Why should you invest in a publishing agency?
If you are decided to self-publish your book but you’re torn between whether you should do everything on your own or simply work with a publishing agency, then here are 5 benefits you need to know why investing in a publishing agency would actually be the wisest decision you can make for your book journey.
When you decide to self-publish your book, you have 2 routes in front of you. You can either do everything yourself, and by that I mean, designing the cover yourself, editing your book, formatting, and all the other hundreds of tasks that are involved in the publishing process. Yes, all these work by yourself. Or you can work with a book publishing agency that can do all of these for you.
If your book is based on your business, that is, you’re not writing a poetry book or a children’s book, rather it’s an actual book based on your business, so that you can use it as a tool to amplify your message, attract your target clients, and grow your business, you should be working with a publishing agency.
I’ll tell you 5 ways where a publishing agency can make a big, big difference.
Professional Touch
When you work with a publishing agency that has had experience working with hundreds of authors, whose team is truly world-class, then they will be sure that your cover will look fantastic and the editing is top-notch. The publishing agency will take care of all the basics and other than that, they will also look at the small minute details like the font size you should be using for your Copyright page, which photo would look better for your author bio, and which dimension, 5×8 or 6×9, would be best for the type of book you’ll be writing. Those are the small little additional professional touches that a publishing agency will be able to give you.
Avoid the overwhelm
The second benefit of working with an agency is that you can avoid the “overwhelm”. Now, let’s assume that you have to do all these by yourself. You will then have to at least work with 10 different people, constantly coordinate with teams to make sure that information sent back and forth is understood. And these are just some of the stressful processes you will have to go through before you can confidently go ahead and publish your book. I have done this for my book, Job Escape Plan, several years ago and, no, I would never do this again!
With an agency to work with, they will be able to remove the overwhelm for you by having a team execute your ideas and do the dirty job for you. You will be assigned about one or two people who will be your point of contact throughout the whole publication. We at Happy Self Publishing call these project managers an Author Success Manager. Our Author Success Managers work with you to coordinate the timelines, schedule, deliverables, and everything else needed to ensure that your book project goes along smoothly.
Sticking to timelines
The third benefit is sticking to timelines.
If you were to do everything on your own, then obviously, you will not be that accountable to yourself. I have seen authors who keep postponing their book launch date for months and even years because they’re not able to get all their book projects done in time. But when you work with an agency, you will also be on your toes because you know that next week by this time, you need to send back your feedback on the second draft or about an edit. With an agency, you will have to work through deadlines and follow a schedule so that way your project will move faster. Your team will constantly remind you about a specific but crucial task that you need to do and submit according to schedule. If you’re working with a good agency, they will tell you exactly what are the different milestones to be met and what are the timelines for which we need to hit these milestones. That way you can plan your exact book launch date and be able to reverse engineer the whole process from there.
Sticking to deadlines is another huge benefit of working with an agency.
Access to the network they have
The fourth benefit of working with an agency is the access to the network they have. These are certain advantages which I never knew we had. But while working with clients and hearing their feedback after we finish their book or while interviewing them on our show, it dawned on me that working with an agency can be a huge advantage especially in terms of access to the network.
So let me tell you what this network means. Let’s say your book is going to be published in the next few weeks and you’re planning to do promotions around it. Now a huge part of this promotion and the bestseller launch is the list of promotional websites that you will be submitting your books to. Many authors know these websites, therefore, they’re highly competitive. It’s highly impossible to get a slot on the date that you want. But when you work with an agency that has good relationships with all these promotional websites, there is a very high chance that your promotion will go smoothly. You might even get to promote your book on the days you want.
Now, this is just one example. Let’s talk about podcast interviews. If you want to go on a bunch of different shows and you’re doing this for the first time, there will be a high chance of getting a no for an answer. But when you go through an agency, you are going to be booked on better podcasts and you will have more shows booked for you.
So the network within the industry can play a huge role in getting your book to the right people at the right time. And an agency should be able to do this in a much better way as compared to doing it yourself.
Ensure that your book is connected to your business
The fifth benefit of working with an agency, especially with an agency like Happy Self Publishing is this: we ensure that your book is connected to your business.
A lot of traditional publishing companies will look at your book as a book. So for them, when you approach them, yours is just any book project. They may do a fantastic job with your book and publish it but they may not have the business acumen to connect your book with your business. That’s what sets us apart from a traditional publishing company.
For us, it’s your business first and your book next! We understand that most of our clients come to us to promote their business through their books. So at every stage of your book publishing process, I and my team will make sure that you are in the right direction in terms of promoting your business. Are you choosing the right topic that will speak to your target client? Will this cover be attractive enough for your target client? Is the lead magnet that you’re placing inside your book the right one to attract the right clients for your business? At every stage, we will be looking at your book project as an important tool to grow your business. And when you publish a book that is going to indirectly help you grow your business, your ROI can be much bigger.
So those are some of the advantages of working with an agency.
The first benefit is that you will have that professional touch, everything will look world-class.
The second benefit is you’re not going to feel the “overwhelm” because of the team that will support you through and through.
The third benefit is that you will be sticking to your timelines, thus publishing your book on time.
The fourth benefit is that you’re going to have access to the network that your agency has access to.
And finally, if your agency is somebody who has experience in publishing business books, then they will make sure that your book is connected to your business.
I believe those are 5 fantastic reasons why you should be working with an agency rather than trying to do everything on your own.
If you would like to speak to a member of my team or one of our Publishing Consultants, then make sure you go to www.happyselfpublishing.com and schedule a free book strategy call.
If you’re at the very early stages of your book project, then I would encourage you to join our Facebook group where I conduct a live Bootcamp. Head over to www.happyselfpublishing.com/tribe and be a part of our Facebook group!
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube Channel and our podcast via iTunes.
Happy Authoring!
