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If you want something
done right, do it yourself
By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com
If you want something done right, do it yourself.
That seems to be the advice that many aspiring authors are heeding these
days as self-publishing and work with Internet publishing companies is
expanding rapidly.
Dr. Eddra Marchand and her husband, Norbert, formed MZV publishing to
get her debut novel, “Balancing Acts,” in the hands of readers.
It was a long and arduous process for Marchand and her husband, but one
Marchand felt was absolutely necessary.
“People send 50,000 books to New York for publishing consideration
each week and only 50,000 books are published a year,” Marchand explained.
“By forming our own publishing company, I was able to be in control
of what I created.”
Marchand’s work schedule gave her Fridays off, but once she got into
the world of publishing, Fridays were often busier than any day she spent
as an internist. She found some local college students who were able to
create the cover for the book and the logo for the publishing company.
Marchand and her husband then taught themselves how to typeset using Pagemaker,
found some people to help do editing of the work itself and found Bookmasters,
a printing company, on the Internet who would print the books at a reasonable
price.
“It was a long process overall, especially to make it quality, but
it was worth it,” said Marchand. “Especially when the truck
dropped off the finished product.”
While most authors don’t go out and form their own publishing company,
there are lots of companies on the Internet now that will take your work
and publish it, for a price. One Google search for publishing will turn
up thousands of companies each with different deals and styles. It is
a buyer’s market though and with some selective shopping, one may
find a perfect match.
The key though, especially for Marchand, was to determine early on how
much they would spend on the publishing venture. Both she and her husband
knew the risks involved but knew that they would need to take risks in
order to advance. While the book’s release is still in its infancy
stage, the results are in. Marchand has the finished product in hand and
the knowledge that it can be done.
For more information on MZV Publishing, visit www.mzvpublishing.com.
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