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
a 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.
