Sometimes you just need another hand on the job.
So, hi, this is Sarah, and I’ve been writing for a long, long time. Okay, I’ve been writing since I was about two, but writing with intent to become a professional since about six. Obviously I didn’t have a very focused business plan for this, since it took me more than thirty years, though perhaps it was slightly more realistic than my previous career plans of becoming a cat or an angel. (The first being morphologically unlikely and the second just unlikely, unless it were one of those angels with very dark wings.)
Having broken into my chosen field at almost forty, you’d think I’d be safe from a midlife crisis. And in a way I am. So the field decided to have a midlife crisis around me. Which is… special. We won’t rehash how we got here, and I will say right away that I’m very glad there are indie options. I love my publisher, and I have no plans to replace them with Indie, but I like having the option of going indie for some books. It means there are no unpublishable books. By this I don’t mean quality-wise. There are regrettably published books. Of course IMHO some bestsellers fall in that category, so what do I know?
What I mean though is that there is no longer a bright line, delineated by others that says “you can’t write that.” For a long time the “you can’t write that” for me was space opera, which hurt, since that’s what I started writing to write. My novel (Prometheus Award Winner 2011 and still selling) Darkship Thieves wasn’t even submitted by my agents until I had sold it by unusual means. It sat for 13 years in a drawer. This was based not on quality but on “it will never sell” – you see, it was science fiction but not “big idea” or “introspective” enough. So there was no market for it.
I have at least 10 other books that were rejected, most of them by agents who wouldn’t submit them. One of them, the one I just released indie – Witchfinder – was never sent out because “you can’t have a computer programmer fall into a magical world. People won’t know how to shelf it.”
So, I appreciate the openness and ability to publish whatever of indie. But I still have a traditional career, and… let’s face it, okay? I am fifty one, and I don’t have all the time in the world. I’m managing, barely.
But there are people who are older than I, and who can’t either take the time to learn how to do this, or who simply don’t have the time. And for those there are support professionals.
If you’re going to get a support professional, it’s important to know what you’re getting and what you’re paying for. You should for instance figure out exactly what an editor would do. A structural editor should be paid more than a copyeditor. He/she would also have a completely different background. My structural editor is a friend with a professional history as an editor.
I wouldn’t trust someone I don’t know with that sort of thing, and if I needed to hire a total stranger, I’d interview him/her and then ask him/her to do a sample.
Of the people linked below (and if you’re a support professional feel free to send us a link to book plug Friday, I’ve worked with Patrick Richardson for copy editing (because his background is journalism, I prefer him for non-fiction, but he edited a novel for a friend, and he did a fine job,) Rune Wright for typesetting, Jason Dyck for proofing and Cedar Sanderson for cover design. I can recommend all four of them.
So for typesetting and formatting: Rune Wright. He has all the details on his website.
For Jason Dyck, we have an email address. He was both affordable and prompt with proof-reading for me.
For Pat Richardson, we also have an email address. And I can recommend him for proof reading.
Cedar Sanderson is new, but comes from a graphic arts background and if you need a cover designed, her work is simply a cut above. This is her website.
Then there is Barb Caffrey who has a testimonial from one of her clients. I’ve never worked with Barb, so I can’t personally recommend her.
And that’s it for now. If you’re an indie publishing support professional, send us your info.
And I’m out of here. Below are links to some fine indie works, some of which might be by yours truly. (If I remember if I can squeeze in this week, which I don’t, since I’m mid novel and don’t have a brain.)
Remember, tell all your writer friends [Pssst, Sarah!] to send the AUTHOR, TITLE, a SHORT BLURB, and an AMAZON LINK AMAZON LINK AMAZON LINK to [email protected] to be plugged here on PJ Media.
Deadlines are flexible, but in general the deadline for Friday is Tuesday the preceding week. So, for example, the deadline for March 7 was February 22.
That said, last week was a really big one, so some books are being put off until next week. Hey, we said the deadlines are flexible.
It really helps if you don’t bother with HTML magic at all, because we just have to parse it apart to put it into the template. The ideal submission is like
TITLE
My Book
AUTHOR
My name as it’s on the book cover.
AMAZON LINK
http://www.amazon.com/My-Book-By-Me/dp/B00ABCDEFG/
BLURB
no more than about 100 words.
After the Blast
By T. L. Knighton
Jason wasn’t having a bad day, but all that changed with a blinding flash of light and a mushroom cloud on the horizon. Overweight and out of shape, Jason must struggle home, only to learn that finding his family would be more of a challenge.
Along the way, he transforms into someone different. Is he the kind of man that is the problem with this new world, or the kind of man this new world needs?
An Elfy On The Loose
By Barb Caffrey
He’s supposed to be the Watcher for his people, the representative on Earth from his dimension, but the small being known to his enemies as “Jonny-Wonny” wakes up to big trouble — trapped in a bizarre house in Knightsville, California with humans straight out of reality TV. Jon knows that something has gone dreadfully wrong — he’s starving, lonely and dressed in funny clothes.
Enter the couple’s ten-year-old diminutive daughter, who is “Not Daisy!” but is brilliant, sweet…and using high level magic with ease. She’s also desperately in need of a friend.
Insisting her name is really Sarah, and christening him Bruno, his new friend asks him how they’re going to get out of there.
The only thing that comes to mind is for Bruno to ask his teacher, Roberto the Wise, for help. But Roberto’s attempt at help only enmeshes all three of them further in a web of deceit and treachery. Bruno finds out that, unfortunately, most of what he thought he knew about himself was very wrong…and much of what Sarah knows about herself is also wrong, including her age.
Worst of all, a Dark Elf is on the scene and is intent on corrupting the local Humans, including Sarah’s parents.
New names, new locations, a new mission–Bruno is going to get to the bottom of all the craziness, and Sarah will be there for him every step of the way.
Watch out, universe–an Elfy is on the loose!
In Time of Peril
By T.K. Naliaka
Raised on the edge of chaos in West Africa, Christopher Decatur is back in America for college, leaving behind dunes, baobabs, and nomads. His history class embarks on a week-long American Revolution reenactment hiking trip near Lake Champlain, but the backwoods are no refuge from the dangers of the world as the group unexpectedly collides with a murderous and mysterious gang. As Chris faces an ordeal of deadly threats with uncooperative classmates in a high-stakes battle of wits and cultures against ruthless foes, Chris’s father Robert Decatur risks everything to rescue his son from the hands of evil. In Time of Peril launches The Decaturs adventure series, inspired by Louis L’Amour’s Sacketts.
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