Other Services

On the Solomonic yahoo group, there's a bit of discussion about pamphlet publishing, Lulu, and how occult writers don't want to have to set up book widths, and format their stuff for publishing. They want an editor or publisher to do that for them.

I'm thinking, I do that for a living! I'm a tech writer by day, mad occultist by night. Maybe more people would publish their stuff on Lulu and Amazon's Create Space if they had someone who would do all the final editing and layout of their manuscripts for them.

So, if you've got a manuscript mostly written, but the technical details are beyond your patience or tech savvy, let me know. I'll do proof reading, copy-editing, layout, and formatting for you. All you'll have to do is upload the files and figure out how much you want to charge. I'll even put together a quick reference guide for you that walks you through the process.

Layout and formatting is a flat fee of $150 and includes page numbers, a Table of Contents, Introduction (you write it, I make sure it's on pp. i-whatever, not page 1-whatever), and getting it lined up with whatever online publisher's template you want to use. Note: the publisher you're using must supply a template.

Copy-editing and proof reading is $0.02 per word. This takes a while, and honestly, no editor catches everything that's wrong in a manuscript. There's also no such thing as a final draft, there's only the one you sent to print and then found errors in later. I can make sure the basic grammar rules are followed, and that exceptions to the rules add value rather than make your work look like some kind of pre-schooler got a hold of the keyboard, and that the spelling is consistent (Aethyrs, Aethers, Ethers, and so forth). This gets you a readable book.

So for a manuscript of 60,000 words, the whole package would come to $1,400. For a pamphlet of 10,000 words, a complete package would cost $400. It's the copy-editing and proof reading that cost the most, and it's strictly optional.

If you have it "ready enough" and you just want it laid out and formatted to the specs of the print on demand place, it's a simple $150 fee. You tell me how big you want your book to be, and I'll go from there.

Note: If you pick a cover template offered by the site, I'll make sure it's formatted right too. I don't do all that graphic manipulation stuff though. It has to be a template.

Maybe someday I'll start a micro-publishing house that only goes through Amazon's CreateSpace. Or something.