Because I did some indie publishing ages ago, then worked with small and mid-sized presses on several nonfiction books and my first published novels, I learned early on how much money could be spent on the production of a book. These days many indie authors and would-be indies look at how it might cost to publish their work and get a case of sticker shock.
It seems as though everything is expensive: line editing; copy editing; content editing; book covers; formatting; and all the costs associated with marketing and promotion.
Does it have to cost this much? No. Should it? Not unless you’re only going to put out one book, or a book a year. Any more than that, and you’d best decrease what you spend to publish your works.
First off are the big three of editing: line editing, copy editing, and content editing. It helps to know what each is. Line editing is the process of going through a manuscript to look for spelling and punctuation errors, missing words, and grammar mistakes. Copy editing can combine that with some work on characterization, dialogue, and plot. Content editing covers plot and such, and can also involve matters like stereotyping and tropes.
If I was to pay for a service, I’d pay for line editing. (I have a method for line editing my own work, so I don’t have to hire anyone for that.) The other two types of editing services get into areas that can affect your storytelling. As a writer you’re an artist. Your art will reflect who you are, what you believe, and what you like and don’t like. While you will make mistakes as a beginner, you don’t want someone forcing you into say, writing in third-person when you really want to write something in first-person.
Another concern in hiring copy and content editors is knowing what their experience is in writing fiction. Are they writers? What have they published? Who have they worked for? (Everyone works for you, by the way.) Hiring an editor outside your genre or who hasn’t had anything published isn’t a good idea. Their lack of experience could frustrate your writing or give you bad advice that it takes you years to unlearn.
Line editing is how your work becomes clear to readers. Your art will be what sells them or discourages them from picking up your work. I feel it’s better to get a line edit and work on your art by telling more stories. If you want to hire an editor, do your homework, ask for samples, and find out what others think of their work.
How about a book cover? Should you hire someone to do your cover? After all, books get judged on their covers, right?
Eh, sort of.
Most book covers will first be seen as thumbnail images on a computer screen, an e-reader screen, or on a social media post. The more elaborate your cover, the more detail will get lost in such a small window. We might love beautiful book covers in bookstores, but a small and confusing image while shopping online isn’t a good hook.
Simple tends to be better. A cover image or a cover font that evokes the book’s genre is ideal. How do you pull that off?
Look at covers in your genre. Compare and contrast fonts and images. These days many indies use stock photos or public domain illustrations for book covers. Check the use rights on such photos and images before you publish. Above all, tinker. You may or may not be a cover design artist. But to some extent much of indie publishing is like writing. You learn by doing.
What about formatting? What is it? Do I need to pay for it?
There are two types of formatting, one for ebooks and one for print books. With an ebook you do need links from the Table of Contents to each chapter. You’d also want a place, in the front or the back of the book, with links to your website, newsletter, and so on. As for a print book, that’s more of the traditional setting margins, page numbers, and keeping the book’s overall appearance neat.
Should you pay for a formatting service? I don’t think you should. While it might look nice to have fancy chapter titles or graphics in your book, those don’t always add to the experience of reading a book. There’s also learning by doing that I mentioned with covers. The more you do your own formatting, the better at it you’ll get.
Which leads to another important point: the more you do these things yourself, the better able you’ll be to explain your needs when you do have to hire someone for one of these services.
This post is already pretty long. So in Part Two I’ll talk about marketing.
Writing Update: I am back to writing after a month of editing upcoming releases. I’m starting by revising and adding to a work I completed.
Find all of my books here. Thanks for reading!