professional self
publishing
We publish authors' books through our dedicated publishing imprint.
At Authoright, our aim is to do everything that an author needs. What this means can vary from one author to another. By definition, every publishing project we undertake is bespoke, tailored to the book in question. However, there are a number of core tasks that need to be done for every book. Typically, when we work with an author as publisher and publishing team, we will do all or most of the elements below:
typesetting
publishing
ISBNS
ebook
distribution
design
marketing &
publicity
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combining the best bits of a traditional publisher with the best of a self publisher
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PUBLISHING
We work with a ground breaking self publishing imprint and the authors publishing with us benefit from the following key components.
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publishing
BREAKTHROUGH AUTHORS EVERY DAY
BOOK COVER DESIGN
Let’s be honest, we all judge a book by its cover. And for authors, your cover defines both your story and, to a large extent, your individual brand. Authoright’s bespoke cover design will help your cover stand out from the crowd.
An impressive design for the cover of your book remains one of the most important steps in publishing. It is a crucial marketing tool and there is a science to getting it right. Covers should be designed by artists with an eye for branding and marketing, rather than publishers. In the self publishing space, one of the things that can still mark a book out as being – for all the wrong reasons – is a poor cover. One of the easiest ways to lose the interest of your target market is to settle for a bland, amateurish or overly complicated cover. Not only is a bad cover a turn-off for readers but journalists, catering to a heavily image-focused media, will reject a book based on the cover alone.
Book covers have also changed. The spine is effectively dead, bookshops display new books ‘facing out’ or ‘facing up’ and these days it’s all about how your book is viewed online. Authors often talk about seeing people pick up a book, hold it, turn it over and read the blurb. This now represents the significant minority of book buyers. Most book sales for any new author will occur online, whether that’s on the Amazon store, through Kobo, B&N or Waterstones online.
We often describe book covers as being like labels on a bottle of wine. You don’t actually need one to tell you ‘it’s a book’, or indeed, a bottle of wine, but rather the cover is there to entice someone to buy it over another book (or bottle of wine). Once someone has uncorked the bottle and poured the first glass, the wine label is redundant. Book covers are similar.
Therefore, the cover of a book is most important when people are browsing titles online. So the cover must stand out on an Amazon search result, when the cover is the size of a postage stamp, not held in the palm of your hand. This goes for paperbacks and hardbacks, not just ebooks.
Branding
This sounds like awful marketing speak, doesn’t it! But it’s actually very important. Your book cover is also the start of your branding. When we work with an author on publishing and marketing their book, we start by looking at the cover (and doing the edit, we won’t get technical) the reason for this is that during the cover design, we can explore concepts and experiment with very different ideas for how the book should look. This ‘look’ extends beyond the cover and should in turn influence the author’s wider brand, including the website design, Facebook banners, Twitter background and any other marketing materials that there might be (such as e-newsletters).
The important thing here is coming up with a clear and engaging design that can be applied consistently.
Some of the book covers we designed
Make sure that
your book stands
out from the crowd
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"I did not make it the easiest of tasks as I kept changing my mind as to which photo looked better but he showed great patience and diplomacy and soldiered on. I am very happy with the outcome as the cover looks light hearted and vibrant as well as eye catching...Great job...Very well done!"
EDITING
Every author needs an editor; every book needs an edit.
A good edit can transform a manuscript, turning ordinary into extraordinary. Editing yourself is almost impossible – bestselling authors would never dream of attempting it – so hiring an experienced editor is a really sound investment in the future of your book, if you want your writing to be the very best it can be.
There are three different types of edit and editor, all of which Authoright can provide:
Structural Edit: this is an intense, almost forensic assessment of every aspect of the manuscript – the narrative, vocabulary, structure, characterisation, style and development. The editor will look for errors and inconsistencies, areas which may confuse the reader, plot holes, irritating writing quirks and uninspiring, underdeveloped or unrealistic characters, scenarios and use of language. The structural editor uses their considerable knowledge of the craft of creative writing to bring the best out of a manuscript, combined with the benefits of their finely-tuned commercial awareness. This mostly takes the form of a report over and above amendments to the manuscript itself, although there will be some of these too.
Copy Edit: A copy edit is not as intense as a structural edit but it’s by no means less important. A good copy editor will have an eagle eye for detail, identifying errors in grammar and spelling as well as inconsistencies of terminology or flagging up elements of the the story’s trajectory that don’t work e.g. spotting on page 10 that it's winter and summer on page 11 but no time has actually passed. Many editors will undertake the structural edit and the copy edit simultaneously, although some traditional publishing houses keep them completely separate.
Proofread: the last link in the editing chain, and essentially the final comprehensive inspection of the manuscript, where the editor checks for any last-minute errors that may have been missed in the previous in-depth edits. The proofread will polish the manuscript to perfection, or thereabouts.
It can be difficult for the same editor to undertake multiple revisions of the same manuscript, because, being human, they can begin to overlook tiny errors once they have grown used to a particular manuscript. Ideally, the editor performing the final proofread should be different to the editor who worked on the structural and copy editing.
THE CONCIERGE
Professional self publishing at its best. A full-service publishing and marketing solution for your book.
Editing. Brand consultation. Book cover design. Paperback and ebook publishing. A transatlantic book marketing and publicity campaign. Our professional advice on anything an author might require – book tours, social media, speaking engagements – as well as our experience and guidance. The Concierge has it all.
Our Concierge service is a comprehensive self publishing solution that guides the author from the early stages of manuscript editing through to publication of their book and on to an international marketing campaign. Every member of the Authoright team [link] has a particular area of expertise, and we are all on hand to give tailored advice to our Concierge clients.
Orchestrating the publication of a book, from the first draft to the shelves of booksellers all over the world, is a massive undertaking, especially for the self publishing author. But just because it’s called ‘self’ publishing doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. Most self publishing writers prefer to have someone on hand to support, advise and encourage them on their journey. Some authors choose to bring in experts to help with specific areas of production and promotion, to supplement their own efforts; other authors want to delegate the entire process to a project manager who will. Mistakenly, many authors believe this attentive project management will be the role of a self publishing company, but this is rarely the case. Usually, it’s down to the author to work things out for themselves.
Authoright’s Concierge service is designed to provide the same levels creative excellence, attention to detail, publishing industry insight and author support that a big traditional publisher would provide for their clients. In this service, we have combined a series of key self publishing, book advertising and book marketing services. These are all services we offer individually, but we perform the Concierge at a discounted rate.
Finding people who know what they are talking about can be a challenge. For example, who should really design the cover of your book? A publisher or a marketer? And what about distribution? In fact, what is distribution exactly, and why does it matter to me the author? And how do I get my book reviewed? Where do I begin with social media when writing books is my thing, not Tweeting? All of these questions are critical for the individual author, and at Authoright we spend a lot of time talking clients through the machinations of publishing today. If you’re a Concierge client, no question is too big, too small or too silly (Do I have to give my mother-in-law a complimentary copy?) for us to help you with.
Our Publishing and Book Marketing Strategy
Come to us with your manuscript and let us do the rest. The Concierge service includes the following:
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a proofread of your manuscript
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book cover design and branding
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publication of your book with our imprint Clink Street Publishing, or through one of our affiliates, if your prefer.
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ebook and paperback (hardback is also available) through Clink Street Publishing, we provide our clients with the best royalties anywhere: 75% of net receipts no matter where your book is sold. Your book will also have an ISBN and benefit from global online distribution through Amazon, B&N, Waterstones, etc.
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the ebook version of your book will be distributed in all formats (Kobo, Kindle, iBook, etc.)
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sensible retail price (very important, if your book is too much, no one will buy it)
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you will have a project manager as a consistent point of contact: throughout the process, you will have regular meetings with your Concierge Manager, who is always on hand to offer advice about anything from the use of a pen name to your book title to the appropriate retail price for your book.
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eight-week UK and US book marketing campaigns, which includes media coaching and weekly updates on media interest in your book. Every part of the publication process will be aimed at making your book marketable and saleable.
Many authors are surprised by just how many questions crop up in their publishing journey. Our Concierge author clients receive our best professional advice from day one. We are available throughout the author’s self publishing journey, for as long as it takes. It might take five months, it might take a year. We have worked with Concierge authors for anything from four months to over a year, at no extra cost.