From Author to Indie Publishing Company

A short  blog on my business.

Some of the questions I am continually asked is – How & Why did you become a Publisher? Why didn’t you stick it out as an Author. (I am still an Author.)

I have no idea who knows what rules on Amazon and other similar websites, so the first part out-of-the-way is – Did you know authors who live in a country without an Amazon site don’t get paid out straight away. (28th each month)  This means in the four years I have been an author, I have yet to be paid.  Amazon won’t pay out until you reach the $100 threshold or equivalent in each country you sell in aka  USA, UK and Europe and Australia. As you can well imagine from this comment, I don’t sell many books at all. There again I don’t overly market them either.  On Smashwords it is $50 and as yet I have no idea for Draft to Digital.

This is part of the reason I became a Publisher.

In May of 2014 I had published several of my own books.  I was asked by a gentleman to format and teach him how to publish as well.  From there I formed my own company on 31st July 2014.  Since this time, I’ve been making connections, working with clients, and building my foundations for a better future.

The other Why is because, like most authors we dislike having our work rejected and the exceedingly long waits to find out, along with the emails which don’t even give you a hint of the reason why.  Needless to say, I learnt a lot about what is expected from an author so they can submit a draft book.

How it is set out. How to do a query letter, a long synopsis etc.  It was hard work, though I won in the end, well within reason. I didnt’ realise at the time, I was building on my formatting I have been doing for years as a Family History Researcher.  Though a huge learning curve, most became second nature with in months.

Helping others was ingrained into me from my childhood.  I don’t remember a time when I didn’t assist others, it didn’t matter who they were – friend or foe, if I was needed, I helped.  

Today I am building on my life experiences and delivering  services to Indie Authors.  I love chatting and keeping my clients happy, correcting issues which arise or advise on how to work though an issue.  I also love to learn with my clients, the extended knowledge is amazing. How people are reactive or proactive to different scenarios in life. Maybe it’s time to write my memoir…LOL.  

Social media has taught me a lot as well.  Articles at your fingertips, investigations to delve into and research for books or clients.  How to use it for marketing to improve their chances for success – I am useless at promoting myself, I have no idea why.  I do know what I should be doing.

This year I am taking a class in ‘Small Business Enterprise,’ – Diploma. I have recently graduated my certificate in ‘Small Business Management,’ and need to utilise these skills.  A year ago I also obtained my Certificate for Rotorua X Incubate program, a short compact Business Course which I found useful, though a bit ahead of what I needed at that time.  I was literally at the start of my Publishing Career where as other businesses who participated has been in business a lot longer and therefore, further ahead.

Meanwhile back to Publishing, I could do with some Business Interviews!