Choosing someone to edit your book is like choosing someone to perform surgery on your child. You need to trust them completely. So how can you be sure the person you’re hiring is qualified? If, as I said last week, you asked other writers for recommendations and checked references, that …
Tag: Self-publishing
Where to Find Professional Editors
As I said last time, if you’re self-publishing, you need a professional editor. But where do you get one? There is no licensing standard for editors. Anyone with a fondness for reading and a bent for grammar can declare themselves an editor and start seeking clients. Many sites exist to …
Q&A: developmental and substantive editing
Q: What’s the difference between developmental editing and substantive editing? A: That depends on whom you ask. Seriously, even editors can’t agree amongst ourselves what’s what, which is why each of us has some kind of web page where we define different types of editing in our own terms. “Substantive” …
‘Publishing 3.0’ — what is is and why it matters
Over at TechCrunch, author James Altucher has written an excellent article about the process of self-publishing his book Choose Yourself. Every entrepreneur should self-publish a book, because self-publishing is the new business card. If you want to stand out in a world of content, you need to underline your expertise.—James …
Choosing your publishing model part 2
The other day, we looked at three of the factors that go into choosing your publishing model: Money, Skill, and Control. Today we’ll finish up. Time Royalty publishing takes a looooooong time. It can take up to 18 months to get a book through the production process. At major houses, …
How to decide which publishing model is right for you
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the different models for publishing—royalty, subsidy, and do it yourself—and you’ve probably noticed I haven’t come out and said which is best. That’s because none of them are perfect for everyone. There are four main factors to consider when choosing which model …
Does self-publishing violate Yog’s Law?
Many opponents of subsidy publishing criticize it and even some forms of self-publishing because they violate Yog’s Law: Money flows toward the writer. Who is Yog, and how did he become a lawgiver?
Why owning your ISBN is important—or not
When you hire a vendor to produce your book, the company usually provides one of its own ISBNs, which makes it your publisher of record. This is also true if you use the free ISBN provided by Create Space or Smashwords. Bowker is the U.S. registrar for International Standard Book …
Why what you call a ‘publisher’ matters
Last week, I wrote about the differences, slim though they are, between vanity presses and subsidy presses. In the comments, Jennifer wrote, “What a publisher calls itself does not matter. What matters are the terms of the contract.” True. A company can call itself whatever it chooses, but whether it’s …
Vanity press vs. subsidy: What’s the difference?
Q: Earlier you talked about the difference between royalty publishing and a subsidy press. I’ve heard other writers complain about “vanity presses.” Is there a difference between a subsidy press and a vanity press? A: Depends on who you ask. Some people think so-called “traditional publishing” is the only true …