The 3 People You Need to Publish Your Book

If you’re writing a book, don’t try to do it all alone! When you employ just a few people to help, you’ll find it will communicate better, be more attractive and (hopefully!) get more sales. In this episode of the Writing Momentum podcast, Chris and Gena talk about why you absolutely need an editor, a formatter and a cover designer for your book.

Here's something fun

Download this FREE PDF poster and hang it on your wall to remind yourself each day: YOU'VE GOT THIS!

LINKS:

• Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let’s get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com

episode 78 transcription:

[00:00:00] Christopher: Hello, and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast. I'm Christopher Maselli. I'm here with my wife Gena. Gena, what are we talking about today, and will tell us what we've won. 

[[00:00:18] Gena: You have won an all expense paid trip to. 

[[00:00:21] Christopher: Writing Momentum podcast. 

[[00:00:22] Gena: I know. The next 15 minutes of your life, right?

[00:00:26] Gena: We're talking today about the three people you need to publish your book and you and I were on a trip recently and we started talking about. We were actually listening to another podcast. 

[[00:00:38] Christopher: Yes. 

[[00:00:39] Gena: And you and I started talking about this. That there are people, specialists that independent authors need in order to get their book published in a really successful way.

[00:00:52] Christopher: Yeah, because normally I say normally the way it used to be, you would just write your book and then you'd connect with a traditional [00:01:00] publisher and they would do a lot of things to help you get your book published. But today, Most of us are self-publishing. The world of publishing has changed and I'm sure we've talked about that a lot, we'll talk about it more. But in doing so, what's happened is that writers who used to do just the writing themselves now think that they need to do everything else themselves, right? They try to make writing a solitary venture and it's really, it's not, writing is something that you need to get a team of people to help you publish a book.

[00:01:30] Christopher: And because otherwise what, what happens? It just doesn't come across quite as professional. 

[00:01:34] Gena: It doesn't and you've heard people, for years people would talk about, oh, you self-publish your book. And there was this kind of...

[[00:01:41] Christopher: Stigma 

[00:01:42] Gena: The stigma to it. That you weren't a real author. And first of all, that is absolutely not true. We could talk for a long time and maybe we do need to do another podcast, Chris, just about why independent publishing [[00:02:00] is a viable option for authors. But to overcome that stigma that has been around, you need to do some things. You need to take some of those steps.

[[00:02:13] Gena: And these are things that publishers would have done for you? And traditional publishers still do. 

[00:02:19] Christopher: Yeah. And keep in mind that if you don't do these things, what's gonna happen is you're going to have a less professional book. Your messaging isn't going to be as effective, your sales won't be as good.

[00:02:32] Christopher: That's why you've got to do these things. These are not areas or three positions that you can just say, eh, I can do without that? I think what I've done is good enough and generally when people say that someone who self-published, if they say that and they don't think that is a valid thing to do, it's because they've read too many books by people who don't have the help of the three positions that we're gonna talk about here. 

[00:02:57] Gena: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Let's get started. Let's talk [[00:03:00] about who is the first person that you need? If you are going to publish your book, who is it, Chris? 

[00:03:05] Christopher: I bet anyone listening is gonna know what we're gonna say because we talk about this all the time.

[[00:03:09] Christopher: And that is, you must have an editor. 

[[00:03:13] Gena: Absolutely. 

[00:03:13] Christopher: You do not want to publish your book without an editor. Every writer needs an editor. It doesn't matter how good of a writer you are. That's one of the things that I learned early on in my career was that no matter how great something came together, no matter how divinely inspired that piece seemed.

[00:03:33] Christopher: If I didn't have an editor, it might go out with mistakes, obvious mistakes. It is too easy just to miss things and not to, and we're not just talking about grammar though. We are talking about grammar. We're also talking about just overall content. It's the overall messaging editors help you find those things.

[00:03:49] Christopher: And we talked in a podcast or two ago about the four types of editors that are out there. And sometimes you can find those four kinds of editing in one person, but you've [00:04:00] got to have your book edited. You've got to have an editor. 

[[00:04:03] Gena: Now let me ask you, Chris. You say you need to have an editor. What if you have a friend who just is a really good seems to be really good at writing? 

[00:04:16] Christopher: By all means, have them go through it and read it and tell you what they think. But that's not an editor. An editor is someone who day by day, they do this professionally. They know exactly everything to look for.

[00:04:29] Christopher: They're able to see things that the common reader would not see, no matter how good that person is, because an editor has essentially trained that editing muscle in their brain. They've made it super strong so that they can find things that you wouldn't otherwise find. I remember one of my first book series that I did, I had this great editor that worked with me and she would find things about the way I described individual characters eye colors on page 10 [00:05:00] versus page 192, and she'd notice that I used slightly different words and bring that to my attention.

[00:05:06] Christopher: And that's the kind of thing that no one else caught, even some of the other editors didn't catch because she was that good. And so you've got to find a good editor to help you, who can pull that good stuff out of you to make your book the best it can be. 

[[00:05:19] Gena: How about nonfiction? Do you think nonfiction writers need editors?

[00:05:22] Christopher: It's no different. It's still finding those connections. It's finding the the content, the grammar, the spelling, the everything that you might not have seen, if you've ever written a piece and then taken a nap, come back to it a day later and discovered that like you left a word out and you're thinking, how can I have left a word out, I read this sentence 400 times? It's because our mind skips over it. Our mind doesn't see our own material sometimes when we edit our material, and sometimes it doesn't even see it when we edit something of a friend. Because we kinda read their voice into it. You need to have someone who [[00:06:00] professionally knows what to look for.

[[00:06:01] Gena: I would say even I do editing for non-fiction books and I, when I am in that mode of editing, I am really thinking through that book in its totality. I am really thinking, what did this author do at the beginning of the book? What did that author try to do at the end of the book? Did it change?

[00:06:22] Gena: And I can even change or even notice because I've been doing this for a while. I can notice when an author has either stepped away from the book and then come back to the process or to the project that there's been a tone that has changed, if they've all of a sudden changed the verb tense in the book that has happened before.

[00:06:42] Gena: If they're formatting it differently, if they're treating different grammatical things elements differently from the beginning to the end. I can even tell and this one really hit me this last time. I've been working on a book here recently, and I can tell that there were two different authors on it.

[00:06:59] Gena: It's a [00:07:00] book that's been ghostwritten, and I can tell that there were two different authors, by the way, that they're treating different elements in the book. And so I'm having to go back and I'm saying, okay, wait a minute. That author did this here. And when I say the author, I'm saying the person whose name is on the book, even though it was ghostwritten, I can tell that.

[00:07:17] Gena: But I'm looking at what the person did at the beginning, what they did at the end, and I need to make sure that there is consistency throughout. 

[00:07:25] Christopher: You're even talking about sentence structure aren't you like you're not talking about messaging, it's sentence structure. You can tell the difference.

[00:07:30] Gena: It's sentence structure. I can tell the difference. I can tell the difference by just the way that that people have treated different things. That there were different writers on the project, even though from strictly from just reading it. You wouldn't necessarily know that. I know that because I'm saying somebody who did that at the beginning wouldn't have done that at the end.

[00:07:48] Gena: And so I'm seeing that and it's totally fine. We're gonna pull it together. But I know when I'm looking at the book, it's already been through several read throughs by several different people. But because [00:08:00] I'm working very hard because I carry that weight to make sure that when I turn this project back to its owner, that it is in a tiptop shape.

[[00:08:11] Christopher: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:08:12] Gena: And so I think that's something that someone who is just casually reading it is not going to think about. Someone who is professionally reading it and they're really trying to make sure that their name, that they're keeping a good standard for their name, that's something different.

[[00:08:28] Christopher: Absolutely. 

[[00:08:28] Gena: So just to give you an idea of what a, what somebody who actually works as an editor what we are thinking about our ultimate goal is to make sure that the author, the person whose name is on the book. It looks as good and that their work is as clean as possible. 

[00:08:45] Christopher: So you need to have a good editor. That's one person you need to publish your book. The second person that you need to help you publish your book is a book formatter. Now this is super important. 

[[00:08:55] Gena: Yes. 

[00:08:55] Christopher: This is something that I see that many authors skip over because it's so easy [[00:09:00] nowadays to take a Microsoft Word document and just upload it to Amazon or any other service and say, oh, my book is formatted now.

[00:09:07] Christopher: And here's what happens. When you do it like that it looks self-published. It doesn't look like a publisher like anyone actually touched it. And while you can get by doing that, if you need to, if you need to pinch pennies, I highly recommend you have books formatted. 

[00:09:23] Christopher: Book formatting is something that I've done with many clients and I can't tell you how many of them will have their books they'll self format or have someone who's not very experienced in book formatting format their book and then they end up bringing their book to me because they're not happy with it. And I look at it and I'm I usually smile because I know, oh, I'm gonna be able to wow them.

[00:09:43] Christopher: Because just by putting in a bit of effort in using some of the right apps and using some of the touches that I've learned over time that really do well. That add things like flourishes throughout the book, chapter breaks that are unique, including [00:10:00] some of the different pages you need to have that maybe you didn't think about the about the author page or blurbs at the beginning.

[00:10:06] Christopher: You can start to really create a book that has a totally different look inside than what just doing it yourself would have. And boy do people get impressed after they see that sort of thing. And so I highly encourage you go ahead and pay someone who knows what they're doing to format your book.

[00:10:25] Christopher: They can bring it up a whole nother level and really make it make a difference. And that's especially true if you're gonna have any kind of graphics throughout. And I don't mean. Yes, I'm talking about photos, but even if you just want like chapter headings that are graphics, if you wanna have flourishes here or there, doing that sort of thing in a book is the kind of thing that you're gonna need a book formatter to do. But if you do it, you'll see a huge difference. 

[[00:10:49] Gena: Absolutely. I would also add to that consistency. 

[[00:10:53] Christopher: Yes. Consistency too. 

[00:10:54] Gena: Just like we're talking about with the editing, where I'm going through it and I'm making sure there's consistency throughout it. [00:11:00] As the book format, you're doing the same thing.

[[00:11:02] Christopher: Yes. 

[[00:11:02] Gena: You are going through and you are making sure it is consistent. And what do I mean by consistent? I mean that the chapters are on which page? 

[00:11:09] Christopher: That the chapters are on the right hand side, that's a big mistake that I see all the time, where people will have their book chapters just start on wherever the last chapter ended, the next one starts on the next page. That's not the way that professionals do book formatting. 

[00:11:23] Christopher: Book formatting should always have the chapter starting on the right hand page. It's such a simple thing, and yet it will make your book stand out. If people are going through your book and the chapter start on the left hand page instead of the right hand page. It looks self-published. 

[[00:11:36] Gena: I would even say the spacing at the beginning of the chapter. 

[[00:11:39] Christopher: The spacing, the font you use, the spacing between paragraphs. The usage or not of tabs, which can, depending on how you want it to look, that can change the way you format quotes, or 

[[00:11:50] Gena: Pull quotes.

[[00:11:50] Christopher: Pull quotes. 

[[00:11:51] Gena: End material. 

[[00:11:52] Christopher: Or, yeah end material or even things like poems or scripture verses. Those things all should have a unique[[00:12:00] format that looks the same throughout the book, but that fits that book style. And by doing that, it really makes a difference.

[[00:12:07] Gena: It absolutely does. Every time you get a hold of a project that I know has been published elsewhere and you can absolutely tell that it is self-published. 

[[00:12:15] Christopher: Yes. 

[00:12:15] Gena: And somebody bless their heart, did it from Word and just uploaded it. Every time you do that I'm just like, oh, wait till they see what Chris does with it, cuz it's gonna be pretty.

[00:12:25] Christopher: Speaking of pretty, what's the next thing you need? You need an editor, a formatter and a? 

[[00:12:30] Gena: A cover designer. You need a cover designer. And, golly guys, do not do this in your Word that you just put a bunch of clip art on there and or have 10 different fonts on your cover or,

[00:12:45] Christopher: That's a big one.

[[00:12:46] Gena: Oh my goodness. 

[[00:12:47] Christopher: People love to use lot of fonts. 

[00:12:48] Gena: And when we're talking about cover, we're not just talking about the front cover, we're also talking about the spine. We're talking about the back cover. There's just a lot of different elements and there needs to be a consistency and a cohesion to it.

[00:12:59] Gena: [00:13:00] And I would even encourage you if you're feeling like, oh my gosh, I can't afford to hire all these things out. I would encourage you to get on Amazon or go to your local bookstore or go to the library and see what the recent designs are for books. So you can see if you're gonna try and do it yourself.

[00:13:20] Gena: I don't recommend that. I really recommend you have it professionally done. But if you're gonna try it, start with some kind of template so you're not just throwing words on there. 

[00:13:30] Christopher: Yeah. I really recommend, this is one thing you don't try to do yourself, because people judge a book by its cover. They just do.

[00:13:37] Christopher: And when you have a cover that is self-created, no matter how proud you may be of it, it may not bring the book up to the potential that it has. And it's what we tell people who design their own picture books and do their own drawings. Usually your strength is in the writing or the design, not in both.

[00:13:58] Christopher: And so don't try to do both. [00:14:00] Instead, hire that out. It'll result in higher book sales. It'll result in a book you can be even more proud of. Find a designer who understands color theory. Who understands how to use just how many fonts they should use, and the types of modern fonts. Have one that likes to look at those books that Gena was just talking about that is able to look at your genre, go on Amazon and find out what the trends of the looks of books in that genre are right now.

[00:14:27] Christopher: And able to use those in your book cover. And someone who understands marketing a bit because you need to have a bit of marketing. Both on the front and the back of that cover, right? The quotes that you pull, the words that you have, the about the author section. Everything comes back to marketing at that point, because really the whole cover's about marketing the book, right?

[00:14:48] Christopher: Getting someone to say, oh, I want that. I'm gonna purchase it. So you've gotta find someone who understands those things to some degree in order to get a good design. 

[[00:14:57] Gena: I was taking a class recently and [[00:15:00] the trainer was talking about how you really narrow down those keywords.

[00:15:06] Gena: And when I'm talking about keywords, I'm not just talking about and from an SEO standpoint, but talking about why are people looking for your book? And what genre are they looking for? So if you are in the financial field and your book is in the financial field, then your back copy needs to reflect that very carefully and really talk about what problems are you gonna solve for people, or what kind of information are you gonna give.

[00:15:34] Gena: So I, I really encourage you. As you're putting your cover designs together to also be checking out the cover copy the back cover copy, look at what some other competing titles have for their copy, for their descriptive copy, their back copy, and try to work some of that in, really study it from a professional standpoint, and try to work that [[00:16:00] in as well. 

[00:16:00] Christopher: So those are the three people you need. You have those people plus you're going to have a really nice professional self-published book. You need a editor, a formatter, and a cover designer. Will that cost a bit of money? It'll cost a little bit of money, yes.

[00:16:15] Christopher: But hopefully those things are able to increase your sales and really the pride that you're gonna take away from having such a nice book that it totally makes it worth it. 

[00:16:24] Gena: And the validity of you as an author it's gonna help with that as well. 

[00:16:28] Christopher: Yes. We do wanna add one more thing. There is one more, and we're not gonna get deep into this. We just wanted to put a bug in your ear about this. 

[[00:16:34] Gena: This is bonus. 

[00:16:35] Christopher: This is a bonus. One more person that we think you might need when you publish your book, and that is a book launch specialist, right? A book launch specialist is someone who understands how to put a launch team together and help you market that book when it first comes out because so many, this is what the number one question we get. How do I sell my book? And it's a good question because it's one of the hardest things to navigate, right? How do you [[00:17:00] get that book in the right hands? And a book launch specialist can help you do just that. 

[[00:17:04] Gena: And I will add this. We see so many people that finish their book, they have it edited, they have it designed, they have it formatted, they have the whole thing and they get that done and they upload it straight to Amazon and hope that it sells. 

[00:17:20] Christopher: And then wait for it to sell. And that's not any different than creating a website and putting it out there and thinking, okay, now people are going to find my website. They're just not. There's too much competition. There's too much else out there. People aren't gonna find it unless you start to push people toward it. You need a little bit of marketing in order to make that happen. 

[[00:17:37] Gena: So while you are having your book edited, while you are having your book formatted, while you are having the cover designed. This is the time for and really even before that, but you wanna start thinking about that marketing side so that you are putting your plans in place. And if a book specialist, a book launch specialist, is not in your budget, then we encourage [[00:18:00] you to start learning. There are people who know how to do this.

[[00:18:03] Gena: There are people that train others how to do this. Check that out. Look for someone who is willing to teach - how to launch a book successfully. 

[[00:18:11] Christopher: Yes. And maybe in the future here we can have someone on the podcast that could tell us more about this, cuz I think that would be a very interesting podcast. 

[[00:18:18] Gena: Absolutely. 

[00:18:18] Christopher: All right, so those are the three things. That's what we wanted to talk to you about today. The three people you need to publish your book, an editor, a formatter, a cover designer, and as a bonus, a book launch specialist. We hope that this podcast has been super helpful for you today because we just love doing this, getting together and encouraging one another because we need each other. And that's why we hope that if you have enjoyed it, you will rate, review, subscribe, and share this podcast, really asking for your review this week. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us review on your favorite platform.

[00:18:47] Christopher: And that helps other people find the podcast too. And that's something a lot of people don't do. They don't leave reviews. And if you do that, it really means a lot to us and it means a lot to other people too, right? But meanwhile, Hey, if you've enjoyed this, [00:19:00] I'm glad because we're here to help you.

[00:19:02] Christopher: We love doing it. We're not in this alone because together 

[[00:19:06] Gena: we have writing momentum. 

[[00:19:08] Christopher: Bye-bye.