Publisher
People often ask me what is it that I do for a living. I actually do many things but they all have a common link: words. I put words on paper and on the Web, for myself and for others.
As a publisher my skills are in:
Bookmaking: No gambling involved, other than the gamble all authors take when they write a book. In this context, the type of bookmaking I do for authors includes:
- Book Editing: An author loses credibility when their book contains misspelled words, improper grammar, or doesn’t have a consistent ‘voice’ or theme. Light editing is correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation. Heavy editing is doing a major rewrite of the author’s words. Ghostwriting is writing books for authors who have a story to tell but who don’t have the time, or don’t have the skill, to write it themselves.
- Book Design: A good story needs to be matched with the right page layout, typography, cover design, and interior graphics. Should it be paperback or hardcover; a small page size, 5×8 or 6×9, or larger?
- Book Production: Typesetting, incorporating design elements and front matter, and making the book press-ready for the printer or for distribution as an e-book.
Self-Publishing: My first book, How to Survive Your Husband’s Midlife Crisis, was published in 2003 by Perigee, a division of Penguin Putnam. I have self-published seven more books since then as well as helped other authors self-publish their books. Self-publishing eliminates the need for an agent (to present the author’s book to publishing houses, negotiate terms, and act as intermediary between author and publisher), a book proposal for non-fiction books (sometimes harder to write than the actual book), and the lengthy process through editors, copy editors, marketing reps, graphic artists, and typesetters.