NOTE: The best place to find editors, proofreaders, cover designers, and more is to look at the copyright page or acknowledgments of your favorite self-published books in your genre!
And again, I highly recommend reading The Naked Truth About Self Publishing by The Indie Voice *Currently a FREE ebook on B&N and Kobo here. I can no longer find it on Amazon. You can order a used copy of the 1st edition from places like Amazon and Abebooks.*
Join a Facebook Group:
- I was floundering around on Youtube and Twitter for a year when I started writing. While I still highly recommend YouTube for learning, I had no idea how to connect to my writing community, find editors, cover designers, and people I needed in the self-publishing world. Facebook groups really are the place to start in my opinion. Just search or ask your questions. Be cautious and use good judgement verifying information for yourself. Everyone has an opinion or answer, and that doesn't mean it has to be right answer for you.
You also want people and groups around you who align with you and who have a positive mindset. You don't want to be in negative spaces. You will walk away feeling drained. Use these groups wisely, and remember your writing time comes first before Facebook groups. (I say to myself. Lol) And also remember you don't have to follow what's trending and what everyone else is doing. Trust your gut at the end of the day.
Writing & Publishing FB Groups:
My Must Join FB Groups:
Millionaire Author Mastermind -The best mindset group! Everything I've seen has been really positive and uplifting here. I love what Lee has created with this loving and supportive community! Great for seasoned authors, but welcomes newbies too.
Alessandra Torre Inkers -Not as active as the first two, but Alessandra is a trusted source! I can ask any question here as well and someone will be there to answer.
20BooksTo50K - It's a huge pool with lots of opinions so take them with a grain of salt. It is a great group to use as a search engine though for publishing and marketing questions to start learning!
Secondary or Specific Needs FB Groups:
If you don't see what you're looking for on my list, I'm sure there is a specific FB group out there that fits your needs and genre. Just search with those keys words like "Mystery Writers" and something will come up and you can find the right fit for you!
Book Cover FB Groups:
- Remember to always verify if a cover designer uses GenAI or not. (I support human artists, and will not buy a cover made with GenAI.) Look through their portfolio and look and see if they are recommended a lot in groups you are in by searching their name. Make sure you are getting a trustworthy professional designer.
- You can get a top notch premade cover. Some for less than $100. Especially if there is sale. Watch for premade cover sales as designers do them often. I have gotten fantastic premade covers for $50 on sale. You do not have to spend hundreds or thousands on a custom cover with models. But if you have the money and want to do it, go for it! I will list the photographer groups below as well.
Premade Covers & Designers:
PLEASE NOTE: I have not used all of these designers. These are ones that have been recommended to me. I only hope this list gets you started in your search. Do your own research! This is just some I picked whose groups I’m in. You'll find hundreds.
Note: Mine will be mostly romance specific because that is what I write. There are groups for any kind of cover. Just search your genre + premade covers on FB. I can personally recommend Amanda Walker. She’s absolutely fantastic and professional!
Photographers FB Groups for Custom Photographs:
Book Formatting:
- I believe that formatting is the one author service every author should not hire out. It is super easy to learn, and then you have the power to go in and update your file's backmatter and editing changes at any time instead of waiting on a formatter and then paying them every single time you need a minor update.
You can format for free on
Amazon (Kindle Create) Ingram Spark or
Reedsy.
D2D now has a $20 one time activation fee for new accounts, making it still a great budget friendly place to format. I'm sure there are other free programs out there I haven't found yet as well. (
Note: Kindle Create only works for books uploaded to Amazon. If you are going wide, you can't use it for everything. ) I recommend buying a program if you can.
Use Vellum (Mac only) or
Atticus (PC & Mac). There are youtube videos to walk you through the programs, but they are super easy and do most of the work for you.
I am a Vellum user and absolutely love it and highly recommend this program to everyone. Vellum does an annual Black Friday sale every year and it's the only time you can get it at a discount. That's what I did, so if you can wait till November, buy it then. If you don't have a Macbook, consider buying a used Macbook that's several years old on trusted sites like Back Market. It's worth it for this program!
This of course can exclude formatting for a special edition or something where you need to get really fancy. By all means, hire that out if you are not able to do this on your own. But for your standard paperbacks and ebooks, you need simple formatting for readability. There's a reason we print books on plain cream paper with black font. It's easiest to read!
FB Help Groups:
Goodreads Help Group:
-Need a cover switched out? Is your book listed twice? This group will get you sorted.
Watch a YouTube Video:
- I can't tell you how many hours I spent watching youtube videos when I first started writing. It's a great place to start, with tons of information out there. Type in your writing or publishing question and there will be a video to answer it. Below are a few of my favorite channels. Shout out to Alexa Donne who was my first to watch, and taught me everything when I started writing. She's a good one to watch on Trad Pub too. It's good to know both markets even if you self publish.
Alexa Donne And if you do want to learn more about the traditional publishing route check out her website here for more information. And along with that check out Susan Dennard's free resourses here.
Lindsay Puckett
Becca Syme
Jenna Moreci
Abbie Emmons
Kindlpreneur
Take a Free Class, Read a Blog Post, or Listen to a Podcast:
- I can't tell you how much I've gotten out of free guides and free classes. And all the free content in articles, blogs, podcasts, books, and more. There is gold in these things. If you see one that interests you, click or sign up! I highly recommend being on Alessandra Torre's Ink
email list as they will notify you when free classes are coming up and she sends out good tips in the newsletter! I personally love to buy and read books vs. taking courses, but pick whatever method works for you!
The amazing thing is, there are no gatekeepers to self-publishing. The information is out there and you just have to search for it. Below are several different resources you can check out.
Alessandra Torre Ink - Trusted advice, education, and resourses on every topic from plotting to publishing. (Some Free/Some Paid) Alessandra also runs InkersCon which is a fantastic yearly authors conference.
Becca Syme- All of her content! (Some Free/Some Paid) from her books, youtube videos, and more to help you with clarity on the author journey, avoid burnout, and figure out what works best for you as a writer.
Book Blurb Magic Free Guide -Good for writing your blurb!
Written Word Media has an article for everything under the sun and I've found them helpful. Here's a link to my favorite one on Marketing.
Reedsy has all kinds of great learning resources. It also has a marketplace to find freelancers like editors and proofreaders. It even has Reedsy Studio where you can write your books for free.
Bryan Cohen does a $9 fourteen day challenge on Amazon Ads!
David Gaughran has tons of free resources on how to self publish! His book Let’s Talk Digital has it all.
Listen to a podcast like The SPA Girls
The Creative Penn - Joanna Penn has a ton of free learning resources as well. And a podcast!
KDP University - Amazon has all the learning and tools you need on their Kindle Direct Publishing Website.
Golden Angel’s “Just the Tip” videos for authors on TikTok are fantastic bite sized pieces of information that are so helpful. Also, here is her blog post on craft books she recommends.
Sierra Simone’s personal resource recommendations and tools from her website.
Kandi Steiner did a fantastic IG video series called Wrangling The Writer. I highly recommend it along with her blog post here. And this one on character depth.
Editors & Proofreaders:
- When searching for an editor, start in the FB groups. Search "editor recommendations" in them. Find the ones recommended over and over again. Look at the copyright pages of your favorite self-published books as well. Check out their website, pricing, and read over a few chapters of the last few books they edited to make sure they read well. Get a sample edit. If an editor won't do a sample edit for you, red flag. Move on. You will have a professional working relationship with this person. The sample edit will help you see if you are a good fit or not. Get samples from several different editors and choose from there. Also, ask if their service includes 2 passes through your manuscript.
From Alessandra Torre on Pricing:
“How to know an editor is reasonable: Get 3-4 quotes from different editors.
Pricing: PREFACE: If you do not have funds to pay these amounts, do not stress. If you cannot afford an editor, that’s fine. You will one day.
Developmental Editor: $600-$2000 (Most expensive because they are diving into your plot and characters and how your story is told. They may say “Hey your story is really slow in the beginning, can you cut this?” or “Your MC is super unlikable, we need to fix that. Chapter 14 doesn’t make sense with the rest of the book.” This is a special skill set. If you feel like the issue is the building blocks of your story, this is an editor you might want to consider.
Copy Editor: $400-$900 (Work on individual sentences.) Ex. “This dialogue is really clunky here.”
Proofreading: $100-$400 (advanced spell checker. Fixes commas. Typos.)
The reason these editors prices have a big range is because they are going to charge based on your book's word count. It is X per 1,000 words. Also, it depends on if you are getting an experienced editor, or a newer editor who has only been in the business a few years and growing clientele. When you reach out to editors they need to know your word count, and make sure they like your genre, read it, and love that genre. Know the norms for your genre and what readers are looking for.
If editors quote you widely outside of the prices listed about and unless they are working with wildly successful authors like Stephen King or something, it’s a red flag and they are probably over charging.”
PLEASE NOTE: I have not used all of these editors. These are ones that have been recommended to me. I only hope this list gets you started in your search. Do your own research!
LGBTQ+ Books Friendly or Prefered: (Not that the others above aren't.)
Self Edits:
-be careful not to let a program like this change your voice and style. Use it for commas and typos. Things like that.
ISBNs: (USA)
-You want to buy your ISBNs if you are able to. You want to own your book, and be able to accurately track sales.
Copyright: (USA)
-While filing for a copyright isn't required, It is helpful to have if your book gets taken down from Amazon for being pirated. And now with AI theft, it was necessary to have to file a claim in the Anthropic settlement. It costs $45 to copyright your book and you can do that
here.
For Delivering ARCs or Bonus Content:
- This is the service you will use when sending out advanced reader copies.
-To get ARC Sign Ups, create a
free google form and share about it. If you want to spend money, you can work with a PR Team.
Here's a sample of
my ARC Form, but you can customize this to you. Every author does it different.
PR Companies Recommended To Me, But I haven't Used Yet:
Piracy Protection:
-especially needed if your book is in Kindle Unlimited
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