The decision has been made. I’m going to self-publish, but how do I make this happen? There are so many options out there that it was a bit mind boggling to decide. One way I could have gone was to do my own editing, hire someone to do my cover art (I can’t even draw proper stick drawings) learn how to format digital pages on my own and then figure out how to publish using Amazon’s self-publishing option. And this is just one digital outlet. I already have a full time job and so far writing isn’t it. My book has gone through five rounds of edits between me and the help of my writing group and I could have forgone the editing part but I just can’t do it. I don’t want a reader to be distracted from Lorelei’s story with grammar and spelling mistakes. My husband is fine with that and it’s more acceptable these days but I just don’t want that, especially for my first book. At this point then I would be looking at paying for an editor and cover artist at the very least.
My sister, who was also looking for a way to publish her book, found Page Publishing and so we both checked them out and I compared costs. You do have to pay them and this is why the debate exists between traditional publishing and self-publishing. Going traditional you don’t pay a dime. At this point I had decided to pay for my editing and cover art so why not see what their cost for services entailed? Page Publishing Inc. has a base publishing package that includes cover design, conversion to eBook formats, full-copy edit, ISBN and bar code, distribution, page design, printed books and a Publication Coordinator to guide you through the whole process. You can find out more information about these services on their page here.
So how does this match up with the cost to do it myself? I searched the all knowing google to find people who offered each individual service and tallied up the cost. Believe it or not the cost came up to twice as much if I did it through separate services than to do all of this with Page Publishing. Okay so the cost works out but are they a scam or even reputable? I checked into that too. I checked out the Better Business Bureau and they checked out great. I even went to Amazon and searched for books published by Page Publishing Inc to see their ratings, looked over the cover art and checked out the different genres that they represented. I then checked out the back of the book summaries that show up at the top in Amazon, and read through some of them and they were really good and the editing was fantastic. Everything looked very professional. The digital page designs looked good and I read some reviews of the books themselves. Even reviews about working with Page Publishing were fantastic.
After all of that I was confident in taking the next step which was to upload my manuscript for review. A couple of days later I received a call from Phil, a Literary Development Agent. He explained that they would read my book and after that let me know if Page Publishing would agree to publish my book. One month later I was accepted! You may think well yes that is what any self-publishing company would do. You are paying them after all right? As I continue to blog about my journey with them you are free to make your own decision, but my experience with them has been nothing short of truly amazing! I couldn’t have made a better choice.
In my next blog post I will be explaining the next step in the process, meeting my Publication Coordinator Lana and telling you about my homework assignment.
