Publishing a Book

Process, results, and cost for paperback, hardbound, Kindle e-book, and audiobooks. 

Formatting and Editing

Putting a book together with Glorybound Publishing
Glorybound Publishing is unique in that we work with authors in sessions to compile their manuscript into a book. The work is done in sessions meeting directly with the publisher/editor. The sessions last from 1-2 hours, depending on preference and need. We bill hourly at the end of each session. Payment may be made through paypal, Venmo, Zell, Cash App, check, credit card, or cash. The initial appointment will give an idea of the expected number of appointments, anticipated cost, and time it will take to complete the project. A consultation costs $95 and may be scheduled by going to the contact page. 


Process of Publishing a Book with Glorybound

  1. Initial meeting with Glorybound to identify goals.
  2. Schedule the first session and submit the manuscript to the publisher (generally in WORD.) All of the files that are transferred to and from the author are labeled with the date in the heading so we can ensure that we are all working on the most current version. For example, a manuscript with the title Flowing Down River would be: Flowing Down River 8-29-25. It is not needed with photos because we do not generally have more than one version of a photo. 
  3. Meet in the 2-hr session face to face or on ZOOM with the publisher and begin to build the book. 
  4. Editing manuscripts to make them professional books is a process. Our goal is to have a ‘clean’ manuscript at the time of publishing. There are several types of editing and not all books need all types of editing. A novel requires a different type of editing from a history book. It is the author’s responsibility to edit their manuscript. We can refer them to editors or do some editing in-house if indicated. As a general rule, manuscripts which are published should be free from spelling and grammar errors. There is AI editing software that helps with the process, and we encourage authors to utilize it prior to giving the manuscript to the publisher. Editing ahead of giving the manuscript to the publisher will decrease the time needed in the sessions—as the publisher pauses and corrects obvious errors, noting problems in the manuscript and providing additional homework to the author for next time. The goal is to have a professional product! 
  5. The WORD files will be imported into InDesign and the pages will be set up according to book size. Most books are 6" x 9". Children’s books are 8” x 10” or 8.5” x 11”. This is done during the session with the author helping to decide on fonts, photo placement, captions, etc. 
  6. The ‘book’ files will be printed and handed to the author if he/she is coming to the office. Otherwise, they will be put into a PDF and emailed back to the author for review. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EDIT the PDF. This document is for you to look at. We suggest authors print the pages and pencil in changes—then during the next session, tell the publisher the needed changes, and the publisher will insert the changes into the InDesign file. The PDF is given to the author as a convenience because most authors can’t open InDesign files but want to see the page layout. 
  7. If there are a lot of changes needed in the manuscript when it is returned, then we suggest you return to the original WORD document that you provided and make changes. However, if you do this, the entire text must be reloaded into InDesign and reformatted, as this is an essential step in the process. That is why it is timesaving for everyone to edit as much as possible BEFORE the text is given to the publisher. A lot of late editing causes extra expense because of added session time.  
  8. We continue to schedule sessions until the manuscript is fully loaded into a book. Usually the paperback is set up first, then the Kindle e-book and a hardbound copy if desired. 
  9. Most authors are choosing to publish their books on KDP. We can publish wherever the author wants—including using a free-standing printing service. However, KDP seems to be the best right now, so many are selecting for this option. KDP is free and gives an ISBN when someone uploads their manuscript. We are very familiar with their process. If the book is uploaded to KDP, we will walk the author through the process of setting up the account and the book on Amazon. 
  10. The Glorybound Publisher will upload the book to KDP. Some books, which are picture intensive, take up to 2 hours to upload and must be done when the internet is quiet. With these types of books, we do not expect the author to sit around and watch the circle twirl while the files upload but will do it during an off time. When the book is uploaded, KDP will check the files to ensure they meet criteria and send an e-mail to the author on approval of the book. They will provide an email for the author to order author copies. Author copies are the wholesale price of the book based on page count, and the author will know this price when the files are uploaded to KDP during the process. We can give a general idea of the price of your book based on prior books we have published if you are interested. Just ask. 
  11. Once the paperback book is uploaded, the author can select to have one copy sent ahead of publishing the book (to the internet) or simply go ahead and publish with an option to order author copies as soon as it is approved by KDP. 
  12. Hardbound books can be considered once the paperback is stabilized. 
  13. Consider an audiobook. We have a sound studio and do remote audiobooks or help the author to record his/her own book. 
  14. Editing post-publishing. Often after the book is published (and on Amazon) the author will discover errors or want to make some changes to the files. This is easy working with Glorybound. Simply contact us and we will schedule a session, make the changes, and load the new book over top of the previous file. 
  15. Registering Copyright with the US Copyright Office. We can help with Copyright registration. It is recommended to register the book within 3 months of publication. Present copyright fees are $65. So, the author will pay for a session with the publisher and the US copyright fee. 

Goals for Publishing

Goals for publishing

[ Excerpts taken from The Publisher School Lesson 202 by Sheri Hauser ]

Unique Authors

Authors are a unique breed. They are a hybrid mixture of brainack and artsy. Take my word for it; few are both. In publishing over 700 books, I have recognized a few observations of authors who sat across from me. I guess when you are in business for over 20 years, experience begins to talk.
They are passionate about their subject. The passion bleeds into their lives, sucking much of their time, money and energy. 

Don’t count on the ‘supporters’ ie. Husbands, wives & daughters to be supportive. Oftentimes they are jealous of the attention paid to the author’s passion. 

The publisher is in a unique position to feed the enthusiasm the author has for his/her subject. Oftentimes their family and friends are tired of hearing about the ‘book’. 

Some are concerned you are offering false hope to the author. This is a valid concern. If the author comes out with a poorly written book, how can you promise it will sell? What if the author brings a niche subject? How many need what he/she is offering? Some authors ‘splatter paint.' They bring several partially done books on various subjects. 

Some authors are spending somebody else’s money. Perhaps they are being ‘gifted’ the option of publishing their life’s dream. 

Some authors are poor--and have scraped together a small pile of cash to publish their book. Is their house being heated? I actually had one who contacted me, and then I didn’t hear from her for a bit. After a few months she tracked me down and said that she was ready to proceed on her book; she had been homeless for a while! Needless to say, I never found time in my schedule for her--because her passion is chewing up her livelihood. 

Have you written a book? Are you passionate about it? Why?

Passion

Passion is energy directed toward a specific subject/thing. I think of the passion an author shows toward his/her work like a racehorse; he has a great deal of energy, and it simply needs to be directed. 

Sometimes the other person in the room (wife, daughter, or editor) may cause resistance when he/she sees you joining in the passion of the author because he/she suspects ulterior motives. It is similar to a karate school telling parents their child will become a star--if they only pay for a lot of classes in advance. 

The karate school feeds the dreams of passion (to become famous) with the motivation of padding their pockets. 

Their Goals

People can only work within the knowledge structure they have. Authors come to the publisher with their ideas of what the book should look like, and it is up to us to do something about it. 

Remember, the author's goals are made of several things:

Their book is their ‘baby’. It is like a created thing. 

Many put themselves into the book. Perhaps they release personal information. When they put it out there, it is like releasing a part of themselves. 

It may be a ‘bucket-list’ item. Perhaps the book has been in a drawer for a long time and it’s git-er-done time. 

It could be the writer wants to impress someone or a group by publishing a book. 

Some are educational books. (Like this one).

It seems like some authors stopped their educational process of knowledge of publishing several years ago. They know how it ‘was’ but not how it is. This becomes a touchy situation because you don’t know where they obtained their information, and they may still be in a relationship with whoever fed them the misinformation. For instance, if their book club president insists they need a marketing agent to get a publisher, you don’t want to discredit their president but need to help the author understand this is not true. 

Many times, authors come into the office clinging to a book, which is their ‘ideal’ book they want their book to end up looking like. Often these books are string-bound, hard-bound with a jacket, full-color pages, and odd-sized printed in 1967. Remember, I mentioned that many authors are older, so what this means is they have been clinging to the dream since then!

Sometimes authors are insistent on specific fonts. Recently an author gave me a novel manuscript where each time the character spoke, it was in a specific font. It was like she gave them personalities by using the fonts. The fonts became their face. A bold font was given to a bold character. A more delicate font to his sister. 

There is a direct correlation to how long someone has been working on a book and specific issues with publishing. 

If the book is a novel, then sometimes it will be choppy in the middle. Sometimes authors change a character’s name and forget to change it all throughout the story. His/her name will be one thing in the front and a different one in the latter end of the manuscript. 

If the manuscript was given to several ‘beta readers’ and the author made changes after each one, then the manuscript will be choppy because each person adds his/her two cents. I have seen entire chapters cut out (which were critical to the story) when a beta reader deemed them too violent—so the author chopped them out. Just be aware of this potential issue. 

As a general rule, the longer the author has had the unpublished manuscript-the more resistant he/she is to editing it. They are tired of looking at it in the unfinished state and assume it is ‘done’ so they don’t want to continue to work on it. 

Manuscripts (books) that are compiled quickly (less than 6 months) tend to have more grammatical errors. They flow better, but sometimes the author is lenient with their grammar.

Cost of Publishing

Paperback or Hardbound book

All of the services offered by Glorybound Publishing are on a per-hour basis with a cost of $95/per hour. Appointments are live [or ZOOM Live] lasting from 1-2 hours per session. 

The premise of Glorybound Publishing Pay-for-Services is that we feel authors are increasingly knowledgeable and should not be offered a ‘package’ that does not provide for their needs. We prefer individualized service, recognizing some authors may be able to complete their book in 4 sessions while others may take 20 because they need more help or their book is more complex. If authors are able to complete more of the process themselves, shouldn’t they benefit from it? We pass the savings on to the author. We do not hold copyrights or contracts. [Kind of like Staples when you hand them a photo to blow up; they blow it up and return it to you.] We do the same. We do whatever services the author or publisher needs and [essentially] hand it back. The author owns all of their own files—we just help with the knowledge and technical part of publishing. This makes publishing extremely reasonable for authors willing to dig in and do the work to present us with ‘clean files’ for publishing. 

We will bring in a manuscript [in whatever format] the author has—and continue to work with him/her to bring it up to professional standards for grammar, editing, and format. That is part of the process—and the unique beauty of working with Glorybound Publishing. 

Publishing Services Consultation [$95] is the first meeting, which lasts between 45 min and 1 hour. 

1. The author will be provided an opportunity to show their project [at whatever state it is in] to the publisher. 

2. The author provides their goals for the project.

3. The Publisher presents similar books that have been published by this office, with their outcomes showing options for the outcome of the project. Perhaps there is something the author has not thought of but will potentially be beneficial for it. The experience of the Publisher is helpful.

4. Market analysis of the genre and/or book will be provided using book marketing software. Example: Is anyone interested in buying a book like this? How much are similar books selling for and how much are others making on them? How many books are on the market? 

5. What is needed by the publisher to get started with the process? File formats, copyright releases, etc. 

6. The Publisher provides an estimate of how many sessions it will take to reach their goals. The sessions are generally 2 hours long and cost $209 with tax. Payment is expected at the close of each session. All forms of payment are Zelle, Venmo, Paypal, Credit Card, cash, or check. 

7. When the author is ready to begin the process, he/she may set up an appointment. The appointments are spaced according to the needs of the author [Does he/she have pictures for the next chapter? Is their editing ready? 

8. Schedule the Sessions to take the goals and fill in the book. Most books can be compiled in 5 sessions. [$855].


.

Audiobooks

In 2020, audiobook sales in the United States skyrocketed by 12%, hitting a record $1.3 billion. This surge highlights the rapid growth of audio books as a preferred choice over traditional reading. With digital advancements, more individuals are embracing audio formats for their favorite stories. 

Find out more