When to Decide to Outsource During the Publishing Process
Knowing what you can do alone and what needs outsourced can mean the difference in quality and your budget
During the publication process, several portions need major decisions made.
When it comes to publishing, quality is everything. From the design of the cover to the precision of the editing, from the craft of your book’s description to the strategy behind its marketing, each element plays a crucial role. Achieving perfection is no simple feat; it’s a journey that involves several meticulous steps, each one essential in elevating your work to its highest standard.
Now, what needs deciding is which of these parts you can do yourself, and which ones you should be outsourcing.
Let’s break down the pros and cons of outsourcing and doing it yourself:
Editing
First and foremost, editing is something that we ourselves cannot do alone.
When we edit our own work, our minds often auto-correct as we read, making it challenging to spot the mistakes that a fresh set of eyes would catch. This is why editing requires a collaborative effort — while you can tackle some of it on your own, it’s crucial to enlist others to help identify what you might overlook.
So how can we apply both to this portion?
Self-edit as many times as you can as well as use a grammatical aid like Grammarly to help you along the way. Next, enlist some people to be your alpha readers, who read your first or second draft and will provide grammar feedback. And lastly, hire a professional editor to help you get anything that wasn’t caught.
This is how you ensure a quality product and use all the resources you have at your disposal.
Book Cover
Believe it or not, readers do judge books by their cover.
Your book cover is the first impression readers get, and you want it to be a memorable one. Crafting a great cover involves more than just aesthetics; it’s about carefully considering key stylistic elements to ensure your book stands out.
Font
Color scheme
Image placements
When considering if you should create it on your own or outsource, consider a few things.
If you are willing to create it on your own, are you ready to:
Create several covers and test them on readers to gather feedback
Learn elements of graphic design to get better at designing a great cover
Research other book covers in your genre to see what is working well and what isn’t
Invest in software of some kind to help you arrange your book cover and format it to size
If you want to outsource your book cover, are you ready to:
Spend money to make it happen
Research book cover designers to see what their work is like
Prepare comp covers to show your cover designer so they know the style you’re looking for
Knowing how many changes you can ask for without spending a ton of money
Book Description
Writing a book description for the back cover and your book’s selling page can be tricky to accomplish.
The essentials of crafting a compelling book description are to start with a hook, reveal the stakes, and conclude with a statement that leaves readers eager to dive into your book. Yet, knowing when it’s just right can be a challenge.
If you choose to tackle this on your own, be sure to test your book description with both readers who are familiar with your book and those who are not. Feedback from both groups will help you craft a description that intrigues potential readers and entices them to learn more.
If you want to outsource, you can find writers to write it for you but know that you may pay hundreds to have them write a few short paragraphs. Look over their reviews and see examples of their previous work.
Marketing
Marketing is by far the toughest portion of this whole process.
This is because it involves knowing:
Trending keywords in your genre
Having promotional images and text that make the readers want to know more
Spending the right amount of money that keeps people clicking on your ads as well doesn’t drain your budget
If you manage to do this, then you are well on your way.
Now, if you want to do this on your own, there are tons of resources out there in the form of books and seasoned authors who are willing to teach you. In addition to this, you have the ability to run your marketing content by other people before you begin a marketing campaign to see how it is beforehand.
Once you learn how to do it, test out your marketing content, and assess how it did, then you can easily get better at it.
But if you want to outsource this, be aware that it can get costly quickly. Many advertising services can run from the hundreds to the thousands because many companies and freelancers know that this is a needed service but not a skill everyone has.
And if you decide to outsource for this portion, know that don’t want to pay significantly more than you are going to earn back in book sales from the services provided.
Knowing when to do it yourself and when to outsource portions of your book’s publishing process can feel like a lot to handle.
But know that once you sit down and evaluate your skills and your budget, you can come up with a plan.