A relative handed me a book manuscript one time, written by a friend of hers, and asked me to look it over. The cover looked like it was drawn by hand, the pages were three-hole punched, it had typos and errors galore. The whole thing screamed “amateur.” I didn’t want to have to slog through a poorly written book and then spend more time trying to be diplomatic as to what I thought. But since it was a relative, I started reading and to my surprise I got caught up in the story! I read the whole thing and enjoyed it in spite of all the glaring mistakes.
The good thing about self-publishing is that anyone can write and publish anything. The bad thing about self-publishing is that anyone can write and publish anything. So even the most fascinating story needs all the help it can get in order to, first, be noticed among thousands of other stories, and second, avoid disappointing those readers who decide to buy it and invest what may amount to quite a few hours reading. And potential readers will drop a book with poorly designed cover, boring title, misspellings etc. like a dead rat.
Enter the Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide, by Joel Friedlander and Betty Kelly Sargent, a curated list of resources for self-publishers with a brief introduction and short explanations of each type of resource. The assumption behind the list is, as the authors say to help a self-publisher: “find top freelance professionals to help them write, produce and sell their book…”
The Guide is divided into three sections: Prepare, Publish and Promote with resources appropriate to each activity. “Prepare” for example, includes content and developmental editors, indexers, copy editors, cover designers, where to find images, etc. In the “Publish” section are listed such resources as eBook conversion, publish-on demand-websites, subsidy publishers and more. The “Promote” section offers website designers, social media consultants, press release resources, self-publishing blogs, eBook aggregators and distributors, etc.
I am familiar with a few resources listed in The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide, but most of the listings I’ve never heard of, and I have begun checking them out, looking for a good fit for my self-publishing efforts. Eight bucks Kindle edition, should save you a lot of time sorting through search engine suggestions.
