Daunting Author Duties: Where
to Begin?Once
was the day when...
Daunting Author Duties: Whereto Begin?
Oncewas the day when authors simply wrote books and then an army of publishingprofessionals took over. Editing, cover art, illustrations, formatting, and theessential-but-dreaded marketing projects are now the sole duty of themodern-day self-published author. Authors now do the work themselves or hiresomeone to complete each task. That’s good in that you keep more of the profit,but ‘the harsh’ in it is that you need to learn to do a lot of things you may notbe interested in doing. And worse, there are a lot of things that you maybehaven’t even thought of yet.
Forexample, most people don’t know that every version of a book needs a uniqueISBN. A paperback needs an ISBN, a hardcover needs another, an eBook needs one,and an audiobook needs its own, too. They all must be unique and each one costs$125 unless you buy a multiple-ISBN package. And of course, as a self-publishedauthor, you also manage the budget.
Youmay ask if self-publishing is the best way forward for you. The fact is that inthe 22nd century the traditional publisher who will give an author an 'advance’check for a manuscript and then do all the investment and work, is becomingobsolete, or at least on the extinct list. If you are not already famous,getting an old-school publisher is more and more unrealistic every day. To makematters worse, dozens of scam artists and companies will gladly take your cash,and before you ever sell a book, charge you thousands of dollars to do a jobfor you. Oh, and the end product may or may not be what you expect. Plus,you’ll likely end up under someone else’s IMPRINT along with millions of othertitles. An imprint can drastically affect how search engines display your bookwhen readers search the internet for you, your book, or your genre.
Optionally, somecompanies will provide you with an editor or artist, or other professionalindependent contractors, but they usually require a commission and/or acontract, and you never work directly with the person providing the product.More often than not, you never even speak with the independent contractor whois indirectly working directly for you. That can put a great deal oftime into communication of ideas or changes. Then to top it off, the companythat holds the contract gets the lion’s share of all costs paid by the author.That can feel abusive, a tragedy to someone new to the industry. So where doyou begin? How can you keep control of how your book looks and feels or where areader can get it?
Well,if you only want to put out eBooks, you can do everything on Amazon and limitmost of your external fees by using their cover art creation and fileconversion tools which are free. However, if you ever want to sell booksthrough bookstores or your website, you’ll need to jump through dozens ofhoops. It’s even daunting just to make a list of all there is that can take youto task.
First,remain calm and take your time. You absolutely can get it all done. When youresearch a line item on your list of tasks, stick with the leaders in theindustry for a voice of authority. Two significant sources of information andgenuine help are IngramSpark and Bowker. IngramSpark is a worldwide printing anddistribution company with an impeccable reputation for hardcovers, paperbacks,and eBooks. Bowker is the industry standard for obtaining ISBNs, imprints,barcodes, QR codes, copyrights, and more. Both companies offer valuableinformation and “Recommended Essential Reading” materials for all authors.Do yourself a favor and inhale all you can read before spending a dime or doinganything else.
Here’sa great place to begin. Find an abundance of information and potential projectpartners, vetted for integrity, and free.
Jumpin.
