WRITERSWEEKLY’S AUTHOR SERVICE CENTER!

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CONNECTING AUTHORS WITH TRUSTED, PROFESSIONAL & AFFORDABLE SERVICE PROVIDERS FOR THEIR BOOKS!

 

What is the WritersWeekly Author Service Center?

 

WritersWeekly has vetted individuals and businesses that provide various services necessary for the book publishing process. Each professional has submitted references and several examples of their work to be judged by one simple standard: Would we use their work in a book with our name on it? Freelance editors featured here have worked directly with BookLocker authors who are very happy with the quality of their services.

What this means to you:

You can confidently work with any of our freelance professionals because we have already sorted through hundreds of candidates, and selected the cream of the crop. These specialists are individuals or small businesses. That means you will never have to suffer through “customer service” phone trees, canned responses, and “representatives” located overseas. You will communicate one-on-one with the person working on your book!

AVOID THE INDUSTRY RIGHTS’ GRAB!! 

 

There’s a new wave in self-publishing! Authors are getting SMART! They are saying NO to the big, rights’-grabbing, expensive, and unstable publishing services firms (a.k.a. P.O.D. publishers), and taking control of their own books!

After an initial boom in the industry, publishing services firms are now going out of business in staggering numbers. Their authors, who have often given up all rights to their files to those companies, are left high and dry, and must pay another company all over again to get their books back on the market. That means new interior and cover design, new editing, and even new illustrations if those, too, were created by their defunct publisher.

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! At WritersWeekly, you will ALWAYS own all rights to the files these professionals create for you, no matter which publisher you choose to work with!

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Still Going STRONG!

 

BookLocker.com, the parent company of WritersWeekly, has been in business for 20 years now, and is still going strong because we never went public, never sold out to one of the “big guys,” and never contracted work out to overseas call centers. We run a tight ship, and pass those savings along to our authors. Furthermore, we take excellent care of our authors, and never take their rights away. Yes, BookLocker authors own ALL rights to their production files, and always will.

However, we recognize that many authors choose a variety of publishers for many different reasons. The WritersWeekly Author Service Center was designed to assist those authors so they can still have a book to sell in the event their publisher:

  • Goes out of business someday
  • Stops paying royalties
  • Has a severe decline in quality and/or customer service
  • Raises their prices beyond what the author and the book buying market can bear

Let WritersWeekly’s Author Service Center connect you with professionals that will:

 

1. Sign a work-for-hire agreement, meaning YOU own all rights to what they create for you.

2. Provide you with ready-to-print files that you can save to your computer, and use anywhere you want, including in/on your book, in your advertising materials, and at any publisher or printer you choose in the future.

3. Are professional, talented, and devoted to creating the absolute BEST product for your readers. No matter what stage your book is in, they can help!

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Did you know?

 

1. Most publishing service firms (print on demand publishers) have unnecessary and often laughable hidden fees. LOTS of them. They will upsell authors on essential services later, after you’ve paid $1,500 or even $15,000 to publish your book. These things are necessary for a book to be professional and successful yet they may not be included in your publishing package. Most authors assume paying thousands for a publishing package will include simple things like an automated table of contents, or headers and footers, or page breaks between chapters. This is not always the case in those expensive packages. (NOTE: BookLocker does NOT charge extra for these items.)

Examples:

  • One large firm in particular will charge you thousands to get your book published, and then charge you $50 more if you give them a perfect, ready-to-print PDF file, rendering all of the publisher’s design services unnecessary. Yes, you’re charged EXTRA for making their job easier!
  • Another firm charges authors $25 “per item” for everything appearing in your table of contents. Why?! It’s automated!! And, yet another charges $2 per page to remove your existing headers and footers (just so they can put them right back in again!), and insert page breaks (that can literally take 10 minutes or less in a large manuscript).
  • And, yet another company charges an extra $29 to convert your file from WordPerfect or text-only to an MSWord file. All that takes is clicking File, Save as, and then changing the file type.

This is highway robbery! And, that’s just a few of the disturbing “extra services” on the market. Some of these sites have literally hundreds of “extras” that they’ll use to drain an unsuspecting author’s wallet.

Again, BookLocker does not charge extra for any of those things.

2. Almost every publishing services firm claims ALL rights to the files authors pay them to create. (BookLocker does NOT.) Why shouldn’t you own all rights to something you paid your publisher to create?!

3. There are countless complaints online about these types of publishers not paying their authors’ royalties. (Since its inception 20 years ago, BookLocker has never made a late royalty payment.)

4. Many small publishing service firms end up selling out to one of the “big guys.” Their authors are then subjected to poor customer service (often located overseas), higher prices, inferior book quality, non-payment of royalties, and more.

5. Many well-known publishers are owned by the same parent company. There are a few parent companies that own several “smaller” firms but they make it appear they’re all different entities. You think you’re getting a large choice of “different” publishers…but you’re not. One of the largest parent companies has been the subject of two class-action lawsuits by its authors.

6. Some of these firms use deceptive advertising, including setting up websites that “assist” authors in finding just the “right publisher” for their book…yet all of the firms they recommend are owned by the same parent company.

7. Publishing service firms are going out of business in staggering numbers. Last year, the “Christian” publisher, Tate Publishing, folded and its owners were arrested on felony charges. Most of their 30,000 authors were left high and dry, without their rights, or their production files. America Star Books (a.k.a. Publish America) ceased operations and they, too, had thousands of authors. Read about more defunct publishing services firms RIGHT HERE.

NOTE: To see how BookLocker has remained profitable for 20 years, despite charging among the lowest prices in the industry, see: How BookLocker Has Remained Profitable for 20 Years…when so many others have failed 

WHY YOU ABSOLUTELY **MUST** KEEP ALL RIGHTS TO YOUR FILES! PERIOD!! 

 

If your publisher owns all rights to your files, you’re in big trouble if they:

a. Fail to pay your royalties
b. Produce poor-quality products (print and ebooks)
c. Have poor customer service
d. Raise their prices to a point where you can’t afford your own books
e. Publish such poor-quality books that retailers and libraries won’t even consider titles published by them
f. Upsell you later on essential (yet unaffordable) services
g. Go out of business

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

 

Let WritersWeekly’s Author Service Center connect you with professionals who will:

1. Sign a work-for-hire agreement, meaning YOU own all rights to what they create for you.

2. Provide you with ready-to-print files that you can save to your computer, and use anywhere you want, including in/on your book, in your advertising materials, and at any publisher or printer you choose in the future.

3. Are professional, talented, and devoted to creating the absolute BEST product for your readers. No matter what stage your book is in, they can help!

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SERVICE DESCRIPTIONS

 

ORIGINAL COVER DESIGN

Our designers are top-notch! You will LOVE your cover! You can see samples of our covers RIGHT HERE. Click on each to see the entire cover (back, spine and front).

Also, see the covers at the top of THIS PAGE.

Original cover design means the designer will use pre-existing photos/graphics, supplied by the author, or sourced by the designer, and will put those together with the text that will appear on your cover. If you need original artwork/illustrations, we have several of those professionals for you to consider as well!

Original paperback cover design – $350

You will work directly with the designer to ensure your paperback cover is exactly what you want! Back cover design, spine, front cover, barcode – the works! NOTE: This service is included in all of BookLocker’s publishing packages except D.I.Y. – at a $100 savings!

Original hardback cover design – $450

You will work directly with the designer to ensure your hardback cover (whether you want wrap-around over cloth, or a case-laminate cover) is exactly what you want! Back cover design, spine, front cover, flaps, barcode – the works! NOTE: This service is included in all of BookLocker’s publishing packages except D.I.Y. – at a $100 savings!

Original ebook cover design – $250

Note: You do NOT need ebook cover design if you are buying print cover design. You can simply use the front portion of the print cover for your ebook. If you only need ebook cover design, the designer will create a professional front cover for your ebook. NOTE: This service is included in all of BookLocker’s publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge! Beware of publishers who charge you for print cover design AND for ebook cover design. Purchasing both is completely unnecessary!

Image search and purchase – $25 flat fee + cost of image(s)

You can provide your own images at no extra charge, or let our cover designer research stock photos and other images according to your vision and needs. You will then approve the perfect one(s) for your cover. If the image you select is not royalty-free, you will be required to purchase the image. The stock agencies we use are very affordable. NOTE: This service is included in all of BookLocker’s publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge!

INTERIOR PRINT DESIGN/FORMATTING

Let our professional book designers provide you with a beautiful interior file for your readers! And, they aren’t going to nickel and dime you in the process. This service includes organizing all necessary pages in the correct order (title page, copyright page, dedication, introduction, etc.), automated headers and footers, an automated table of contents (if you want one), drop caps (if you want them), page breaks between chapters, putting frames around your images, changing color images to grayscale (if necessary), and so much more! We’ll then send the file back to you for any final changes/edits before we convert it to pdf. And, of course, we will provide you with the print-ready pdf file and the final MSWord file for your own future needs.

Print Interior Design/Formatting

Black-and-white-interior book design/formatting – $2/page (minimum of $200)
Color-interior book design/formatting – $8/page + $10/image

NOTE: The services above are included in all of BookLocker’s publishing packages except D.I.Y.

Formatting Extras

If your book is already formatted (for the most part), but you need a little extra help –

Automated table of contents – $5/item (This is already included in “interior formatting” above!)
Automated indexing – $1.50/word or phrase + $2 for names of individuals. You will need to provide a list of the words/phrases you want indexed.
Table editing or creation – $3/line

Images

  • Insertion and/or cropping – $2/image
  • Borders/Frames – $1/image (this is included in “interior formatting” above!)
  • Converting color images to grayscale – $1/image (this is included in “interior formatting” above!)
  • Touch-up – Need to crop out that old boyfriend, or fix a pesky blemish? (requires quote)
  • Other manipulation as directed by the author (requires quote)

E-BOOK DESIGN/FORMATTING/CONVERSION

PDF conversion (for print and ebook) – $25 (this is included in “interior formatting/design” above!). NOTE: This service is included in all of BookLocker’s black-and-white-interior publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge!

Mobi formatting/conversion (the ebook format Amazon uses for the Kindle) – Basic is $225 + $3 per image and $10 per table. Files with very complex formatting may require additional fees. NOTE: Basic Mobi service is included in all of BookLocker’s black-and-white-interior publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge.

ePub (the ebook format everybody else uses, including BarnesandNoble.com, Apple, Kobo, Overdrive, and others) – Basic is $225 + $3 per image + $10 per table. Files with very complex formatting may require additional fees. NOTE: Basic epub service is included in all of BookLocker’s black-and-white-interior publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge.

Combo Mobi/ePub – Basic is $350 + $3 per image + $10 per table. Files with very complex formatting may require additional fees. NOTE: This service is included in all of BookLocker’s black-and-white-interior publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge.

FILE CONVERSION

1. Convert from PDF to a word processing file, and remove line breaks – $2/page

We will strip the text from your pdf file, put it into an MSWord file, and clean up the breaks that will appear at the end of every line.

2. Convert from another word processing or text file to MSWord – $10

We will convert your existing word processing or text file to an MSWord file. NOTE: This is included in all of BookLocker’s publishing packages except D.I.Y. at no additional charge.

3. Combine several files (i.e. chapters) into one master file – $5/section and/or chapter

You can send us your sections and chapters as separate files, and we will put them into one MSWord file, in the order you desire, so you’ll have one master document, which is what printers require for an interior file.

DATA ENTRY

1. Type handwritten manuscript into a word processing file

A professional typist will read your handwritten manuscript, and type it into a word processing document.

2. Type text of a printed book into a word processing file

A professional typist will read a printed copy of your book, and re-type it into a word processing document. Please note that document scanning and conversion to text software often creates numerous errors, requiring the manuscript to be re-edited. We recommend this service instead.

CLICK ON THE ADDITIONAL SERVICES BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION:

 

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