Free Man is dedicated to producing the most professional quality book or booklet for the discriminating author-client—whether you have grand ambitions to be a best-seller (and plan to move on to a conventional mass-market publishing firm) or simply wish to produce attractive heirlooms exclusively for friends and family.
The founder of Free Man is an author himself, and will cultivate your work as if it were his own. What follows is a description of the base process.
Free Man Publishing Process
Briefly, Free Man at this early stage consists of the editing, writing, and publishing services of proprietor Brian Wright, so I’ll just use the first person pronoun “I” to describe the actions of Free Man. A client comes to me because he wants help to publish a book.
Base Rate
My base rate to cover any sort of editing, formatting, and publishing preparation services is $25/hour. [My base rate for actual writing—say, a client wants me to create original text or to completely reorganize very poorly structured and written thoughts from notes or similar source—is $50/hour.] Most clients use my services as editor and publisher.
Steps
This is the task sequence for most projects:
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1
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The deliverables of Free Man generally are: | ||
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a
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An account on Createspace for the book project owned by the author and serviced by me; the author owns the account and receives the royalties for the book. | ||
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b
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A book on Createspace Amazon (to which the author retains copyright)—including cover and interior files—with an ISBN and priced according to the author’s wishes. | ||
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c
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An electronic version of the book on Amazon Kindle | ||
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d
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A one-paragraph review by me on the Amazon page for the book. | ||
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e
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All marketing or other publishing services are the author’s responsibility. Createspace has several levels of purchasable marketing services. | ||
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2
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To start the project, the author or client contacts me and we consult on the nature and size of the project he wishes to authorize. There is no charge for the consultation. | ||
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3
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I review the original material submitted by the author and estimate hours and duration of the project. This is a tentative estimate based on the following assumptions: | ||
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a
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The author/client is familiar with the basic word-processing software we’re going to be using (usually Microsoft Word), including tracking functionality for handling edits. | ||
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b
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No substantial new material is going to be incorporated or scope of work expanded. | ||
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c
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The author will not “edit the edits,” that is to state: the author will not (on top of reviewing my edits to his original material) substantially recompose his original material—which introduces considerably more errors and time needed for editing. | ||
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4
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The author agrees to go ahead with the project and sends me the material to get started. | ||
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5
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The author sends the advance fee via PayPal or Solid Trust Pay or other agreed upon online payment service or check or money order. | ||
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a
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For projects that are estimated at less than $500, I require half up front with the remaining half upon completion. | ||
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b
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For longer projects estimated at $500 (20 hours) or more, I require that the project be initiated by a $200 advance. | ||
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6
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Subsequent billing for longer projects is in 20 hour increments, so the first invoice—normally via PayPal or other online provider—will be for $300 ($500 for the 20 hours minus $200 already paid). | ||
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a
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The invoices accompany a submittal of the work in progress to that point. | ||
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b
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Invoices are payable upon receipt and payment is indication that the author feels the work is acceptable to that point, and that the next increment of work is authorized. | ||
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c
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Typically, the ‘work in progress to that point’ is a document showing changes or edits made by me using the word processing Tracking feature. | ||
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i
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The author must promptly respond with approval, rejection, or responses to my editing comments for every increment of work. | ||
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ii
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I will be keeping track of all revisions and changes to the document with copies of the document at all stages. | ||
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iii
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Upon or assurance of payment for the previous increment, I shall proceed with the next increment to make edits and formatting changes, usually in sequence with the paging of the document. | ||
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d
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The submittal of (roughly) 20-hour increments of work will continue, along with the invoices until the interior of the book and the cover of the book are complete. | ||
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7
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I keep a log of hours worked on the project for the duration of the project, which may be requested and I shall provide in case of any questions on performance. | ||
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8
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Communications between the author and myself will be largely via email, and need to be responsive. It is expected the author will have minor revisions and some content, particularly artwork, during the course of the project, and needs to send those promptly. | ||
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a
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I shall keep track of hours and whether any changes have been received that impact the earlier tentative estimate, also whether I encounter particular difficulties in the material that affect the estimate. | ||
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b
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For all projects until they are complete, I have access to the author’s Createspace account, and the author needs to provide approval to Createspace for me to handle any customer service issues. | ||
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c
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When the print copy project is finished and the book is available on Amazon, then I’ll set the book up on Kindle for ebook, if the author so desires. | ||
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9
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Maintenance | ||
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a
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Upon signoff or approval on the deliverables of the project, the author has full copyright and authority over his account and the documents. | ||
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b
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If the author wishes to have Free Man retain access and perform additional changes or maintenance to his account, then the rate for those changes is the same standard rate of $25 per hour, only there will be a minimum charge of $50 to access the account. (If the work exceeds two hours, then the $50 will be applied to pay for the hours of service.) | ||
$50 Special
For a limited time, Free Man is offering a full-published book, exclusive of electronic version, in one week for $50. The conditions are a) the interior file requires no editing or structural reformatting, b) the cover art is provided at least by full description, and c) page count is less than 100. Payment of the $50 must be in advance. [The normal price for a minimalist small book is $100.] Please contact me here if you are interested.