A few years ago my friend Jen, was helping me organize my home office and business. I was dividing my attention between several things, yet not really achieving great results with any of them. I felt stuck in many ways. She then gave me the best advice I've received in a long time, "Toni, stay in your 'A' game." I quickly dropped several things that were sucking time and energy from my life and felt like an obligation and refocused on what I do best: design. As a result, I'm much happier and less stressed and doing work that I love.
I've never forgotten this advice and often say the same thing to my own clients who are trying to do too much. Most of us can do a number of things well enough, but we all have a skill or niche where we excel. This is the 'A' game where we should be focusing our time and energy and usually results in the greatest income and professional satisfaction. Since we all have the same amount of time in each day, it makes sense to use it doing things we enjoy and benefit from.
I've never forgotten this advice and often say the same thing to my own clients who are trying to do too much. Most of us can do a number of things well enough, but we all have a skill or niche where we excel. This is the 'A' game where we should be focusing our time and energy and usually results in the greatest income and professional satisfaction. Since we all have the same amount of time in each day, it makes sense to use it doing things we enjoy and benefit from.
Think with the end in mind.
As I mentioned in my last post, self-publishing a book doesn't mean that you have to do everything yourself. In fact, trying to handle every aspect of the process is doing a great disservice to yourself, your readers, and if you are a business owner, your clients. There are several reasons to hire out parts of the process, but the biggest factor in my estimation, is because there are so many people out there who can do it better, faster, and more cost effectively than you. Your goal in writing a book is to be a writer not a book designer!
Most people already know that having their work edited is critical. But they tend to gloss over the importance of its cover and layout and will often attempt to do it themselves in Word. Word is a necessary evil in the publishing world and accepted by many online printer services such as CreateSpace, BookBaby, etc. (Full disclosure, I'm biased towards using InDesign for typesetting). That said, any potential savings gained by not hiring a pro to design your bookblock and do your layout can be lost if you later need to submit it to another POD (Print On Demand) vendor to get into larger distribution chains, or if you wish to convert it to multiple electronic formats. Most pros use InDesign for typesetting and book design and know how to set the files up to generate multiple formats without a lot of additional time invested. It is indeed possible to get what you need from a Word file, however, there can be more steps, duplicated effort, and possibly additional costs involved to get the necessary output. If you are doing these things yourself, you may soon find your time spent fighting with headers, file conversions, and such that can leave you very frustrated. This is time spent away from clients, making money, and/or writing!
By taking some time at the beginning of the writing process to decide what you want—print books, Kindle, Nook, tablets, interactive, etc.—you can choose the best direction to take regarding producing the bookblock. If you plan to sell your book in a single format or outlet, such as an ebook, then you likely can get away with using Word for the formatting, but definitely hire a pro to design your cover! (Covers help sell books so make sure yours can stand up to the competition!)
If you wish to sell your book in multiple formats and outlets, then hire a pro to handle the typesetting. She can create a well designed bookblock that enhances your content in addition to doing it such that it can be more readily converted to multiple formats and that will be accepted by a larger number of POD vendors. This ultimately allows your book to get into larger distribution chains.
As the old proverb says, "If a dog chases two rabbits, both will escape." Most authors write in addition to working a full time job or running a business or do both. Stay focused on what directly benefits you professionally or financially—your 'A' game. Don't allow your time to be monopolized with things that do neither. With a good plan in place for production, you can remain focused on your 'A' game while knowing that your book will be the best it can be.
Next time, I'll talk about what to look for when hiring a designer for your project.
Happy Writing!
Toni
If you wish to sell your book in multiple formats and outlets, then hire a pro to handle the typesetting. She can create a well designed bookblock that enhances your content in addition to doing it such that it can be more readily converted to multiple formats and that will be accepted by a larger number of POD vendors. This ultimately allows your book to get into larger distribution chains.
Chasing rabbits.
As the old proverb says, "If a dog chases two rabbits, both will escape." Most authors write in addition to working a full time job or running a business or do both. Stay focused on what directly benefits you professionally or financially—your 'A' game. Don't allow your time to be monopolized with things that do neither. With a good plan in place for production, you can remain focused on your 'A' game while knowing that your book will be the best it can be.
Next time, I'll talk about what to look for when hiring a designer for your project.
Happy Writing!
Toni
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