Prior to forming my book design business, I invested my career in computer software design, development, education, and management. I have been fortunate in working for a number of companies in systems development, applications development, documentation, training, testing. Applications included accounting systems, word processing systems, real-time data acquisition, monitoring, and control, and embedded systems development. After I retired, I wanted to focus my management, systems, and project/process experience in the self-publishing arena.
Our experience in computer application development has given us the discipline to explore, understand, and develop processes. Processes are key to a self-publishing project.
In my book design career, I’ve had the opportunity to meet scores of writers. Many want to publish their books, but don’t know how to get started, are unaware of the steps of the process, are afraid of magnitude of the process, or feel their works don’t merit publication. We offer workshops and one-on-one discussions to address these concerns
Our book design clients have provided manuscripts in various stages of completion, from basic ideas, to first draft, to edited draft, and cover designs.
These manuscripts may need co-authoring, copyediting (punctuation, spelling, grammar, word selection), insertion of images, formatting, and overall shepherding through the KDP self-publishing process.
Our process consists of discussing the author’s needs and wants, reviewing a manuscript, creating a detailed list of what is to be accomplished, and providing an estimate for the portions of the design process that the author wants to hire out. Some clients elect to do the entire project themselves.
The book design projects and the discussions and workshops have provided content for my books on self-publishing: Concise Guide to Self-Publishing and It’s Your Book – Create It, Publish It, Market It.
We have access to resources for co-authoring, manuscript transcription, and cover and interior illustration.
We use and recommend Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), an Amazon company.