Sometimes, we need professional assistance with our work to ensure that our book is market-ready.

Writing and publishing a book is no minor feat. It requires many hours of research, writing drafts, and editing. The publishing part is no easy task as well.

In the old days, writers and authors submit their works to publishing houses and suffer rejection. These days, you can self-publish, but even that is not a walk in the park. Then, there’s book marketing.

Promoting your book requires energy, ideas, and resources. Given all these tasks, authors need all the help they can get. And sometimes, the best option is to seek professional assistance. Here are five essential third-party book services that you need to ensure your masterpiece goes a long way.

Book Cover Design

They always say that we should not judge the book by its covers. However, it does not hurt to put up a good first impression, and book covers are a great way to attract readers, especially if you are still trying to make a name for yourself. Titles and book covers are crucial decisions for they are the first things you will sell to your audience. Name recall and visual association can make or break an upstart author’s carrier. Seeking a professional graphic artist is an expense, and some may frown upon the idea of having another person design the book for them. However, you can always work closely with your artists and make sure that they render exactly the design you have in mind. It would also be an advantage to seek someone in the publishing industry and have wide experience designing book covers.

Book Editing Services

This is the most important part of the whole publishing process. Before you actually print and sell your book, you need to ensure that your book is market-ready. It means having no errors, no misspelled words, and all the sentences and paragraphs make sense. Book editing services cover many areas such as developmental editing, evaluation editing, line editing, content editing, and copyreading. Among all these, line editing and copy editing are the most crucial, and therefore you would want professional editing services to help you out with these. Greg Van Arsdale’s Editing Services is one of the top services that can guarantee quality results. In their website, a brief discussion on utilizing the books to proper knowledge by Van Arsdale can be seen. Their goal is not just to return a pristine manuscript ready for publishing but to help authors become better writers.

E-book Formatting

In this day and age, everything is digital, which is why essential third-party book services are needed. By having an electronic version of your book, you are able to reach a wider audience. E-book has been the major trend this past two decades. From 2010 to 2019 alone, Ebook sales soared from 69 million units to 335. The past decade saw the decline of paperbacks and witnessed the rise of audiobooks and Kindle versions of many classical and modern works of literature. Aside from easy accessibility, Ebooks allow you to get a copy of the same book at a very affordable price. These days, people like to have everything on their smartphones and other gadgets, and that includes their favorite books. Having your book available in PDF format or in Kindle is an investment that is totally worth it. Just make sure to seek the right publishing partner.

Book Review Services

Book reviews are effective promotional materials. Of course, you can always submit a copy to local book communities, book lover’s club, or someone who can review your book and give it a good appraisal. However, it would really boost your brand’s reputation and your status as a serious writer if your books will be reviewed by a person of solid reputation or authority: that or an established institution. While New York Times or Goodreads might be a long shot for you, you can always begin with third-party book review sites. For self-publishing authors, having the book reviewed by institutions is a good start. There are relatively affordable third-party paid book review sites such as Kirkus Media, Reedsy Discovery, Online Book Club, Publishers Weekly, and Writeful Books. Prices range from $5 to almost a hundred. However, there are sites such as ReadersMagnet Review and Authors’ Lounge which feature books for free.

Author Web Design

This is perhaps the most important thing that a modern author should have if he wants to promote his or her book to the world. A dynamic website contains everything that an author needs to start his writing career. The website should feature his book (synopsis and book reviews), updates about the author and his book (news, events, promotions, etc.), blog articles, contact page, thread or comment section, and of course, the call to action page where visitors can purchase the book online. Creating and maintaining a website, especially for marketing purposes, requires professional skills such as web design, linkbuilding, and SEO or search engine optimization, in order for your site to rank and be visible to the right target audiences. Lucky for you, there are actually self-publishing companies that offer this type of book marketing services. Again, this service and other essential third-party book services are a necessary investment needed in order to stay on top of the game.