{"id":3579,"date":"2012-11-23T19:20:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T19:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=3579"},"modified":"2025-03-02T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T19:00:09","slug":"publishing-your-ebook-dont-go-it-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/publishing-your-ebook-dont-go-it-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Publishing Your Ebook: Don\u2019t Go It Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago, when I pub\u00adlished A Real Piece of Work<\/em><\/a>, I did it the hard way.<\/p>\n

I for\u00admat\u00adted and con\u00advert\u00aded the book myself.<\/p>\n

Although I have some web design expe\u00adri\u00adence and am rel\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly com\u00adfort\u00adable with HTML and XML, and although the final prod\u00aduct turned out great, it took me a sol\u00adid month of 16-hour days to get the ebook for\u00admat\u00adting cor\u00adrect.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a month<\/em> that I was\u00adn\u2019t writ\u00ading, was\u00adn\u2019t doing any\u00adthing cre\u00adative.<\/p>\n

I drove myself to exhaus\u00adtion and lost all of that time. Time I could have used to hone my craft. Time dur\u00ading which I could have writ\u00adten at least 30,000 words.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a third of a nov\u00adel.<\/p>\n

For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly I did\u00adn\u2019t try to design the book cov\u00ader myself. Work\u00ading from a sketch of mine, a graph\u00adic design\u00ader friend, Elis\u00ada\u00adbeth Pinio, designed a beau\u00adti\u00adful cov\u00ader, sav\u00ading me count\u00adless hours and headaches. (Con\u00adtact me to get in touch with her.)<\/p>\n

Fast for\u00adward to June of this year, when I was pub\u00adlish\u00ading the sec\u00adond nov\u00adel in the Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Series, The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em><\/a>. Just think\u00ading about all of the work involved made me anx\u00adious and irri\u00adta\u00adble.<\/p>\n

I did a test-run of for\u00admat\u00adting the book by myself, but I could\u00adn\u2019t get it to come out right. The soft\u00adware tools had changed, and I had for\u00adgot\u00adten a num\u00adber of steps in the process. Mean\u00adwhile, I had promised my read\u00aders that I would release the book at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite all of this, I was reluc\u00adtant to hand over this cru\u00adcial part of the process to some\u00adone else.<\/p>\n

Bot\u00adtom line: I did\u00adn\u2019t trust. I did\u00adn\u2019t trust some\u00adbody else to han\u00addle this task for me. I did\u00adn\u2019t trust that some\u00adbody else would do as good a job, or that my project would mean as much to them as it did to me.<\/p>\n

One night I was up in the mid\u00addle of the night. I could\u00adn\u2019t sleep with all of the wor\u00adries I was car\u00adry\u00ading around, and I found myself going to Google and search\u00ading for ebook for\u00admat\u00adting and con\u00advert\u00ading com\u00adpa\u00adnies. There were several\u2014too many, in fact\u2014but they all looked too slick, too imper\u00adson\u00adal. I want\u00aded to work with a per\u00adson<\/em>, some\u00adone who would allay my fears, address all of my con\u00adcerns.<\/p>\n

And then I hap\u00adpened upon Ebookconverting.com, run by a woman named Lisa Despain<\/a>. She offered a lot of free infor\u00adma\u00adtion on her blog, and she had a friend\u00adly video about the process. My instincts told me that she was the right one for me.<\/p>\n

I decid\u00aded to take a Kierkegaar\u00addian leap of faith. I con\u00adtact\u00aded her.<\/p>\n

Besides com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcat\u00ading via email, she took the time to speak to me on the phone for a good forty min\u00adutes. She answered all of my ques\u00adtions, addressed all of my con\u00adcerns.<\/p>\n

Now, Lisa and Elis\u00ada\u00adbeth are ter\u00adrif\u00adic pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adals in their fields, and while I high\u00adly rec\u00adom\u00admend both of them, you might have oth\u00ader peo\u00adple in mind. That\u2019s fine. Because this piece isn\u2019t about spe\u00adcif\u00adic ven\u00addors; it\u2019s about trust\u00ading oth\u00ader peo\u00adple to be a part of pub\u00adlish\u00ading your ebook.<\/p>\n

Con\u00adsid\u00ader the oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty costs of doing every\u00adthing your\u00adself. Time spent on for\u00admat\u00adting and con\u00advert\u00ading your book into ePub and Mobi files is writ\u00ading time lost. Also, how much is your time worth? Because it\u2019s going to take a lot of time\u2014especially if you\u2019re a new\u00adbie.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re the writer. Make your focus the writ\u00ading<\/em>\u2014pro\u00adduc\u00ading as great a book as you pos\u00adsi\u00adbly can. That\u2019s a hard enough job.<\/p>\n

<\/a>To that end, I strong\u00adly rec\u00adom\u00admend hir\u00ading an edi\u00adtor and\/or proof\u00adread\u00ader for your book. The num\u00adber one com\u00adplaint by read\u00aders about many indie-pub\u00adlished ebooks is that they\u2019re poor\u00adly writ\u00adten. If you\u2019re a writer ask\u00ading peo\u00adple to pay for your work with their time and mon\u00adey, you can\u2019t be dis\u00admis\u00adsive about this.<\/p>\n

You want your work to be as well-writ\u00adten and as error-free as pos\u00adsi\u00adble. Not only because you want every read\u00ader to have a great expe\u00adri\u00adence, but also because you know that the qual\u00adi\u00adty of your work deter\u00admines your long-term rep\u00adu\u00adta\u00adtion as a writer.<\/p>\n

Do you want a rep\u00adu\u00adta\u00adtion for read\u00adable and well-writ\u00adten, or con\u00advo\u00adlut\u00aded and slop\u00adpy? As the knight in Indi\u00adana Jones and the Last Cru\u00adsade<\/em> remarks, \u201cChoose wise\u00adly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his book The War of Art<\/a><\/em>, an inspir\u00ading look at what it takes to be an artist (espe\u00adcial\u00adly a writer), Steven Press\u00adfield argues that a pro asks for help and rec\u00adog\u00adnizes his or her lim\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions. Pros hire oth\u00ader pros to han\u00addle aspects of their work so they can be freed up to focus on what they do best: the writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n

As writ\u00aders, by nature we\u2019re inde\u00adpen\u00addent crea\u00adtures. Most of us are sus\u00adpi\u00adcious of \u201ccom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties,\u201d which is under\u00adstand\u00adable. But if you want your writ\u00ading to thrive as an indie-pub\u00adlished author, it\u2019s imper\u00ada\u00adtive that you inter\u00adact with oth\u00ader writ\u00aders and peo\u00adple involved in indie pub\u00adlish\u00ading. Reach out to them for help, and be will\u00ading to help oth\u00aders who come to you. Pro\u00admote their books or ser\u00advices to the extent that you feel com\u00adfort\u00adable.<\/p>\n

Final\u00adly, help bol\u00adster the rep\u00adu\u00adta\u00adtion of indie-pub\u00adlished books by turn\u00ading out a qual\u00adi\u00adty prod\u00aduct. Hire oth\u00aders or barter ser\u00advices in order to do that.<\/p>\n

In oth\u00ader words, when it comes to pub\u00adlish\u00ading your ebook, don\u2019t go it alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago, when I pub\u00adlished A Real Piece of Work, I did it the hard way. I for\u00admat\u00adted and con\u00advert\u00aded the book myself. Although I\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,35,34,5,33,8,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-cover-design","category-ebook-formatting","category-helpfulsites","category-indie-publishing","category-publishingandthemarket","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-the-rich-are-different"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3579"}],"version-history":[{"count":66,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9177,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions\/9177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}