Hi @Michael_Garber,
I’ve been offline for awhile and just now seeing this thread. My sister and I co-wrote and published a trilogy of fiction books set in Atlantis. You can look them up on Amazon or other online booksellers. The “Golden Age Series” by DD Adair. http://https//www.amazon.com/DD-Adair/e/B07JLS5YF5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1577475305&sr=8-1
We are also fixing to publish a nonfiction book based on the Professional Surrogate QH Sessions that we have done this year. We have two more fiction series planned, currently researching and plotting them. We did set up a publishing company because we have so many books in the making and yes, someday we hope to publish a few books for other authors too. But we’ve got a lot to learn still…
Here is what we do for cover design/formatting, and other self-publishing tips.
Interior formatting for all e-book reader types, and for print, we do ourselves using “Vellum” software. It is wonderful if you have the time, patience, and artistic inclination.
Professional Book Cover; We found our Canadian cover designer for the Atlantis books through 99designs.com. The price is reasonable and basically you run a “contest”, so you get designs from several dozen designers. When you pick the final winner, they get paid for the design. One tip on that; take the time to look at design submissions for projects or subjects similar to yours and then invite the artists of designs that you like, to submit something to your contest.
Of course, professional editing. We have someone local, so I don’t have recommendations on how to find one.
Before professional editing (and after we’ve done about 15 rounds of edits, each round having a different focus), we use “Beta Readers”. These are people who are willing to read your manuscript (fairly quickly) and give you honest feedback on it. We look for people (friends, acquaintances, other writers) who read a lot, are interested in your topic or genre, and won’t just say nice things. People who are in service to making the book better. A minimum of 3, but 6 or 9 is super helpful. We had a list of 20 possibles, because about a third or half will follow through in a timely manner. Beta Readers slow the whole process down, but are very important to making your book more enjoyable for everyone. Most new authors won’t use beta readers because it feels scary to ask for raw, honest feedback. But its way better than publishing a book that gets more negative reviews than positive. So, as we’ve learned—and say to each other often—be willing to improve the weaknesses in your book and be willing to “kill your darlings”. Be willing to let go of words, phrases, ideas, storylines, writing habits, etc. that you are very attached to, but that detract from your book. This will happen. You’ll get used to having any confusing or annoying (to the reader) writing habits pointed out and you’ll become a much better author for it.
Amazon is great for e-book and print book publishing. KDP is easy to use. If you decide to offer your ebooks via other online booksellers too, I suggest using Draft2Digital. You can upload it once and publish to all the other online platforms.
Feel free to pm me with questions. Great job on your accomplishment and best of luck!
