I talk to a lot of people who want to publish a book. Some decide to pitch to a traditional publisher, and others decide to self-publish their book.
If you pitch to a traditional publisher, and they decide to publish your book, it means they vetted your idea and deemed it worthy to publish.
Benefits of traditional publishing
Some of the benefits of traditional publishing is the quality editing and graphic production your manuscript receives, and you don’t pay for, at least up front (more on that in a future post).
Along with editing and graphic production, another one of the benefits of traditional publishing is the imprint the publisher places on the spine of your book—that mark carries professional weight and can foster all sorts of business and professional relationships. It means your book was vetted and approved by a third party. A third party that publishes a lot of books each year.
What you should do to your self-published manuscript
Self-published books also open professional and business doors, but do that best when traditional publishing standards are applied to its production. That means you, as the publisher of your book, treat the writing, editing, and production of your book like a traditional publisher does.
Unfortunately, some people want to bypass the steps it takes—minimal editing, cursory proofreading, amateurish page layout and a home-made cover design. In their rush to get a book in their hands, they run through the book production process.
Don’t do that.
It’s well known the book covers are a major marketing tool. As a book sits on a bookstore shelf, or is shown on book-selling sites, the quality of your cover increases or decreases sales. A cover that looks home made, or designed by a beginner, does not serve you at all well. It’s not about simplicity because one-word books on a single color background can sell better than one with a full-color image and bold text.
It has to do with the quality of the designer who makes the cover. Better design may take longer, and it will cost more than what your graphic artist friend may charge. But it will be done with professionalism.
What about editing?
Now for editing, of which there are many kinds: Developmental, line, copy, and proofreading.
A book that seems disjointed, its chapters not in the right order; or the chapters hold a promise in the title, but don’t deliver in the text–these are the issues, among others, that a developmental editor handles. It means the difference between people reading the book, or not, and the review they leave online to that effect.
Line editors improve sentences and paragraphs, moving them around, suggesting alternative text, and making the pages easy and clear to read. This is typically the type of editing your high school English teacher used and what made your papers marked up with so much red ink. All those arrows showing where to move text and crossed out sentences, and new sentences written vertically in the margins. Hooray for line editing.
Copy editors are anal, thank goodness. They look for typos and inconsistencies in style. They make certain acronyms are spelled the same way throughout your book–all lowercase or all uppercase, for instance–so your book looks and reads consistently.
Proofreaders are the final editors. They read for things like typos, missing words, and missing punctuation. Every book she be proofread before it goes to print.
The cost of not spending money to create your best book
And all of this costs money, so this is for certain why so many self-published books look and read so poorly. Which is unfortunate because your book is a reflection of you in just about every way imaginable. If you want to be taken seriously; to be hired; to be asked to speak on your expertise—don’t treat self-publishing as the fast and cheap alternative. Treat it as the perfect way to present your expertise to an eager audience.
Your self-published book IS your imprint–an impression of quality and professionalism. This is how to put your best book forward.