Sally Stuart on the responsibility of self-publishing

The vision behind BelieversPress is to provide the tools to help Christians publish books that are equivalent to those of royalty publishers.

From the award winning designers (who also design for large royalty publishers) to printing by Bethany Press (who prints about 30% of the best-selling Christian paperbacks*), to experienced editors (who edit books for major authors) — everything at BelieversPress is designed to help you publish the best possible book.

I ran across this quote from the Advanced Christian Writer column by Sally Stuart (author of the Christian Writers’ Market Guide) that sums it up well:

In the past, I have talked about the change of attitude toward self-published or print-on-demand books within the Christian publishing industry … While it is true
these options are making it possible for more writers to get their books published, that opportunity also brings with it a responsibility to maintain an appropriate level of
professionalism.

Although the stigma attached to self-published books is blurring, it is still true that in order for such a book to get equal attention it must also maintain the highest quality of workmanship. For that reason, you must make every effort to produce a product that is equivalent to a royalty-published book.

Doing so means you must pay someone to design an appropriate cover; use quality paper and a reputable printer; and especially pay a well-qualified editor to do a thorough, line-by-line editing of the manuscript. To take shortcuts in any of these areas will lessen your chances of being noticed—and your book bought—once you get to the marketplace.

Ultimately it may also mean that you need to take a realistic look at your project and determine first if you have enough experience and credits to justify producing a book at this point—and then to be sure there is a place and need for it in the market at this time.

* Based on the ECPA best-seller list

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Nick Ciske

Nick Ciske is the co-founder of Believers Press and has been developing web sites in various capacities for over ten years. After a five year stint at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association he ended up at Bethany Press International. Now a book geek, he helps Christians publish their books by creating new publishing solutions and partnerships.

Posted in Design, Editorial, Printing, Uncategorized

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