I have not tried to visit her site directly, due to this. But it certainly is happening through trying to visit it any way except for as a cached site when going through Google.

Hope you can get it fixed without too many problems.

Zero advice from me in that area, since I haven’t dealt with this yet. I’ve been focused wholly on self-publishing old backlist (while writing frontlist for my publisher) for the past 18 months (and will still be so focused for several more months). And with backlist, I’m dealing with the MSs that were finished in terms of story-editing and sent to the copy editor in this condition. So now I’m just doing the copy edit (also a new line edit) myself–and the distance of time (years!) means my eye is fresh enough to do the copy edit.

But in terms of editing issues with brand new works that have NOT been edited for story, and wherein I’m too close to the work to do the copy edit? I haven’t dealt with that yet and–given everything else I have to think about NOW–haven’t decided HOW to deal with it at such time in future as I work on something -new- for self-publishing purposes. So I don’t know yet and wouldn’t presume to offer advice. (Except to say that, in my own case, back when I was a new writer, I needed heavy story editing and line editing on my books, and I imagine that most other new writers need such help, too. There are also writers who never stop needing heavy editing, throughout their careers. So I don’t think I’d ever be likely to advise: “Oh, skip it.”)

How about editing? My wife isn’t a famous editor, and good editing seems to be priced at about 2-3 times the cost of a cover (and up). Everyone says you can’t do it yourself, and I don’t have a writing group or alpha reader to speak of.

But …

THANK YOU for clear-cutting the difference between a hobby writer and a professional writer/publisher. Years ago, my mother greatly insulted me by calling me a hobby writer (it actually altered our relationship), and you have just squashed that dreaded bug. I’ll never think of myself like that again.

I want to make a profit. I am a professional writer.

You go, Dean. You’ve made a real difference in my life today.

~ Meg

I knew from the start that I had about 25 backlist books to e-publish in the first year (or so) of my ebook venture. I wanted a business plan plan that would cover my whole 25-book backlist, not just the first 2-3 books and then wait-and-see.

At $100-$300 per cover, that would have been a commitment of $2500-$7500 -just- on covers–without, at the planning stage, having the faintest idea how much this venture would earn. I felt that was too big a sum for me to gamble. So I crossed that solution off my list fairly early in the research/planning process. I also felt that in instances where designers’ prices were low enough that I could afford them, I didn’t think the samples I saw were good enough to merit my spending a total of $600-$1300 for 25 covers. Eventually–and since I had a little prior experience at it–I decided the best solution would be to do my covers myself. This was a considerable =time= investment; but doing -25- covers also ensured I got more skilled at it (and later went back to redo some of the early covers), so the initial time investment amortized, in a sense. And this saved me =thousands= of dollars on my start-up costs.

If, by contrast, I had no backlist–if, say, I was self-publishing one finished book and writing another… I’d probably hunt for someone good at about $150/cover, and lay out $300 for my two book covers that first year, rather than spent (a LOT of) my spare time learning to -create- just 2 bookcovers for myself. I think with so few covers needed for the first year of the venture, the time-or-money ratio would be different from my perspective, and so I’d make a different choice.

I did pay $100 to use an original drawing for the art on one book cover. Although I love the art and love the cover, it’s one of my least-commercial backlist books and lowest earners. I don’t regret getting that art (since I am, overall, well into profit), but it certainly doesn’t demonstrate that spending more makes a difference in sales. I’m also not at ALL sure anyone could pick out, looking at the 18-20 covers I’d posted so far, which one contains a piece of original art I paid $100 to use, rather than iStock art I got very, very cheap.

Currently, there’s one book cover which I’m not satisfied with, and I haven’t been satisfied with any new versions I’ve tried to create. So after the whole first phase of my venture is done (i.e. all 25 backlist books posted), I’m thinking I might take $100-$150 out of my profits and pay a designer to do a new cover. I(Alternately, I’m thinking of writing a sequel to it, and THEN paying a designer to give me a multi-book package deal. So we’ll see.) Because it’s a specific problem (I just can’t come up with something I’m satisfied with) and a LIMITED expense (it’s 1-3 books), and it will come out of PROFITS, I’d spend that much on this scenario. (But I am very thrift, so probably more MORE than $150/cover.)