieves commercial success.

Traditional publishing companies publish on spec. Because no business stays in business for long if it can’t make a profit, traditional publishing companies only accept and publish those manuscripts they believe will generate profits for them. To produce books, publishers pay a cadre of professionals: editors, book designers, cover artists, etc. Those professionals don’t work on spec; they receive salaries and benefits whether the books the company produces sell or not. This continuous outlay of funds and the assumption of financial risk is why traditional publishing companies pay only a small percentage of royalties to authors.

When an author decides to self-publish, the author is the publisher and assumes all financial risk and hires the professionals needed to produce the quality product the reading public expects and deserves. This means the professionals that author hires expect and deserve to be paid for services rendered. They do not work on spec.

My basic thought is that if an author is not willing to invest his or her funds into the book, then the author should not expect readers to invest their hard-earned money into buying those books.

I realize that many authors do not have the budget to afford the expenses of editing, book design, and cover design on a whim. Many folks save to afford large purchases such as houses, cars, large appliances, and vacation journeys. Hiring professional services is no different. A savvy author knows those expenses are coming and saves up for them.

Publishing is a business. The professionals who work in the business, whether as employees of publishing companies or as freelance gig workers, expect and deserve payment for services rendered, not the promise of potential payment.

#henhousepublishing #freelanceservices #gigeconomy #editingservices #bookdesign #ghostwriting

Every really successful author, those who publish via traditional means and those who self-publish, rely on a team to produce quality books. In pursuit of those same goals for success, I can do no less. That means, even though I am not obligated to any traditional publisher’s contract or deadlines, I do have deadlines.

Calculating deadlines is an exercise in counting backward.

If I want to publish by a certain date, then my marketing team needs at least six weeks prior to the date of release to do their job of building interest in the upcoming book.

If I want to publish by a certain date, then my editor needs time to perform two rounds of editing, with additional time after each round for me to review all her recommended corrections, suggestions, and changes and take action. The action I take includes accepting a change, rejecting a change, or revising the content.

How long the editor needs depends much upon the quality of the manuscript I send to her and the length of that manuscript. Editing takes time. I know this because I edit for other authors.

Not only does my marketing team need clean copies of the manscript and formatted copies of the manuscript, but they also need back cover copy and a synopsis. Those take time to write, too.

Formatting is necessary for correct sizing of the book’s cover. If all you’re doing is creating art for the front cover, then no such coordination is truly necessary, unless the image’s proportions are totally out of whack with the book’s trim size. The number of pages in the book determines the dimensions of the book’s spine which affects the dimensions of a full cover. Also affecting the number of pages beyond the word count are the fonts used, the font sizes, paragraph leading, margin widths, spacing between headings and text, and, if applicable, any images. Image dimensions, placement, size, padding, and captions all affect the flow of text and the book’s page count.

There’s a lot to consider and organize just to publish a single book, especially if you’re publishing in both print and e-book formats.

So, while I’m finishing up my next release this week, Single Stroke won’t be ready for public consumption until the end of December. The manuscript goes to the editor next week. By the first week of November, I’ll be sending the synopsis and draft cover copy to the marketing team. They’ll finesse the cover copy, as copywriting has a different purpose than content writing and is not my forte.

So, when it comes to authors who tread the path of self-publishing, the question arises: How much should I do? The answer is to do what you can to a professional level and hire the services you cannot do at that level or do not want to do at all.

Readers deserve no less.

#hollybargobooks #henhousepublishing #fictionwriting #storytelling #selfpublishing