Posts filed under 'freelancing'
July 24th, 2010
I’ve read a lot on blogs and Twitter recently about the question of whether self-publishing is just another name for “vanity publishing.” A little deeper is a discussion on Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer blog, “Top 10 Worst Self-Publishing Mistakes—Explained!” A lively conversation, it takes in the “Does self- equal vanity- question.” But, with an avalanche of comments, it also gets much farther. Issues such as marketing, getting reviews, and one of my favorite subjects—the use of typefaces—are raised.
Early on I offered my prescription for success as a self-publishing author:
1. Write well about something people want to read about
I suppose I missed a chance to agree with those who put marketing research as their starting point. Admittedly, I have a bias against blind marketing and what I like to call “the selling of selling.” But the truth is, one can choose to write about a subject that has a large natural audience or is particularly of the moment. I’m momentarily finishing up work on just such a subject, about the Alaskan oil pipeline.
2. Engage an editor and, perhaps, a copy editor to make sure you’ve gotten it down and gotten it right
I know many authors are loathe to entrust their babies to another caretaker, but often after spending so much “close time” with a piece of one’s own writing, perspective is lost and the author could really benefit from another pair of eyes and a professional’s “take” on the subject and presentation.
3. Contract professional, freelance book design and page comp to give your book the best chance to attract potential readers
As a freelance book designer, I, of course, remain very big on this step. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: amateur-looking design hurts the sale of a self-published book, which already has a formidable hurdle to get over, if it is to find an audience and sell more than the typical 100 or so copies most self-published books manage to sell.
The first thing potential readers see is the cover. The cover needs to invite prospects to pick up the book, at which point they should become interested in what that cover suggests is inside. Then, when they open the book, the interior design needs to connect with the cover, sort of fulfilling the promise of the look the cover puts forth. The writing, the substance of the book, should then take over, grabbing interest of readers who are led through the lines and pages of the book by the work of the interior designer.
That’s my half of the equation. Then, too, at least from the point where the book’s writing is complete, perhaps sooner, the self-publishing author should formulate a plan for reaching the people most likely to be readers of his or her book.
Following these steps and my little coda on marketing is at least a feasible plan to getting above and beyond the 100-copies sales plateau.
July 1st, 2010
From this blog, that is.
I have five books in progress as I write this. Tuesday I completed the first pass, over 600 pages, of a nurse practitioner’s textbook. After that I zoomed into correx—the corrections and author’s changes—for a 1,000+ page novel, which I had begun while working on, and alternated with, the nurse practitioner’s textbook. Somewhere along the way I also knocked out correx on the latest chapter of a physicist’s memoir containing transliterated Sanskrit.
Most recently, like an hour ago, I sent off a second pass with author’s changes and some corrections on a book about the Alaskan pipeline. This one is particularly timely, what with the off-shore oil-drilling disaster in the Gulf still raging.
All that means tomorrow I dive into making pages for the student guide Taking Charge. I finished the design template for this book in March, if memory serves, so it will be good to see how the book finally goes down.
And those are the reasons why this blog has been on hiatus for a good five or so weeks. It’s not like I simply had no time to blog—which I most certainly did not—but not a single idea to blog about sprouted while I was so consumed with making books. (I hope to stay that busy throughout the remainder of the year.)
But one thing that keeps snaring my attention is an ongoing discussion on LinkedIn, I think, titled something like, “Does Anyone Else Wish Self-Publishing Would Go Away?” It turns out that the person who started the discussion did so expressly to get a controversial and, therefore, long-lasting exchange going. She succeeded.
Truthfully, however, it needs to be made clear for those who may not know: Self-publishing is no longer automatically synonymous with “vanity publishing.” I say that not because three of the five books I mentioned above are to be self-published by their authors, although they are my proof that self-publishing can be legitimate and self-published books can be works worthy of publication.
I have only walked away from potential projects for reasons other than that the fee offered three times in about 20 years. Both times these were to be self-published books on subjects that I found either objectionable or not helpful to my reputation. As much as I think everyone has the right to try to find an audience, I also have the right to not help ideas I do not support into the light.
That all said, Vive la self-publishing!
April 18th, 2010
I enjoyed the initial design and layout of my first medical novel. Although only the first pass is complete, with corrections and changes sure to come, the best part of the creative bump is likely over. I had begun two other books while working on that novel. And I fielded other inquiries in a typical “feast” portion of the feast-or-famine freelancer’s way.
One of the other possible projects was a 500-page scifi novel. This was another potentially interesting project, though I cannot imagine it would have had as many different text elements as the medical novel. But that has led me to thinking in a different, if not new, direction: eBooks.
I’ve already gone on some about how my first exercises with the epub and mobi formats left me underwhelmed. But those, it occurred to me, don’t even scratch the surface of what a proper eBook might be. Naturally, it took the iPad—no, I have not purchased one yet, as I’m waiting for second generation, which, at the least, I expect to include a video camera—to get me thinking about the extended possibilities of eBooks.
By “extended,” I picture the ability, while reading, say, a science fiction novel about time travel, to link to material about what physics says about the possibility of traveling through time. I am not sure whether I want multimedia to be part of the material one can access, as it could distract from the reading and might make a book into more of a movie experience over time. But I also like the idea of having other material available to move on to for more information when the reader’s imagination is piqued.
As it happened, this science fiction novel didn’t happen for me. I could not agree on a price with the prospective client. I understood perfectly the financial constraints he found himself bound by, but I could not bring the project in for what he could spend. And, interestingly, that price included the cost of proofreading. I wonder whether, whatever the price, it is a good idea for the same one pair of eyes to handle the typesetting and proofreading?
March 21st, 2010
I believe I’ve said and written it before: I like working on two books at once. They each provide breaks from the other, thus keeping me fresh and the work seeming new—or newer than it would otherwise seem.
Having worked this way a few times in the past, I know it is rare for two books to keep the same pace; but this only adds to that sense of variety that prevents me from falling into a rut. Right now, however, I have three books in production, albeit one of the three just barely. All three are interior page design and layout jobs.
The first is a novel. Short of a textbook, it is one of the most elaborate books that I have ever worked on. It is filled with many different kinds of narrative: basic text, as well as letters, articles, and certain unique pieces of copy.
The second book is a memoir. Written by a retired physicist from India who has lived and worked in U.S. a number of years, it is also meant as a serious aid to preserving the Sanskrit language. This book is less about many different kinds of design elements, the way the first book is, and more with the proper use of diacritics and the typesetting of transliterated characters.
And the third book is a lot more like many of the books I have worked on over the years. It is a new edition of a book that was set in a fairly straightforward manner the first time around. The idea is to produce more attractive pages, while maintaining the usability as the student guide that it is.
Predictably, each has a different kind of schedule. The novel and all its materials are in-house. I have taken up the basic design, laying out the first part of this lengthy work. I await the client’s feedbackbefore plunging into the whole layout. With the Indian memoir, I have gotten only as far as acclimating myself to he transliterated characters and diacritic. As of this writing, I received the finalized first chapter to begin setting type. As for the third book, I await approval of the design and all materials.
And so it will be a matter of working on what I have in-house at any time. Right now, the novel is most ready for production. But as each client sends me more material, I will work on portions of each. The one organizational rule I will maintain is to try to always have a significant page of pages in the hands of each client, so that we are all in some state of doing. And that is how I will complete three books in roughly the same time.
March 14th, 2010
A while back I read something called The Cohen-Miller Report: The 6 Core Attributes That Make a Team “Click”. The thinking impressed me, how it distilled the traits necessary to prepare a creative team for success. The way Emily Cohen expressed it,
While there are many important aspects that influence a great team … six core attributes … are particularly important when you have right and left brain personalities working together:
- cheerleader
- industry activist
- tech guru
- emotional quarterback
- enforcer
- political navigator
This model is interesting when each trait is looked at as a personality type in a well-rounded group, but does it have a place when thinking about a one-man band, so to speak, a one-person book design practice such as I run?
No surprise, else why would I write this, but I answer the above question with a resounding, “Yes!”
My inner cheerleader, if you will, lights the spark for each project and task I take on, whether it is beginning work on a book—where it is particularly easy for me to light the proverbial fire, as I simply never et tired of the feeling of starting new and actually get excite like it is the first time, over and over again—or jump-starting my engine for another round of promotion and finding work.
The industry activist in me is also a natural facet of my personality, as I enjoy reading about book design and typography, and hearing how my fellow practitioners go about plying the book design trade. As a one-man band, I find it generally impossible to make time to attend industry events, although there are one or two that I always keep an eye out for to see if my schedule can somehow allow me to participate. As it is, I make an effort to make time to get hold of book, articles, blogs, and forums on the subject of making books.
Tech guru is less a title for me than “technology junkie.” I rarely see a new version or possible upgrade to my tools, hardware and software, that I don’t automatically want. It happens that I work on Apple’s Macintosh platform and a trip to the Apple Store, at any time, is like a trip to the toy store before Christmas. The same can be said for looking at the mail-order catalogs for Macintosh-compatible peripherals and software. But in addition to the fun of it, there is no doubting the necessity of staying abreast of the latest trends and developments for doing what I do at top quality and most efficiently.
My emotional quarterback keeps me focused on each job I am contracted for. When a client presents unexpected demands or a job challenges that I did not foresee, this is the part of my personality puzzle that keeps my eye on whatever task I need to perform. It is no small wonder to have the Internet to allow me to sit in place in my studio and research, contact the client or fellow book designers, and collect the world of information that makes it possible to meet such demands and challenges.
Enforcer may sound a little sinister, but there needs to be a bottom line trigger that always remembers for all the love of creativity, I am something of a mercenary. Have gun will travel, and all that. Sometimes choices just need to be made. Occasionally they are tough, even harsh, or simply ones I wish I didn’t have to make. Yesterday I turned down an interesting-looking project with a prestigious client. Without this “enforcer trait” I just might have taken on one project too many at this time and jeopardized my ability to do any of them well.
The political navigator exists exclusively in my universe for dealing with clients, prospective and actual. I need to be able to listen to them, sometimes ferreting out their meaning and what they want to accomplish. I also need to speak to them in a way that demonstrates I understand their needs, can express this in a way that lets them know I do, and not express in an “expert’s way” that puts them off.
See, sometimes there is an “I” in T-E-A-M.
January 4th, 2010
I am not a fan of going off-topic when blogging. I think I keep to it fairly often—book design and page layout, that is—although I don’t blog as often, in general, as I would like. But I also head off into the topic of working as a freelancer fairly regularly. And one of the things I have written about in this space is my goals for the year ahead.
It seems reasonable, then, to take a look back to the goals I set for 2009, because setting goals is only half the story. The other half, of course, is whether those goals are met. So here we go …
To stay as busy as I am currently. To surpass that, in fact, and work on a minimum of 18 paying projects this year.
I worked on 9 paying projects last year, exactly half the number I had wanted. The economy certainly influenced that, although I always wonder whether there is a new kind of client I can seek out or some new way to reach potential clients. To this point I have successfully used twice-yearly email to potential clients and one or two promotional postcards during the year.
As well, over the last two years I have worked with an increasing number of self-publishing authors. This may be the new wave, self-publishing, as it loses the stigma of being called, snidely, vanity publishing. I have even read that some established, best-selling authors are expected to veer into self-publishing to earn a greater share of the proceeds and keep greater control over the design and production of their books.
To surpass 2008’s income by 25%.
In a word: nuh-uh. In fact, not surprisingly, I was actually down. But my earnings decreased by less than 20%, which I consider a small victory, given how badly the economy did as a whole.
To blog a minimum of once weekly from this point on.
Another goal not quite met. But, as much as I want to continue to offer my readers regular and timely looks into the freelance life, I am less concerned with quantity when it comes to blogging than with having something real to say. I still hope to write here regularly, at least once a week, about book design and production, as well as freelancing.
I also started a page on Facebook for answering questions on the nuts and bolts of book design and oroduction.
To somehow make the time to put a real dent in my design-related reading list, which now numbers 7 books to read or finish reading.
This one, and then some, was accomplished. I also found myself reading about social medial, with an eye toward its place in the freelancer’s promotional arsenal. I admit, however, to finding it alarming that a lot of books are written by people about self-publishing, who’s only experience with it is their book(s) about self-publishing. Likewise, as rewarding as I find social media—both in terms of creating new opportunities to find book design projects and to share what I know about making books—I am concerned with how much of what is written concerns itself with pure marketing or, as I call it, the marketing of marketing.
To have my website/blog redesigned, and maybe coordinate my Twitter profile with them.
This was accomplished with flying colors. In this 24/7 world a web presence, I think, is more important than I would ever have thought even just a few short years ago. Between a site, email, and videoconferencing, time and distance are simply not barriers any longer to expanding one’s reach around the world.
To make an investment in some new, original fonts from smaller foundries and individual designers.
Planned purchases are most often the area that surprises disrupt. What I mean to say is that replacing both a long-defunct laptop, as well as a suddenly dead desktop machine, in the same year strains the budget. That’s the kind of unexpected to expect in any small business. Unplanned and unintended needs always crop up. When they are larger purchases and the income stream is slower than expected, however, and still you survive and thrive, the prospects for prosperity when the economic climate stabilizes or improves rise markedly. So I am happy to have gotten my “tool needs” out of the way for awhile.
Come up with 7 more goals.
Never a problem. Last year’s have not gone out of style. And so I aim to work more than ever, which is no burden since I still love making books and communicating with people about the subject. Learning more about what masters of book design have to say on the subject is just as exciting to me as it was ten or fifteen years ago, too, So as long as those interests are in place, I expect to continue to expand my book design and layout practice.
January 1st, 2010
Happy New Year and like that! Here are the top twelve things I learned in 2009 that I thought to include on a list so named.
#12 I always thought a laptop was not “necessary equipment” for me, until I replaced my dead PowerBook with a 17-inch MacBook Pro.
#11 I believed that I did not want an all-in-one, that I needed a tower, that a PowerMac and not an iMac was my work solution—until my G5 PowerMac died and the quickest (read: affordably solution was an iMac).
#10 I was convinced that I wanted a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display and that a two-monitor solution was too geeky for me, until I set up the 24-inch iMac, disposed of the defunct G5 PowerMac, and decided it didn’t make sense to sell the 23-inch Cinema Display I had used with the G5 tower.
#9 Even though a desk may accommodate my two monitor solution and I am not a big, conscious watcher of television, it will occasionally drive me up a wall that the second monitor—the 23-inch Cinema Display on the left side of my desk—blocks my view of the kitchen television from my desk in my home-studio off the kitchen.
#8 I believed I had no use for an iPod until I was gifted one for my birthday in October, after remarking that I wanted one because—using the free TruPhone app and VoIP—the latest iPod Touch would function as a free iPhone.
#7 I thought the free iPhone thing was why I wanted an iPod Touch, until I began listening to music while I ran and especially when I used the stationary bike in paace of running outdoors in the cold.
#6 I was convinced that music and Twitter were more important reasons I need my iPod Touch the same way my wife and I need our cars, until I realized I somehow changed a password to one of my three email accounts, the non-business but all-encompassing, original one with the cable company that is my ISP.
#5 I never dreamed how Mac geeky my wife could become until the iMac of her own that I got her around April of 2008 opened the door to her becoming a serious photographer who now works in Photoshop, exhibits in shows, became a member of PEN Women, and—essentially—became at least every bit (maybe more so) the artist that I am.
#4 I once again mistakenly assumed that I could reach a place in my freelance career doing book design and layout where promoting myself and actively seeking paying projects would cease to be all-important.
#3 I always figured that an external backup hard drive would prove my ultimately unnecessary fallback, working as part of my superstitious nature had proven what seems like a million times, by being an unnecessary expense since it guaranteed the opposite of what I prepared for, since my flash drive and CD backups provided enough protection until 2009.
#2 A serious downturn in the economy, the resulting contraction of businesses—especially publishers—would crush my efforts to become a serious and (okay, marginally) famous book designer.
#1 You have be somebody for the effort required to hack your website, blog, and Twitter identity to be worth the effort to some piece of shit (if you will kindly excuse my use of the scatological vernacular.
December 29th, 2009
2009 brought the stutter-stepping economy into my book design practice. It also heralded the first knocks on publishing as an industry that I forced myself to take seriously. Publishers cut production and advances both. Gloom and doom regarding the future of the printed book became commonplace. I whined about the demise of the book as we know it in my own blogging, as well as in comments on other blogs and forums. (I was also told by other designers that I needed to get a grip.)
Now that the year is almost all over, and summing it all up, I see that my fears were not totally misplaced. As I alluded to above, at one point Houghton Mifflin ceased accepting new manuscripts. That had me holding my breath, waiting for a cascade of other publishers going over the edge.
As it turned out, it seems that for all the downsizing and other negative vibes, my year did not turn out badly. Oh, I grossed a little less than last year and a lot less than I would have liked, but given the way the economy sank, a little less than last year was not so bad at all. Fewer employees in publishing probably meant more work for freelancers.
The question is, What’s coming in 2010?
December 13th, 2009
Noodling around for something to read and inspire this morning, I came upon artist Alison Dunlop’s blog wandering thoughts and images from the studio and, in particular, her piece “my studio waits ‘patient’-ly.” In it Ms. Dunlop speaks of her nervousness before putting down her tools—and, in fact, leaving them set up and ready to be used upon her return—and heading off for some undisclosed surgical procedure.
I admit to feeling a chill as I relate to that all-too-natural fear about when/if a hospital stay ends successfully and how soon one can return to productive work. But the other thing I was reminded of is the difference between working freelance for hire and simply creating one’s own work on one’s own whims and inspiration.
I feel the advantage of hiring myself out to clients and being presented with specific “problem” I must go on to solve all the time that I work on book design and layouts. It is only when I find myself in between projects, wondering when the next book will arrive or even where I will find that new project that the disadvantage of working for others shows itself.
Contrast that with working completely on one’s own and for oneself. The freedom in that arrangement is obvious. But, of course, with freedom comes inherent issues; the first being one of inspiration. As I suggested earlier, working freelance for a client means the client presents problems all the material and I must make it work. That eliminates the greatest issue of all: a totally blank canvas. On the other hand, it presents a totally blank canvas that the artist must fill.
The only other concern about working without a net, as I like to think of soloing for oneself, is whether and how one can earn a living at it.
Choose carefully which way you will work.
December 7th, 2009
I sometimes think that I lead kind of a remarkable life. But then it occurs to me that it likely seems remarkable only to me.
This line of thought popped into my head again this morning, a little after 6 a.m., as I was running. No denials now, I am 56 years old. I was running with my iPod Touch clipped to the middle layer of sweatshirts I wear when it’s around freezing, AC/DC blaring “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” through my earbuds, and I was considering what I might do to pick up my next book design and layout project.
Just a couple of days ago I had begun one of my twice-yearly efforts to email every publisher in the current year’s Writer’s Market with an inquiry about their potential need for a freelance book designer/typesetter and links to sample of my work. And I about decided to follow up with a promotional postcard after New Year’s.
And gradually I began to feel better. See, lately it’s bothered me that my voice has changed. Oh, I never mustered the nerve to sing publicly, but I should have. I was always able to go note-for-note singing along with Lou Christie on “Lightning Strikes” or “Two Faces Have I,” as well as Lou Gramm on “Urgent” or “Long, Long Way from Home.” Then, a few months ago, I could no longer hit the notes I used to. Mind you, this is just singing along with the car radio or the iPod. Still, it was a bit of a reminder that everything changes.
Then Saturday I sent off what are likely the last corrections on my 62nd book project. Now, I realize that considering these were all done in addition to my full-time, 9-to-5 civil service job, that’s not too shabby a body of book design and/or layout work. But it also means I’ve only average about four books yearly since 1993. That doesn’t make me feel so accomplished. So another year draws to a close and I begin my marketing season, waiting for number 63 to arrive. That’s the interior page textfiles; I sent off the cover almost three months ago, so the client could get it in their new catalog.
The truest thing I was ever told by an experienced freelancer when I started out was a reply posted to a query of mine on the old Freelancers Online forum. Expect to spend fully half your time lining up paying work—as a beginner for sure, and from time to time afterwards, as the economy or just the publishing season ebbs and flows.
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