At a recent gathering of my regional writer’s association, I found a common concern: How to assess the integrity of self-publishing companies? Is there a viable alternative to paying their high fees, in the thousands of dollars?
The attraction is there. The digital revolution has, on the one hand, made publishing more accessible. With Microsoft Word and an Amazon account, the world of readers is at your fingertips. But for many writers, especially pre-Milennials, their skills in software and online navigation are still insufficient to manage the learning curve. The self-publishing companies promise to supply a comprehensive package of publication services, with additional promotion bundles added on for further cost.
I won’t label all such services scams. The need is there and if the services are priced up front, there’s no ethical problem. But I would hope that writers with a budget realize the tools for self-publishing need not remain behind a Wizard of Oz curtain.
My free booklet Learning the Curve: A Simple Guide to Self-Publishing aims to give writers a map of the territory of self-publishing. If you are impatient with the months-to-years wait time of traditional publishing, but reluctant to pay thousands of dollars to a commercial self-publisher, there is a hybrid solution.
With HyperEdits, you can order a la carte, and choose just those services you can’t do yourself. Copy editing, for starters, is a necessary and costly step before you even consider publication. But after that you don’t need to pay a penny more. Learning the Curve gives you tools and tips to do your own formatting and uploading to the Amazon and Smashwords (or other epub distributors such as Draft2Digital) platforms. Or, you can pay for my help as needed in completing these steps, for nominal fees, typically in the range of $50 to $300.
Cover design is a separate process which, again, carries a choice of options–from free do-it-yourself tools, to basic design I can provide for you at low cost, to professional graphic design at $300 and up. Promotion is another area published writers will need to consider. I don’t provide marketing services but again, you can do it yourself, or pay big bucks to commercial providers, with the caveat: buyer beware, results not guaranteed.
The end result of your self-publishing venture–whether facilitated by your own learning curve, or by HyperEdits professional services–can be just as polished as the costly packages offered by the commercial self-publishing companies. You get what you pay for, but at what price? If you understand the self-publishing basics, you can get the same result for a lot less.
Free download
Learning the Curve: A Simple Guide to Self-Publishing