One of the things I do to feed my family is produce books for other authors and publishers. It doesn’t pay a lot and it take up a lot of time, but I love to be a part of the creative process (which is exactly what I predicted in my original musings: On the Importance of Making Things). I mean, let’s face it, I’ve had a part in creating far more books in the past 6 months than I could possibly write myself in a lifetime.
Unfortunately I have so many people wanting me to lay out their books for them that I’m now at the stage of having to turn away work. My turnaround time for laying out books has lengthened to 4-5 weeks. Clients who have contacted me already are fine because I’ve reserved slots for you. If you were considering employing me to produce your books, then feel free to get in touch to check the latest situation.
One of the clients I’ve worked with over the past few months has been author Jeff Noon and his artist friend, Curtis Leon Fee. A couple of his back catalogue titles have just been published in Kindle editions. They were a lot of work but I’ve very pleased with them, and I think Curtis did such a stunning job on the artwork that I’ve shown off his artwork here. (and just wait till you see the new website he’s creating for Jeff…) If you click on the images, it should take you to a Kindle Store. If you then click on the image in the Amazon sales page you should be able to zoom in to an even more detailed version.
Oh I love Jeff Noon! Excellent stuff.
Thanks, editorval, for your kind comments. I’m chuffed you found some of my posts interesting. You’re right, of course, that I should look again at pricing.
Funnily enough. I have been offered outsourcing, which sounds very familiar to me. Until last year, I was a software guy. I used to run organisations that used coding teams outsourced from Indian subcontractors. I spent about 15 years trying various ways to make this work. Best results were always when we sent techies to India to work with our subcontractors. Not sure my budget would stretch that far
Hi Tim,
Congratulations! Sounds like you need to raise your prices because sometimes turnaround time is as important as the budget. You might lose potential clients but you’ll keep the ones who are willing to pay for your service. Publishing production pros try to get the best price, quality, and schedule, but usually only two of these can be achieved, usually at the expense of the third, and we all know this. Maybe you could make a guideline of your standards and subcontract the work you can’t take on yourself. You can always look the work over on its way back to your client to make sure it meets your standards. You could also then offer loyal customers discounts on work they schedule in advance with you. Just some ideas in gratitude for your informative posts… Keep up the good work!