Welcome to AUTHOR SERVICES
HOURLY SERVICES
Through the years I’ve tried many ways of working with authors, always “work for hire,” meaning I work for what you pay me, and do not share in your royalties and rights. You keep 100 percent of those, and you are in complete control of your book. This is a great advantage self-published authors enjoy, and many have made the leap from a traditional contract to being self-published for greater control over pricing, updates, distribution, data gathered from marketing, and so much more.
I offered comprehensive packages for a long time, from $5,000 to $20,000. (Compare to a traditional ghostwriter where rates sometimes start at $40,000.) The problem was (for me) when we ran over the prescribed package (and “change orders” are hard to suggest) or when a project went so smoothly an author’s money might have even been, well, wasted.
What I do today and have been doing a long time very successfully (for both parties) is simple:
You Made the Whole Process Super Easy
It’s been huge, and the coaches that I coach . . . the one who initially shoved me into putting this all together, he now wants to make sure when he has a new group of coaches that they have the book. Very exciting. Super excited. . . I looked forward every single time we got together to get another chapter or two out of my head and into a recording that could be transcribed and edited. . . I loved doing them. It was really awesome to have you as an audience and funny—I felt it was easy to put the book together. . . you made the whole process super easy to me.
As MUCH or as LITTLE as YOU NEED
- I offer a FREE 20-MINUTE INTRO CALL. (Please, ALWAYS meet whomever you are considering working with on a special and important often extended project like a book LIVE before hiring!)
- Based on that, I put together an estimate of hours (a range) and look at my availability for starting.
- If we agree, I send an initial invoice of either 5 or 10 hours to get us started.
Projects LARGE and SMALL
This has worked beautifully for all involved. My time is protected (I am therefore always happy to work) and I think it’s even better for clients. One recent children’s book project, where I used to have a $2,500 package, only cost the author-client $500 for assembling his materials, creating files, registering his ISBNs, and publishing with IngramSpark.
On larger projects, many simply prefer to regulate their costs as we go (the estimate includes a timeline) and with some we set a weekly limit on hours. And we find what fits for you. Easy peasy.
Truly Cares
I have had the privilege of working along side many professionals and mentors throughout my business journey and I must say that working with Rodney as my book editor and designer has been one of the highlights for me. Rodney is not only brilliant at his craft, he is an incredible human being who gives from the heart and truly cares deeply for his clients and their positive outcome. In fact, he feels more like a friend after the many conversations we’ve shared and I feel grateful that our paths crossed. As you can see, I’m a big fan and I’ve no doubt I’m not the only one that feels this way about you Rodney!
Thank you so very much.
HOW I WORK
I then work in “sessions,” usually of one to three hours. I keep a log of hours, noted to the minute (not rounded up as lawyers do), and for almost every session:
- I write a quick summary of what stage or tasks we’re on.
- Create a check-listed work plan for that session.
- Execute the plan, checking off tasks and making notes both to myself and for you.
- Share the results (usually an updated file), as well as my hours log and work notes, and explain next steps and anything I need form you.
Lovely. In fact I’m so happy with how I now work the next book I’ll be writing (and podcast) will be to help freelancers get rolling. Many more of us can live our dreams.
(I often also share screenshots when helpful, and even tried sharing a video of a work session, sped up of course, but it was overkill.)
SERVICES
For the expert services I offer please see the BEST PRACTICES page. I do not charge for anything I do not feel I am expert with, nor for time spent on anything other than your project, of course (such as research or verification or gathering of things needed to do my job).
PAYMENT
With hourly billing there is no need for contracts (but on larger projects I am happy to provide one if requested). I simply invoice for blocks of either 5 or 10 hours at a time, and accept USD in cash, personal checks (starting work once received and cleared), gold and silver (seriously), bitcoin, Zelle, foreign currencies (via WISE), and credit and debit cards with Square or Stripe. I will not be accepting CBDC. Methods for payment of any of the above (such as Zelle) are ready and simple, easy, and have been safe to use.
In my previous post, The Future Of Self-Publishing, I mentioned that the infrastructure needed to create a robust and healthy self-publishing industry is slowly developing. One key aspect is author services, but what are they and why should you care?
Any self-published author knows just how much hard work goes in to preparing a book for publication and how many new skills authors need to develop if they are going to truly do everything themselves. From story analysis and development to cover design to typesetting, publishing and marketing, there’s a vast range of skills that the true DIYer needs to develop. But what if it turns out that you’re rubbish at cover design? Or that you can’t get the distance you need from your story to do proper analysis and development? Or if you find ebook formatting too confusing and esoteric?
This is where author services come in.
Suw Charman-Anderson, Contributor
An Introduction To Author Services, Part 1
Forbes.com, June 21, 2013