This week is Global Entrepreneur Week and it’s inspired us to think of our author-clients who inspire us with their entrepreneurial spirit. Whether they’re actual entrepreneurs, or whether they simply embody those traits, they remind us of how closely linked entrepreneurship and authorship can be.
For a lot of authors, seeing their book cover is one of the most exciting parts of the process. In a dream scenario, your designer delivers your cover and you absolutely love it.
Writing a non-fiction book can be daunting. So much hard work goes into completing the manuscript, and when it’s done, there are so many additional items to consider. Should you solicit a foreword from an expert in your field?
Here in Vancouver, Canada, the skies are blue and the sun is shining, but a chill has crept into the air. Fall is coming. For us September is a time of change and new beginnings.
It amazes us that physical bookstore distribution – once the most standard way of getting books to market – is no longer a critical part of a book’s success story. Some authors and publishers can devise a winning publishing strategy based on online bookselling and alternative market channels.
Today we spoke with a writer who asked, “Doesn’t every author want a bestseller?”
Believe it or not, the answer is no.
We work with people who publish books for a wide variety of reasons: some want the additional revenue of a book; some want to share information as broadly as possible; some want the credibility a book can confer that may lead to bigger speaking engagements, more consulting contracts, and a higher profile in their fields.
Publishing coffee-table books with photographs and illustrations can be a complicated and costly endeavour especially if you’re creating an edition with high production values. Here are some insider tips from our brilliant art director, Peter Cocking, on how to save time and money when producing high-end books:
Use your designer wisely
If you have the budget, hire an experienced designer to design your book.
When you have a thriving business, it’s always easy to put off that book you’ve been meaning to write. There are only so many hours in a day, and writing can seem like a low priority when you have presentations to prepare, hectic family schedules, a health and fitness routine, and maybe, just maybe, a social life.
Our client Michael Bungay Stanier is one of those savvy authors who knows how to write brilliant books and who also knows how to make the most of the support he enlists to produce them.
Writers ask us regularly if they can float a book idea past us to see if it might attract interest from publishers. If we know the writer, or they have a lot of credibility in their fields (whether as a writer or a professional in something else), we’ll usually be keen to hear it.
Publishing a book is a complex experience. While some people enlist the help of professionals to support their self-publishing plan, many also reach out to friends and family for support.
For authors who want to publish at a professional level, self-publishing is a misnomer. Usually you will end up hiring publishing professionals to help you with your book. Those may be individuals, such as freelance editors and designers, a hybrid publisher, or a publishing services company like Page Two.
