Hot diggety dog, my first novel is coming out by the end of this month. Terror’s Identity is Aidan Knox/Brent Walker’s story of how and why he had to move from upscale Lake Forest, IL, to solidly blue collar Dundalk, MD. The terrorists his father is tracking have threatened the family. Brent struggles to remember the lies he needs to tell to keep him and his family safe. And he worries about whom he can trust. It’s hard enough to be a sixteen year old boy, without having to worry about life-threatening issues.
I am not promoting a particular independent publisher, but rather giving those of you considering being “do-it-yourselfers” some information about the process.
Having lost many friends and 2 of my 3 siblings since 2013, I decided earlier this year to not wait around for a trade publisher to recognize what a gem my book is. But I didn’t want to submit to just any old “self publisher.” Though, of course, I have every intention of living a healthy and productive life for at least another 25 years, until I’m 99, there’s no guarantee I won’t be hit by a truck or struck by lightning before then.
With the help of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators’ http://WWW.scbwi.org enlightening information found in “The Book” about the dos and donts of self or independent publishing companies, I went with a North Carolina company located in Greensboro. I also checked on the “Preditors and Editors” website, http://pred-ed.com to see if there were any negative comments. There were none for the company I used, http://WWW.sablebooks.org , though there were some for http://WWW.Sablebooks.com.
The quality of other books published by my publisher impressed me. Plus I heard Daniel Krawiec speak at a conference in 2013. He was very informative. They bring some of their authors’ books to sell when they go to conferences, which also gave me the warm and fuzzies.
First I hired Teresa Crumpton to do a cover to cover detailed edit of my manuscript and boy was that worth the money. http://www.teresacrumpton.com/ She was very encouraging, but very thorough, giving me many things to do to improve the manuscript. She recommended my reading Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham. A great help and certainly something I will use with my other books.
Several months later, I finished Teresa’s edit and had all my critique groups add their $.02 worth. Then I contacted Sable Books and had Melissa Hassard do a line edit of the book. She did a fine job. So now Daniel Krawiec has shown me the initial draft of the interior of my book, including the map I asked him to draw. He also did a wonderful job with the cover—making it mysterious and poignant.
This book is going to sparkle so brightly you’ll need sunglasses to read it. Sable Books is also helping with the marketing and will store books for me so I don’t have boxes of books molding in our garage. They will make up bookmarks and cards for me. They also let me decide the size of the book run.
There are many non-traditional publishers out there, but do make sure you research whatever company you choose. The last thing you need is a company that charges lots of money for poor workmanship.
Sable Books is affordable and dedicated.
Hope this blog helps. Be sure to contact me, if you have questions you think I can answer or to order my book. WWW.sarahsbookreflections.com
Sarah Maury Swan, author of Terror’s Identity.
sarahsbookreflections 