Ep 119: Self-Publishing with Elizabeth Wilson—ARC readers, final edits, book extras

This week, Elizabeth Wilson sits down with her developmental editor, Allison Lau, to reflect on her self-publishing journey. These are often the steps you don’t see every day from writers.  Elizabeth decided she wanted more control over the publishing process so she could get her memoir in the hands of readers faster. You’ll hear about how Elizabeth decided on her ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) readers and getting over the hurdle of asking them to read her book.

Elizabeth shares about taking on the role of project manager for her memoir as she decided to hire out the tasks that would’ve taken her a lot longer to complete. She decided it was better to do this than struggle a lot on her way to publishing her memoir. She sought the support she needed to get her book ready for readers by her launch date in June, and it was worth every bit of the investment. 

If you’re curious about what it takes to get your book to print as a self-published author, this is an episode you don’t want to miss. It’s a candid, behind-the-scenes look at decisions Elizabeth made as she prepares to unbox the delivery from IngramSpark when she arrives at her new home. 

 Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. If you've ever felt the pull to write your truth, to shape the chaos of real life into something meaningful and to share your journey with the world, you're in the right place. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie, writers, coaches, and entrepreneurs who believe in you and know how important it is to find a writing community to guide you on your path to self-publishing.

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Transcript

Elizabeth 0:02

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Inspired Writer Collective Podcast. I am normally your host, Elizabeth, but this is a special series that we're doing in June. These are mini episodes to give you a behind-the-scenes look of what it's like to be a first-time self-publishing indie author in the weeks leading up to publication. So my debut memoir, Lonely Girl, is publishing on June 22nd. we are going to provide you with a behind-the-scenes look at what's been going on, what kind of tasks I've been doing, what the emotional roller coaster has looked like, things I'm dreading, things I'm excited about. Any and all of that. Who knows? But today, I am joined by our guest host, Allison Lau, who knows this book so intimately because she was my line and copy editor. She helped me cut 7,000 words from the manuscript during her line edits, um, which really helped tighten up that prose and, of course, keeps costs down as far as printing and things like that as well. So she is going to be the one asking the questions today. This is just gonna be a mini episode. But I hope that you'll return each Monday in June as I walk through this process with you and, and share some of this behind-the-scenes information. Um, yeah. So welcome, and then we'll kick it off to Allison. Hello. Thank you for joining me today.

Allison Lau 1:25

Thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be your host for this first episode in this series. Um, but let's just dive right in. This book is phenomenal. I am so lucky to have been part of it, and I think that the time period at which I got to be a part of this book and to read this book and then really dive into it with you was kind of right before you really launched this book wide to a lot of readers, to a lot of new sets of eyes. So when you and I were last working together, I did a line and copy edit, passed it back to you, you incorporated all those edits, and then the book went off to formatting. What else were you doing right around that time as you were working through the pre-pub stages?

Elizabeth 2:10

So there was, it was kind of juggling two different hats per se, right? Because I was wrapping up the end of the edits with the book, and so what that looked like for me is I, you know, I went through after you gave me your feedback, and I did a pass through it, pretty much approving most of the things that you had suggested, um, shoring up any kind of inconsistencies that you had highlighted, making all those final decisions. then I had to send it off to proofreaders. So I had two friends who had volunteered as proofreaders for me, I sent the book off to them, and I then also did another partial read of the manuscript that I had just read through for the line and copy edit. So I will say it was a bit surprising to me how many times I had to read this book. but I sent it off to them, and I gave them two-ish weeks to get that proofreading done. Also, while they had that, was working on finding and recruiting my ARC readers because I knew that I had my proofreading done, I would be sending it off to formatting, and as soon as formatting was complete, I would be sending that off to ARC readers. So back in my emails. I started sending emails, um, asking ARC readers to be a part of my team on April 10th. So that was still, that was a while ago, right? I was advised by Hannah, who was my author coach through this process, to get those kind of secured a couple weeks ahead of when I actually have the ARC ready. And so I'd already been following a number of these people on Instagram and things like that, especially those that had platforms. I sent out an email, of my regular Tuesday emails to The Inspired Writer Collective, email list, seeing if any of them were interested in being ARC readers. So I was basically compiling all of those people that I thought would be a good fit for the book ahead of that April 10th timeline, and then at that point is when I s- you know, put out the actual invitation. I created an info sheet that included, the themes and the book blurb and the cover image and what I felt like were comparable titles. Like, if you enjoy reading this, you're probably gonna enjoy this book. And so all of that got started rolling April 10th. I think I got the, like, proofreading back within a couple of weeks. One of my proofreaders was done in a week, which was amazing. And then I did another partial read of it after I got all the changes back from my proofreaders and put in the changes to the manuscript to send off to my formatter. and I'm actually forgetting the order. So she formatted the version I sent her after you and I were done. And so then they were proofreading the formatted version so we could catch any kind of formatting issues as well.

Allison Lau 5:17

Project. Project

Elizabeth 5:20

in there. They

Allison Lau 5:22

Wow

Elizabeth 5:22

back to me mid-April, and made those changes really quickly to send off to Carolina, who did my formatting and cover design. And then I think everything was pretty much I, I sent out that ARC, um, the PDF version of that ARC to my readers on May 1st. So

Allison Lau 5:46

So

Elizabeth 5:46

of that was happening in April

Allison Lau 5:49

How many ARC readers did you send it out to?

Elizabeth 5:53

I have 19 ARC readers plus I will use my beta readers as additional, reviewers once it's posted live because they've also read the book in full. Um, I think I reached out to something like 25, so that's a, a large majority. Um, some of those have smaller platforms, some of them have slightly larger platforms. I don't think anyone has, like, numbers, but, you know, maybe, like, 10,000, followers or things like that in that realm.

Allison Lau 6:30

What did that feel like, like handing your book off to 19 people? I mean, you know these people, but still this is like the largest audience that's read this book at this point

Elizabeth 6:40

Yeah, most of them I don't know, like hardly at all. You know, like I'd followed them and like watched how they did reviews, and I liked their style and, and had looked at their profiles to know that they enjoyed memoir. Um, especially, I almost exclusively sought out women because my book deals with a lot of themes of, of motherhood and women in the workplace and, and all of that. But it, it's definitely scary, and it was scary doing the asking. Like I,

Allison Lau 7:07

Yeah.

Elizabeth 7:07

Really felt like it was I had to overcome a lot of my reservations of like, "Oh, I'm asking them to read this book and do a review for me. Like, are they, you know, this feels like a big ask." Um, but I forced myself to do it anyways, and I found myself surprised every time I would get a response of, "Oh, I'd love to read it. That's, uh, this sounds amazing." And I've I- in the process over these last couple of weeks, I've started to get little bits of messages or comments on some of my posts from some of the ARC readers that are like, "I'm enjoying the book so far." Um, most of them will probably wait until like closer to release day to actually start reading. It's a really quick read. Most people have read it in just two or three days. Um, so I imagine most of them are kind of waiting closer to time so that they can give like a really fresh review. It is exciting to see and start getting that feedback that people are really like enjoying it and resonating with it. And I, I just can't wait to get this book out there. I'm so excited.

Allison Lau 8:09

What, so what else is kind of in the back of your mind? Because I feel like you've, you've done all the work. Are you, are you just chilling, twiddling your fingers waiting for this book to come out? Or what else is happening in the background?

Elizabeth 8:23

I was definitely fretting. I think most of, uh, all of my, what I call my imaginary worries, you know, have been resolved. I was really nervous about the upload process to both IngramSpark and Amazon. I, I'm a part of a couple of different Facebook author groups, and I just see stuff all the time about, people getting errors they don't know how to resolve and their book covers not working. And, I had hired a professional to do a lot of this for me to help mitigate some of that, and I also had Hannah, as my author coach, like, screen share with me as I walked through the process 'cause there's so many little micro decisions you have to make in that moment of, like, how do you want this book distributed? How do you... Do you want them to destroy it if you don't want it back or, you know, if they return it? Or how, what kind of wholesale discounts are you offering? Are you gonna do, like, KDP Select or are you gonna not? And, and then I had also seen issues that people had between the order that they upload and approve between Amazon and IngramSpark, and how even if you have your own ISBN, sometimes it'll say, "Oh, your ISBN's already being used by the other one." And it's a special sort of system, and I was really fretting what that was gonna look like. there was one hiccup with my cover on the Amazon platform. Um, but luckily Carolina and I were able to really quickly resolve that between some emails back and forth and making some adjustments. So there's some slight differences to the barcode area of the back cover on the Amazon version versus the IngramSpark version. Um, but ultimately those fears did not come to fruition in any sort of major way, but I also had a lot of support around it because I was really nervous about just doing the wrong thing and getting stuck in this, like, especially IngramSpark. It, I see that a lot of people put in, like, help tickets and wait for weeks and weeks and before they get any kind of response. And with all of it kind of hanging on, like, having a launch day and needing to get the books uploaded so then you can get them printed. And then the other recent worry I had was I've seen so many posts about IngramSpark's printing being super delayed, um, and shipping as well. And so, people were saying it was taking, like, a month and a half just to get their author copy.

Allison Lau 10:44

Well,

Elizabeth 10:45

And so

Allison Lau 10:47

it's all good

Elizabeth 10:48

about that because I have a live event scheduled.

Allison Lau 10:51

Yes

Elizabeth 10:52

like, tell all my pre-sale, pre-order people, like, "Sorry, the books are delayed in printing," and they wouldn't, you know, they'd probably be okay with that. Um, I was really nervous because I've booked an event space. I have, like, money invested in the actual event of the book launch locally. And so I was really nervous about getting the books on time.

Allison Lau 11:16

Completely change the whole vibe.

Elizabeth 11:17

just... Yeah,

Allison Lau 11:19

If you show up at a book event with no books,

Elizabeth 11:21

be

Allison Lau 11:21

you know

Elizabeth 11:21

nothing, to host. Um, I decided to forgo doing a single author copy. You know, I'd done, I'd seen all the previews. I checked everything. Everything on the digital, you know, screen was looking good. And I just went ahead and ordered my first 150 copies.

Allison Lau 11:40

Well

Elizabeth 11:41

and luckily, like, maybe because it's a bulk order versus individual orders that may be getting

Allison Lau 11:46

Okay.

Elizabeth 11:47

but I had no issues outside of the standard, know, allow five to 10 days for printing, allow five to 10 days for shipping. So they... The books are actually supposed to arrive tomorrow my new address. So as far as sitting back and twiddling my thumbs, what that has looked like in this interim is packing up my entire life, um, because I'm moving in state but a couple hours away. And of this whole, like, shipping delay, I was paranoid about, like, where do I send the books? Like, I don't wanna send them here, and then I have to drive three hours to go get them. Um, and so I had them shipped to the new address, and they're supposed to get there tomorrow. We won't be there till Monday, but I'll have the, our landlords hopefully move the books inside for me because I don't want $1,000 worth of books sitting on the front porch.

Allison Lau 12:41

Oh my gosh.

Elizabeth 12:42

yeah.

Allison Lau 12:42

Well, what a beautiful thing that the first item in your new space is going to be your book. I actually think that's kind of beautiful

Elizabeth 12:51

I didn't even think about that. Oh, I love that. Yeah

Allison Lau 12:55

you're gonna walk in and just a whole bunch of your books. It's gonna be beautiful. What a,

Elizabeth 12:59

I know.

Allison Lau 12:59

icing on the cake

Elizabeth 13:01

to not open them until I record week's, um, for this because I would love to do like a live opening and stuff. So

Allison Lau 13:13

Do it

Elizabeth 13:13

try to resist the urge until I can do it, but I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how long I can resist.

Allison Lau 13:22

I love that. It, it's such a wild process that you've been through, and that this last bit, I feel like no one really talks about it. They talk so much about the ideation stage, the drafting stage, the editing stage, all the craft and the thought that goes into putting so much of yourself into a book that kind of what happens after? What is all the fiddly stuff of IngramSpark and Amazon, and I

Elizabeth 13:47

Yeah

Allison Lau 13:47

do you need to get author copies? Do you not? Like, all of these little decision points, I think it's really valuable to kind of give people a look behind the door because it really, you don't know about it until you try to do it, and it's intimidating. It's a completely different skill than writing a book.

Elizabeth 14:02

I mean, I really do feel like I'm a project manager of this, you know? Like, I, yes, I've hired out a lot of my, help. Some indie authors choose to do all of the cover design themselves, all the formatting themselves. knew with my life, like, that was not a skill set that I could learn quickly enough to master do. Um, so I chose to hire out for it. But I, I was really surprised at how much work had to go into, like, not even these last couple of weeks, like April and May were intense. I mean, I was working with Carolina on some marketing aspects, so we designed a sticker that's gonna go out with all of the pre-sales. I had to figure out the wording for the bookmark that's gonna go out with the pre-sales, and then I also have a freebie that's sort of like a teaser that goes with the book, that is the chapter list the Spotify song list, playlist soundtrack for the book. So I was doing, like, all of that as... You know, every time I would pass, say, like, the book off to you for line and copy edits, I was working on that Spotify playlist, or the proofreaders had the book, Carolina and I were working on sticker design or bookmark design and out where to get those printed. I had to design a whole logo for press that I'm publishing under, right? Like,

Allison Lau 15:28

Yeah, I'm,

Elizabeth 15:28

an LLC. That was in... I think I started, I opened the bank account and got the LLC in January, and then soon after that, I wanna say like February, as late as March, I hired someone to create the logo for it. So, like, it's crazy how much you have to do, like, ahead of time if you don't wanna be behind the eight ball on some of this

Allison Lau 15:56

Absolutely. It, it's I like that. Project management is really what it is. You kinda shift it into this, like, final push of getting it out the door

Elizabeth 16:04

Mm-hmm.

Allison Lau 16:05

and getting all the, all your ducks in a row

Elizabeth 16:08

Well, and then you think the book's written,

Allison Lau 16:09

Jacci

Elizabeth 16:11

and the about the author and the book blurb. Oh my gosh. Allison, you can talk about this 'cause I was just like, you've read the book more times or at least as many times as I have." Like, I had such a struggle, and I know so many authors

Allison Lau 16:27

It's so hard

Elizabeth 16:29

I mean, I've written this, 107,000 word manuscript, 250 pages long in print, you know? And it's like how in the world do I consolidate this into like, like 200 words?

Allison Lau 16:42

It's brutal.

Elizabeth 16:42

me?

Allison Lau 16:43

It's, it's brutal. And to do it in a way that, like, still makes your story sing and makes people wanna pick it up, like we are, we're creatives. We write books for a reason. If we were good at blurbs, we'd be in a different industry. And so it's,

Elizabeth 16:55

Right

Allison Lau 16:56

so hard. I know. I remember when I got your blurb, I was like, "Cool. This is not, it's not incorrect, it's just We can make this a lot more exciting, and, uh, probably shorter too." And it ended up that it still needed to be cut down even more, I think, which is just crazy. You have so little space on the back of that book that it's, it's wild making that blurb fit

Elizabeth 17:18

Mm-hmm.

Allison Lau 17:20

Oh

Elizabeth 17:20

Yeah, exactly. been, it's been a wild ride up to this point, and I'm sure there are things that'll happen, you know, as I keep the ball rolling. Of course, like, the move happens this week, this weekend. then once I get my new space set up, I've got a number of podcast guest spots that I'm recording for. it'll really be a lot of promotion and marketing in June

Allison Lau 17:46

So exciting. I'm excited too to see kind of what that process looks like and what all you have planned

Elizabeth 17:51

Yeah. Well, thank

Allison Lau 17:53

Amazing

Elizabeth 17:54

for being here with me today. Thanks for chatting with me about all of this and being just such a pivotal part of this,

Allison Lau 18:00

Oh, my absolute pleasure. It is such a cool thing to be a part of, and thank you for having me back as a host

Elizabeth 18:07

Awesome. All right, listeners, I'll be back each week doing one of these mini episodes so you can ride along with me as I talk about all the things. Uh, maybe next week we'll talk about pre-sale stats and, and what that is looking like from a numbers perspective. So yeah, tune in every Monday this month to get these updates