My next book, Forests, Alligators, Battlefields, will come out next year.
I’m busy visiting and sometimes revisiting the last few national parks in the South, editing and fact checking. But since I’m publishing this book independently, I need expertise – lots of expertise to go on this adventure with me.
I started out by going to the NC Writers Network this past fall. Then I read a huge book, APE (Author Publisher Entrepreneur) cover to cover about indie publishing. To offer a quality book, one needs editors and a book designer. To actually sell the book, you need a book publicist.
There are so many decisions to make: cover art, cover style, title, even the price. A great team helped me brainstorm the title.
I started with Carin Siegfried, a free-lance book consultant. We met at a coffee shop in Charlotte and I just peppered her with questions.
She wrote The Insider’s Guide to a Career in Book Publishing, after a lot of experience in the book publishing biz. Now, I’m not interested in a career in publishing, or in any other field that doesn’t involve hiking.
But she’s written a book and published it herself recently. So she’s made a lot of decisions that I’m going to have to make. She’s going to be my go-to person, consultant, advisor and help me make major decisions.
No one should edit their own book.
Nicole Ayers was recommended at the fall conference. I sent Nicole a few pages to look over and do developmental editing. That’s not looking for missing commas or mispelling. It’s looking at the flow, gaps, writing style and inconsistencies in your manuscript.
As one expert says, it’s transforming a manuscript into a book that edifies, inspires, and sells. Nicole made some great suggestions on my outline already and encouraged me to put more of “me” in the book.
Could you do all of this yourself? I do my own taxes, cook my own dinners and solve almost all my own computer problems. But I don’t pull out my own teeth. When it comes to this new indie adventure, I want some expertise behind me.
Back to visiting parks, tomorrow.
Danny- congratulations on choosing a title for your new book! It sounds like you have met some great folks to help you move forward with your indie publishing adventure. I am happy to hear that everything is moving forward and from the tone of the post you seem very positive about the experience ahead. Best of luck- Anna Lee
Danny, I’m excited to be a part of this team. This is a win-win for me. I get to work with you to improve your book and learn more about the national parks at the same time. Thank you for the opportunity!