I started the journey of writing my first book ~18 months ago. I first blogged about the beginning of this journey when my goal was to write an eBook here.
In the process of writing my eBook called Everything I Learned About Sales I Learned From My Dog, I got positive feedback from friends and family and so I decided to turn my eBook into a paperback. I found a publisher in January, Skeeter Buck at Night River Press, and started the publishing process (see this blog for more details. I published another blog in May with updates on how it was going. See it here.
It has now been ten months since I found my editor and I am about six weeks away from launching my book. Since I last blogged, my cover designer, Susan Malikowski, finished my cover with my dog Oliver on the front. I love it.
My publisher told me to find an interior designer on Reedsy to type set the book and suggested I go back to my cover designer, Susan, and ask if she did that as well. Turns out she did so I hired her to do the interior design and composition for my book for both print (print-ready pdf) and ebook (e-pub and Mobi) format for $650.
I sent her the final edited version and she sent me some sample fonts.
Here are the things we did together:
- We decided it would be softcover, perfect bound, black and white interior printing, on 50 pound white paper
- She sent jpg, png and epub high-resolution (300ppi) and screen-resolution (72ppi) files for the eBook cover
- I seent a short description to include in the ebook searchable data(metadata)..“This is not another boring business book that will put you to sleep. This book will teach you important things such as why butt sniffing and sales have a lot in common . . . as all dogs know, you have to take time to get to know your customers and what they need before doing business.”
- She put paw prints at the beginning of each chapter (which I love)
- She created a sell sheet that I could send to bookstores, newspapers, etc. I paid her an extra $85 for this.
- She put a picture of Oliver on the spine (too cute)
- I created an “About the author” for the beginning of the book
- She asked where this will be printed. I told her through Ingram Sparks
My publisher, Skeeter, sent me a first run print copy in October. She also got one for herself and I sent one to my sister, Lisa, and one to my friend, Theresa. Skeeter said we needed to all review it to find any grammar mistakes or typos as this is the last chance to make any changes. I got everyone’s feedback and sent it back to Susan to make the changes. Some of the changes were a little substantial so Susan needed to reset the interior design of the book. She said that would cost another $390 to do that and I agreed to that price.
Around the time that I sent my final edits and scheduled time on Susan’s calendar again, my dad was finishing his memoir. My sister was helping him write it and I offered to put them in touch with my publisher, Skeeter Buck at Night River Press. Skeeter agreed to publish my dad’s memoir.
My father is 92 and not in good health so my mom asked if we could try to get something in his hands by Christmas. I scrambled to find an editor and gave up my spot with my designer to do his book cover and interior design. The good news is that my father’s book is flying through the publishing process and the bad news is that my book is on hold until the designer is done with his. His book will be out soon any where books are sold. It’s called A Lifetime of Collecting Experiences. A Memoir by Paul Hickey. Check it out here.
I am trying to be zen and remember that getting his book out quickly is more important than getting mine out quickly so I think I am about six weeks from publication. I’ll update again when my book is ready.
If you found this helpful and want to have a consultation session about publishing a book with my publisher Skeeter Buck, you can email her at skeetieb@me.com. Check her out her website here and watch for her new business in the next few months here.
