Today, almost everywhere you go you will meet up with a consultant in one thing or the other. There are email marketing consultants, SEO consultants, and then publishing consultants. When publishing, you need someone to show you the ropes and lead the way to a successful publishing career.
Thanks to the digital publishing era, finding a self-publishing consultant is now much easier than ever before. The ever-growing web-based audience is always on the lookout for new books published. As an author, there is no question whether digital platforms are the way to go, they are already ruling the publishing world.
Before you begin working with a publishing consultant, you must first identify the right company. Because of the pivotal role self-publishing consultants play, failure to pick a good one can make or break your book writing career. The following are the abilities or characteristics you should look for in your publishing consultant.
Ability to Compile Research for Your Audience
Your target audience is the group that matters the most in your publishing endeavor. Your publishing consultant should be able to create an audience profile through data extraction and help you build a business plan around the information gathered. The plan should factor in the content you’re producing, the audience you’re targeting, and the technology requirements. This kind of research will make it easier for you to launch into the right audience the right way.
Capable of Planning Your Content in a Professional Way
As a multi-platform publisher, one of the things you have to understand is how to use content you already have and come up with a book out of that. Your publishing consultant should know every book you have published and how well you can configure your content so that you don’t lose the storyline stringing your books together. This process may involve the creation of an in-depth content plan that examines the themes and specific messages you are relaying to your readers.
Retention of Rights to Published Work
To some people, this may look obvious even though it is a chronic problem. Some publishing consultants may publish your book and then sign exclusive publishing rights to your work in all formats for a good number of years. This contractual clause can cripple you and rob you of your royalties. You should aim to get a self-publishing consultant who will do the job for you as you retain all your rights.
Can Market Your Published Books
Success in any business endeavor, including self-publishing, boils down to marketing. The publishing services company you hire should be able to market your book for you through the different marketing channels available. Having been in the industry for quite some time, My Word! Publishing has established practical marketing tools and principles to help you in getting your book out to market.
To add to the above, your consultant must also be fair regarding pricing. Come to think of it, many books do not enjoy significant sales right from the beginning, and as such you need reasonable pricing for publishing so that you can get a soft landing as you wait for your book sales to pick up.
