Erika M Szabo, Publishing Coach
If you don't have time to self-publish your book, or you don't want to learn the time consuming and complicated publishing process and rules, we can do it for you. From start to finish, we can publish your book in your name and give you as much help as you need. Our work is done when you're 100% satisfied with your book.
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I wrote an epic fantasy series, The Ancestor's Secrets. I had no clue about the publishing business, so when my books were accepted by a traditional publisher, I signed the contract. It wasn't too bad, they offered higher royalty than most publishers, but... I had no control over what was going on with the book, and I was expected to promote it. I didn't like the cover, and the few copies was sold, the readers complained about the sloppy editing and formatting of the book. So, I broke the contract and decided to self publish.
In order to save money, I made the book covers and had the story edited, but... The book cover wasn't catchy and readers still found grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Then, using my mind's logical and analytical ability, I forced my mind to switch from writer's mode to manuscript critique mode. Reading the first chapter with the mindset of a critique was hard, because I wrote the story, but soon my mind adapted to the task and found many mistakes. I made notes and a few days later I went back to editing the story as a writer. When I sent it to beta readers, they were ecstatic about the changes I made.
I published book 1 on a few sites such as Amazon, Google, B&N and Smashwords. The book started selling and received very positive reviews, but... Readers who loved the book either heard about it from friends, or clicked on my promo posts after reading the blurb. They said that they wouldn't have given it a second look if they found it on the publishing site, because the cover didn't catch their eye.
So, I started looking for a book cover artist. The first one I tried gave me two mock up covers after I described what I wanted. She didn't get it right, but she wanted to add additional charge for experimenting with the layout. The second one did what I had in mind and was flexible, but the readers still didn't like the covers much. They just didn't stand out and shout "Take a closer look!" The third artist turned out to be flexible, understanding and she was willing to try numerous versions. She helped to pick out the pictures for the covers and using my artistic talent I did several sketches about what I wanted. After I decided on the layout and colors, she put the cover together. However, I was still not satisfied, so I used my artistic talent and started creating book covers for my books and for other authors as well.
In order to save money, I made the book covers and had the story edited, but... The book cover wasn't catchy and readers still found grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Then, using my mind's logical and analytical ability, I forced my mind to switch from writer's mode to manuscript critique mode. Reading the first chapter with the mindset of a critique was hard, because I wrote the story, but soon my mind adapted to the task and found many mistakes. I made notes and a few days later I went back to editing the story as a writer. When I sent it to beta readers, they were ecstatic about the changes I made.
I published book 1 on a few sites such as Amazon, Google, B&N and Smashwords. The book started selling and received very positive reviews, but... Readers who loved the book either heard about it from friends, or clicked on my promo posts after reading the blurb. They said that they wouldn't have given it a second look if they found it on the publishing site, because the cover didn't catch their eye.
So, I started looking for a book cover artist. The first one I tried gave me two mock up covers after I described what I wanted. She didn't get it right, but she wanted to add additional charge for experimenting with the layout. The second one did what I had in mind and was flexible, but the readers still didn't like the covers much. They just didn't stand out and shout "Take a closer look!" The third artist turned out to be flexible, understanding and she was willing to try numerous versions. She helped to pick out the pictures for the covers and using my artistic talent I did several sketches about what I wanted. After I decided on the layout and colors, she put the cover together. However, I was still not satisfied, so I used my artistic talent and started creating book covers for my books and for other authors as well.
