People often ask me what I do at Red Feather Publishing. The word ‘publishing’ can be a little misleading, so I always preface my spiel with ‘I am not a publisher.’ It’s true that my business has the word ‘publishing‘ in it and I do publish, however, I do not take on other author’s books to produce as a traditional publisher does.
Editing
My primary role is that of editor. I help my clients polish their manuscripts, so they are at a publishable quality.
Over the years, my clients have then said, ‘Now what? How do I make this into a book?’ As I have self-published my own books, I then began to guide them through the process of self-publishing their own.
Formatting
Once the book is edited to within a fraction of its life margins and reading well, the next stage is to format the book. I use a program called Atticus for this. It does most of the heavy lifting, but I still need to check every page of the book to make sure nothing funky has happened. Adding images can be time-consuming and fiddly. However, the fun part is choosing designs and fonts and adding any little flourishes on chapter headings or scene breaks to make the book look fabulous as well as easy to read.
Self-Publishing Guide
Once the interior files are ready, it’s time to go through the steps to prepare for publishing.
The cover is immensely important. It is easy to design an amateur looking cover; it needs a skilled graphic designer who knows about book covers to create a professional one. I have a few companies that I use and also a designer who is great putting together covers when the client has a specific idea or elements for the cover. The front and back of the book are created in one spread, so as well as the front elements, the text on the spine, the back cover blurb and the ISBN are needed for this stage.
Whilst this is all happening, the author needs to decide in which categories to put the book, as well as keywords and pricing.
While Red Feather Publishing can turn the manuscript into a book shape and help upload it on all the platforms that sell books, it is the author’s responsibility to market it on the various platforms once the book is out in the world. Sadly, putting a book on Amazon and hoping it will sell is no longer true (if it ever was!). I can certainly advise and give a heap of resources, but my zone of genius is not in marketing (unfortunately!).
In addition to the editing and self-publishing guidance, I have a self-publishing guide called How to Give Your Book Wings. I also assess manuscripts and offer structural and developmental advice.
So, if you have a book in you, drop me a line and employ me to help you bring it out and give it wings.
