Self-publishing writers still need good editors

Let's say you've written a book.

Then you edited it. Maybe even did some major re-writing, moving around chapters and retyping whole sections fresh. You've straightened out the characters, tweaked your dialogue, all the stuff you think needs being done so that you have a professional quality book ready for readers.

Perhaps you've even designed your own cover artwork, and maybe you've even written your own blurbs for the back cover of the book.

A few years ago all this would have been frowned upon, but today more and more book writers are going the self-publishing route.

But why until recently has self-publishing been frowned upon so, and continues to be in some circles?

For one simple reason.

The truth: Most self-published books are garbage.

Yes, it can hurt to hear this. After all the months and years and hard work you've put into your book, it still might not be very good. It's your baby. You love that book. It has to be good.

But what you consider good might not be what a majority of readers will consider good. And unless you've only got one book in you, which is rare for most writers, you will want readers to come back and read other books, articles or stories you might write in the future.

So, you need your material to be top notch.

What to do?

Get an editor.

That might seem like a difficult task, but it's not. With economic and technological changes in the print industry, more and more editors are going freelance. Sometimes these editors used to work at a publishing house or a were literary agents. Sometimes the editors are new, or have been freelancing for years. There are plenty of editors out there. Just do a little searching on the Web.

Then you start to think about how much it might cost to hire an editor. Here, again, you are worrying way too much. Many editors will edit an average novel-length project for $500 or less, which really isn't that much money considering your book is your baby, right? Still, if you can't afford that price range, there are other options. If you have some editing skill, find someone else who needs a book edited and offer to swap with them, you edit their book and they edit yours. You could also check at a local college in your area, and perhaps you will find a student with an appropriate degree who will be willing to edit your book for a lesser price. Remember to think outside of the box. There are options.

Start your own print magazine at no cost

Rolling Stone. Newsweek. Good Housekeeping. You've heard of them. Now you can join their ranks.

Ever wanted to own your own print magazine? Maybe you’d like to publish a fiction magazine with short stories written by your friends? Or possibly you’d like to create a niche magazine about a certain topic? Pets? Sports? Video games? Whatever?

But that costs a lot of money. Right? Right.

Not any more.

Now there’s MagCloud.

What is MagCloud? It’s a self-publishing web service.

Yeah, but what does that mean? Basically, MagCloud is a print-on-demand service.

Let me break it down for you.

You want to start a magazine, so first you’ve got to get all the stories and artwork together. Then you design your magazine and save it as a PDF file. Next you create an account on MagCloud. You upload your PDF file to MagCloud. The folks at MagCloud print out a copy of your magazine and mail it to you, and this might take a couple of weeks. Once you get the printed copy of your magazine, you look over it for any errors or what you perceive as printing or design issues. You log back onto MagCloud and make any corrections.

From then on, your magazine is available for purchase online.

And it didn’t cost you a thing.

How is this possible? Readers can order your magazine online. Since MagCloudoperates as a print-on-demand service, they only have to print out however many of your magazine has been ordered. If ten orders are put in for your publication, then MagCloud prints out ten copies and mails them out. If a thousand orders are placed, MagCloud prints those and mails them.

It’s rather simple.

And, within reason, you get to set the price for your magazine. Of course MagCloud will have some upfront fees to cover printing services, but the reader will pay for those in the price of the magazine, not you.

For example, according to the MagCloud website, the magazines available through them cost about 20 cents per page. That’s cost to the reader. So if you have a 20 page magazine, the base cost to the reader will be four dollars.

But if you want to make money, you just charge more than the base price. Let’s go back to that four dollars. That four dollars covers the printing costs, so that has to remain. All you have to do is tack on a dollar, for example, and suddenly you are making a dollar for every copy of your magazine that is sold.

It sounds simple, and it is.

So if you’re interested, start your own magazine today. The potential is even there for other projects. If you sell a product, you could create your own catalogue. Or you could make a chapbook of your short stories to give to family and friends. You could even make a promotional brochure. The ideas are only limited by your imagination.

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