Monday 11 January 2016

If your book is like your child, then what is the role of other people associated with your book?



I often hear authors saying that, "my book is like my child." I don’t 
disagree. Of course it is. It’s their brain child and it’s as dear to them 
as their own child. Let us stick with this connotation and try to 
understand roles of some of the key people associated with books in 
relation to a mother and her child. 

Father of the child

So the first important role in a child's life after his/her mother is a role of 
father. Father's typical role is to protect and provide. A Father helps his 
child to grow by providing financial support for his/her education, medical 
expenses, food, and means for a safe environment and a happy life. This 
is what a publisher does for a book. Indisputably it’s a writer who delivers 
it, but a publisher bears all the expenses of publishing, marketing, and 
everything that a book needs to grow. But there are millions of self-
published authors, who don’t have anyone supporting their work. They 
are like single parent raising their child all alone by bearing financial load 
and giving the required nurturing. They mostly have to become involved 
in all the steps required for a book to reach its potential height by making 
sure that their book gets established in the market and reaches to 
the hands of the readers. It’s no surprise that being a single parent is 
one hell of a difficult a job.



Your Gynecologist

Now what is the role of an editor? An editor is a gynecologist, who makes 
sure you deliver a healthy baby with minimum complications. I truly believe 
that writers should give their editors same respect that they would give to 
their gynecologist during pregnancy. The way only a mother feels a baby's 
movements when it is in her womb, but a doctor who performs a sonography 
has a clearer view of the child, an editor has a more objective and clear vision 
of a book. Just the way a doctor provides time to time medicine to keep your 
baby healthy, an editor gives you timely feedback to explain what is working 
in the favor of your book and what’s not. There is a professional term “Book 
Doctors” used widely these days for the developmental editors, who support 
the authors in the whole process of turning their draft manuscripts into a full 
grown professional book. If a doctor doesn’t perform his or her job with 
precision, you are bound to have complications in delivery. In reference to 
writers if an editor does a shabby job, you’ll face troubles in delivering a 
potentially successful book. 



Importance of a good Nanny

There is another important role these days for a mother’s and a child’s life. 
Think for a moment that you are a mother, who just gave birth to a tender 
newborn baby and you already have another baby conceived in your belly 
and also have planned the third baby that you want to conceive as soon as 
you deliver your second child...ohhh, that’s scary!  At least if you are a single 
mother having no support of your partner. Now think about a similar scenario 
in a life of a self published author. He/she has just published her first book, 
has started writing the second book and his/her mind is already wrangling 
with the idea of the third book. Just the way you cannot plan for another 
baby till your first child is grown up a little, especially if you don’t have a 
family support, you cannot focus on writing your second book if your first 
book is out there in the market and you know that you have to do all the 
marketing on your own to make sure your book is a success. Here comes 
the role of a nanny. She is not the mother and hence probably won’t feel 
the same emotions for the child, but as she spends more time with the child 
making sure the baby eats & sleeps in time, is cleaned properly, is engaged 
well in playing, she also gets attached with the child. In the world of books 
and publications that’s the job of a marketing and PR person. A marketing 
person supports the author in making his/her book a success by looking after 
all the tasks associated with marketing, creating readership, and engaging in 
social media campaigns of the book. If you have a strong support of your 
marketing person, you can give your brain child in his/her able hands and 
focus on writing your next book. If your marketing person is not efficient, 
you wouldn’t have time to write your next book as all your time will go into 
marketing your first book.



The more I am getting engaged with self published writers, trying to 
understand their issues and roadblocks, the more I understand and 
respect the role of an editor and marketing person for the book.I have 
made a humble effort for providing these two crucial services of editing 
and marketing to authors through my freelance service called 
"For Your Fiction". I am determined to take my duties as an editor and 
a marketing person seriously, because as a mother I know, if you have 
an amateur doctor and an inefficient nanny, how difficult your life would 
become.