Getting published is now easier than ever. Authors who have struggled to find a literary agent or publisher now have the opportunity to self-publish. No longer considered the last resort of the untalented writer, self-publishing as an eBook has become an excellent means of creating income. But creating a well-produced eBook may not be as easy as it sounds, which is why it may be worth your while to outsource its production.

1. Labour intensive. Creating an eBook takes many hours of dedicated and intensive labour if it is to be produced to a high level of quality. The whole process of producing an eBook includes manuscript formatting, copyediting, proofreading, book cover design, and submission. But it does not stop there. Once the book is published, an author needs to market it. That means the creation of a promotional website, social media plugging, and press releases. That is a lot of steps to work through, which can take months. I know, I’ve done it.

2. Copy-editing. This means trimming, taking out excessive dialogue, needless exposition and even whole scenes or chapters, as well as improving the content. Writers are usually so familiar or endeared to their manuscripts that this can be a difficult task to accomplish. They cannot see that a piece of description adds nothing to the story, or that a linking chapter is needed to make sense of what follows. A fresh eye will pick up on these and advise accordingly.

3. Proofreading. A similarly daunting task. It is incredible how much the brain ‘auto-corrects’ and consequently, the eye does not see typos and other mistakes. An author looking at his or her own work is far more likely to miss errors than someone who has never seen the manuscript before.

4. Cover design. A book cover can make or break an eBook sale. That is why it needs to be good. Some eBook creation software, such as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), provides a Cover Creation tool, which produces fairly basic covers and is a good choice for those on a budget, but for those that can afford it, it is worth hiring a professional designer.

5. Marketing. This covers quite a range of areas. First and foremost, it means the book description or synopsis, the blurb that is usually found on the back of a hard copy book. Many authors find this extremely difficult to write. Then there is the creation of a promotional website for your book, which does not need to cost anything, as WordPress or similar free sites are perfectly good for this, but it does take time to create.

So there you have it. 5 very good reasons why it is worth outsourcing the creation of your eBook. You’ve done your part, you’ve written it. Why not let someone else make sure it is worth reading?

Laura Dowers is a freelance Copywriter and Virtual Assistant, who has self-published her first historical novel, ‘The Queen’s Favourite’, as a Kindle eBook.

She can provide eBook formatting, copyediting, proofreading, book description and basic WordPress promotional website services.

Find out more at http://www.lauradowerscopywriter.co.uk