Services Offered:
Whatever you may be looking for from a book publishing service, Barking Lily Books can help. At Barking Lily, we suggest that you do the writing, and leave all of the rest to us. Here are a few of the services that Barking Lily Books can provide:
Project Consultation:
Even before we talk pricing for the project, we have to talk about the project first. You wrote the book, and you know it is good, but is it ready for the market? Will people pay for what you have written, or does it need tweaking? Before anything else, we will discuss the pros and cons of the work, the good points and the not-so-good points. Barking Lily Books will offer an honest, objective opinion and offer professional feedback designed to help take your work to the next level: A published work.
Book Design:
We've all heard the expression, 'don't judge a book by its cover'…well, unfortunately most book buyers do just that. On average, a prospective book buyer will give a book (ie: a book jacket) five seconds of consideration before deciding to buy the book or not. We realize this, and know what the untrained eye of the book buyer is looking for. Barking Lily Books designs eye-pleasing, attention grabbing jackets and book interiors that will entice the prospective reader to buy.
Editing:
Often writers are too close to their own material to be objective. A second set of eyes will catch the mistake that an author missed the last four times he read it; an objective opinion will ensure that the text is tight and snappy. Barking Lily Books offers professional editing services that will give your work that added edge.
Book Production:
Getting a book produced involves many hours and great attention to detail - good thing we have the time and attention span for the job. Barking Lily Books will ensure that your book is printed and bound to the standards of quality that you set for yourself…and at a cost that is affordable. Barking Lily Books will provide competitive pricing and will stay with the project from start to finish, ensuring that the end result will be something that you will be proud to take home to mother !
Marketing:
Writing a book takes skill; so does marketing a book. There is nothing worse than writing an amazing book, only to have it never get into the hands of the readers it deserves. Through our marketing efforts, we will ensure that your book is delivered to market. Barking Lily Books will tailor a marketing plan specific to your work, working with you to identify your audience, and accessing every avenue available to us to reach that audience. Through a combination of methods such as web marketing (through Amazon.com and your own website) and the traditional distribution channels of book wholesalers and distributors, book stores, libraries and book clubs, we will assist you to get your book to market. In support of these efforts, Barking Lily Books will assist in organizing book release events at book stores, interviews and speaking engagements. Barking Lily Books will even assist with cutting edge marketing avenues such as audio excerpts and video promotion (You Tube trailers).
Distribution:
One of the biggest hurdles that an independent author faces is getting their book to market. We started Barking Lily Books for two reasons - first because we have a passion for books and second because we identified an area where we think we can help. As you know, indie publishing and self-publishing is becoming more and more accepted as a viable alternative to the larger publishing houses. Ultimately we believe the book publishing model, as it presently exists, primarily serves the needs of the larger publishing houses, and not the author.
We originally didn't plan on getting into the distribution business, however we found, in promoting the independent authors we currently have on board, distributors did not want to touch indie books for various reasons...again more hurdles. Never to be deterred, (or maybe just stubborn) we decided that if we cannot find distributors for our authors, then we will just become one ourselves - once again, focusing primarily on the indie and self-published author.
Whether you are a POD author or self-published author with a thousand or so books stored in (a climate controlled) corner of the house we can help. We do not need thousands of copies of any one title - just what you want to send us. We have no desire for you to go out and print a whole bunch of copies of your novel for us only to have the bulk returned to you due to lack of sales (and this is often what happens to many authors who go through the larger distributors), but if you have them printed already, and are looking to move a few dozen or few hundred copies, why not let us help you ?
Reviews:
Reviews have always been an integral part of book marketing, something that needs to be garnered well before the release of any book. Most book reviewers ask to see the work in galley format as much as six months before the release date; they want to know 'what's new'. Often it takes several months to get a book review to print, so while you're printing the work, the reviewers are reviewing the work. The review usually appears in print around the same time the book is being released. Once a book is published, the likelihood of getting a review diminishes - a published book is old news to most reviewers. While you can still publish a book without a review - most independent authors tend to do so - nothing is more valuable than a review. A review says that an industry professional - other than you or your manager - recognizes the work you have done, and has taken the time to comment on it. Think about how many books are published each day - thousands - and for someone to take the time to read and write about our book, that has value.
Reviews are what book buyers - distributors, librarian and even readers - look for when deciding whether or not they should invest in your work. Without a review, the job of marketing your book just got a little harder. Maybe we can make it a little easier. Let us review your book for you. Let us put our weight behind your efforts. You've taken the time to write the book, let us help you market the book with a review.
List of our favourite and talented people and companies...