Ya know, writing is so much more than writing.
This revelation hit me like a ton of bricks the day after I finished the first novel. Editing, re-writing, writing query letters, writing synopses, pitching, attending conferences, editing some more, proofreading, promotion, editing even more, researching options on publishing, choosing an option, and finally wrangling what you’ve written into a format that your chosen option will accept with the most ease – if you’re not tired reading this sentence, I want to hire you to be my shadow.
After four days of careful inspection of my manuscript, where I probably still missed some glaring errors, and where I still don’t get why some things came out italicized when they weren’t on my Word document, and why some purposely italicized phrases on my Word document didn’t come out that way, I finally closed the book on my proof and sent the corrections back to Book Baby.
This is the point where I wish code, computers, and conversions would be magically impregnated in my brain during my sleep and I would wake up tomorrow infused with the kind of technical knowledge I need to make my travel from written word to e-book-ready word a skip down the garden path.
One thing I can say about Book Baby, they are helpful beyond words. I even received an email from the CEO. You know me, it’s all about customer service.
That’s not to say I’d use them again. For one thing, and it might be a long shot, maybe someday I can learn the Smashwords conversion. (I might have to be dropped on my head first.) But more importantly, the Internet is constantly changing. I can’t tell you how many start up similar businesses (to Book Baby) that I met while at the San Francisco Writers Conference. The indie book business is booming (more on that later), and with the boom comes the requisite people trying to fill a gap in the niche. Book Baby has been great so far, but what about all the up and comers?
Like it is with any purchase, if you decide to go this way, check out the company’s track record. Remember, you get what you pay for, so scrimping on this service is not a good idea. And most important: Customer Service. I have capitalized this because 1. you are the customer, paying for a service, and that service had better be stellar, and 2. you’ll appreciate it in the end.
Now that Virtually Yours is virtually put to rest, it’s time to work on the sequel. 51K words so far, but it’s a mess. See you in a few.
