In the first article about writing a book, we looked at getting a firm idea and an outline done before you start. Then we saw that Amazon is the foundation for much of the heavy lifting for an author. Then we saw that there were a lot of other things to consider when getting your book out in front of people.
So, here’s what worked for me.
The gig economy
I found the gig economy invaluable. Sites like Upwork, or Fiverr, the one that I used, are great. You can get exactly the quality and talent that you are looking for at a manageable price. You will have to use filters as there are a lot of freelancers vying for work. Obviously, your budget will affect your choices here, and you will find there are lots and lots of people starting out, or with a little bit of experience and these will charge the least. Those people who have provided great service, consistently, and for a long time, can charge more. I found it easier to identify someone that I wanted to work with, then approach them. If you advertise a job like ‘I need a website building please’, you are likely to generate a stampede that you may struggle to manage. All will probably promise you the earth and, as in life, some might be able to deliver that, and others won’t.
I have found that online meetings have made the gig economy not only great, but manageable too. Years ago, I was working online with a company several time zones away, and the delay between my instruction and the work being done was awful. This was, I recall, especially grating when they had made a mistake, as it meant an even longer delay from what you actually requested to be done, being done properly. One of the reasons that smart and experienced freelancers are successful is because they know exactly how to manage their customers. Should they need an online meeting, they’ll ask for one. If they need to send you a questionnaire, then one will be sent out to you. If someone is highly rated by lots of others and has been for some time, then you can be guided, within reason, by them. Simply put, they know what they are doing. Certainly comparing my experience of frustration from years ago to jumping on a Zoom meeting and seeing a website created before my eyes is like night and day. My ideas and thoughts, meeting with the experience and knowhow of others who are experts in their area, have made things like website or book cover design much more pleasurable than I imagined.
Formatting
Formatting is the process that makes your book look right. That’s, the people who take care of things like the layout, spacing, chapters, page numbers, and diagrams fitting in with the text. The first thing I discovered is that your choice of providers diminishes if you have graphics and diagrams. There are many who do text only, but less who want text and graphic work. Second, and somewhat obviously, the more text there is, the greater the cost. Last, and a potentially costly mistake to make, is what happens to any corrections. The issue, especially for a book containing lots of graphics, is that when you see it in a Kindle preview file, it is probably riddled with issues and things that just don’t look right. I have to say that having put in so much effort into the book, my first sight, in that mode, was deflating. So the formatting issue is how those glitches get put right and, for me, there were loads of them. Too many that I’m embarrassed to confess here. It is the cost of putting these glitches right which almost caught me out. I enquired with a highly rated Fiverr gig, how much such corrections would cost? Between $100 – $200 each! I could have fallen over, and this was before I knew just how many errors I would need correcting in my book. Coincidentally, a few weeks earlier, I had read a book, written by a well-known person, and published by an international publishing house, and seen a typo, so the chances of an author getting their book right, first time round, are slim, I believe.
The cost of corrections, including those pesky typos, is the one to watch here.
Getting the grammar right or write?
Another area which concerned me was getting the grammar right. This is not a strong point for me. There are options in the gig economy, but the price can be steep. Only time will tell whether I made the right call here, but if you want a native English speaker, highly rated, then you will pay, and you will pay on a per thousand word basis. When you have written upwards of 115,000 words, then that price can appear heavy. Rightly, or wrongly, I chose the software route and may have to accept that it might not be perfect.
