The Wearing of Many Hats.

Indie and self-published authors have to adopt numerous roles in order to get their book out into the world. There are elements we can outsource (funds permitting) such as editing, proofreading, cover design and marketing, but we don't have a team of people ready to take our finished product and get it all done for us.

As I've said previously, writing the book is the easy bit, and if that's where it ended, there'd be more of us. However, for a lot of writers, we're not making a living from our writing and have to fit it in around full time jobs, families, and other commitments. So not only are we having to write when time and circumstances permit, but we're also having to research the services we need to polish the manuscript, get it looking good, and promote it.

Throughout the whole process, I've had so many "this is the WORST" moments, but then another one comes along and pips the previous one.

I think all indie authors probably have a specific element of the process they detest, and for me, it's formatting.

Type it up in Word, and bosh, yes? Nope.

• Embedded fonts

• Internal margins

• Trim

• Bleed and safety

• Book size

• Layout

• Copyright page

There is no one size fits all, UK Royal Hardback has different formatting to standard paperback. Even formatting for e-publishing comes with its own unique set of parameters.

I've chosen Kobo for the e-book, and had to reformat the manuscript again, as the chapter headers and titles required Styles applying, page numbers had to be removed, and the font changed.

Obviously, this is one hell of an education I'm receiving, and will (hopefully) be better prepared when readying book two for release, but for now, I'm happy to just have my writer's hat on and leave the others to have a bit of a rest.