I have been a freelance publishing consultant and editor for twenty years now, which has included a huge variety of projects, from desk editor for The Oxford Companion to the Garden to production editor in the higher education department at Oxford University Press and from Content Editor for Oxford Scholarship Online for 15 years to editor of the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook for Bloomsbury for ten years. I've also worked on publishing projects for Pearson Education and Summersdale, Cambridge University Press and HMRC. As well as working for big companies, I've also worked for individual writers on and off. One such client came to me last spring, when I picked up a copyediting job for two sales managers on their book, then called, The Transformational Seller.
Later last year a few months after I had copyedited their book, the two sales managers asked me how they should go about publishing it themselves. They explained that they were too busy to do all the work themselves and needed some guidance. I told them that I could help them. I then pitched to them (two of the most experienced sellers in the UK) my offering which included typesetting, cover design, book trailer, marketing assets and support getting their book published as an ebook and in print. There was no hesitation, they said yes. I felt like I was on the winning team on The Apprentice. That was easy, I thought.
It wasn't easy. There were some challenges along the way, but nothing I couldn't handle with my experience as a production editor in an academic environment and my experience getting Hobeck books to print. I worked quite hard over Christmas to get the book ready for early spring and we are now just two weeks from publication. Advance print copies have arrived. I can safely say that the project has been a success, and I thoroughly enjoyed working on it. I feel really rather proud of Transformational Selling as it is now called.
I am sure that my two clients will be asking me to oversea a reprint in the not-too distant future. I can't wait. It is my new 'book baby'.
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