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Tell me about your vision.

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Well, my vision is to help as many authors as possible

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self-publish as successfully as possible.

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And the reason I started doing these podcasts

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is because a lot of authors online

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seem to be overwhelmed by the process.

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But self-publishing does not have

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to be overwhelming if you have the right team on your side.

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And that's what we do.

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We make it easy for authors to self-publish.

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And not only that, but keep control of their book

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and earn more money every time they sell a book

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by following the forgotten original model of self-publishing,

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which has become buried in all of the noise.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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Can you tell me more about it?

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Well, OK.

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So original self-publishing meant that the author

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was the publisher.

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And the author would handle all the responsibilities

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of publishing the book, including hiring the experts

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to produce a good book, editors, designers, and so forth.

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Well, somewhere along the line, it got all mixed up.

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And now independent authors, self-publishers,

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are hiring publishing companies.

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And they are taking revenue out of their pocket

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every time they sell a book.

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So my goal is to just remind everybody of the original way

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that you do not have to share your revenue with anyone

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when you sell a book.

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You do have the responsibility to produce a good book

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that the market will accept.

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And that that doesn't have to be overwhelming,

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even though it could be if you follow the advice online

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and try to do everything yourself

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and try to manage everything yourself.

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So we are basically publishing project managers.

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And we can help facilitate the whole process for you

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so that you don't have to suffer and get overwhelmed when

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you want to release a book.

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Well, let me ask you this question along the lines.

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How similar or different are you from Amazon self-publishing

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when authors can actually go on and publish themselves?

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Well, we actually do recommend that the files produced

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for the book are uploaded to KDP.com and also

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another platform called IngramSpark.com.

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But the problem with Amazon and some other approaches

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is that they encourage authors to just do it themselves,

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either by dumping their manuscript

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into a formatting machine or designing their own cover

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with a template.

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But that's not the way a book is produced.

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We all have the background in traditional publishing.

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So we know the process is much more complex and much more

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involved than that.

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But the result is a beautiful book and a book

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that's easy to read.

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And isn't that why you wrote a book in the first place,

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to get people to hear your message and share your wisdom?

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Thank you for that.

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That's a different angle of looking at it.

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If I were to say about your vision about publishing,

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where do you think this vision about helping

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authors self-publish come from?

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It comes from my experience.

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I've been in the publishing industry for 52 years now.

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And so I was trained the traditional way

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in terms of recognizing good editing, good design,

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good typesetting, good e-book formatting, and so forth.

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So it's my background.

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And I've been somewhat appalled to see

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that the standards have been abandoned in many cases.

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And the market is now flooded with low quality books.

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And a book is a work of art.

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It should never be produced in a low quality way.

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So that's my inspiration.

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What would you say in this case scenario,

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you help people help with publishing

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and make sure the book is a good quality content?

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Obviously, they have to write it.

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But what about the sales side?

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What happens with sales?

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Go ahead.

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In marketing, a book is difficult.

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And so we offer a couple of do-it-yourself

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resources that authors who want to do the work themselves can

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take advantage of those resources

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and roll up their sleeves and put in the time

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and market their book for very little money.

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Or we recommend marketing people that we know and trust

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and who get good results for authors.

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So I just want to try to get more about your vision.

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So I'm assuming your expertise is

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just the publishing side when it comes to quality content,

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style, templates, et cetera, how a person feels

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when they're reading the book, correct?

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Well, yes.

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I mean, there's good editing and there's not so good editing.

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And the same holds true for design and proofreading

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and e-book formatting.

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And in a lot of cases now, the proper level of attention

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is not being given to the proper person.

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So I think that's the way we're going to do it.

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It's not being given to the preparation,

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the production of the book.

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And so that's where our specialty is.

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I don't try to, I recommend marketing people

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and I recommend marketing resources

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because that's not my first experience or first

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where our power is.

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Our power is in the production of a beautiful book, which

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is actually the first step in marketing.

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Because if you don't produce a good quality book,

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whatever you spend on marketing is going to be wasted.

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That's absolutely correct.

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There's no point in marketing a book that's, I mean,

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maybe is a point, but it's not going

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to have as much of a bigger impact if the content's not

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and things are not done right.

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So your brand, is it 1066?

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1106 Designs.

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1106, yeah, 1106 Designs.

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I was trying to get the exact number right.

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1106 Designs, when did that come about?

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It's 1106 Designs Singular.

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Design?

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Yes.

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OK, 1106 Designs, when did that come about?

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Well, 1106 Designs was started in 2001.

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And when I was looking around for a domain name at that time,

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I couldn't find anything that described what we did.

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So I used my birthday.

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That is amazing.

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That's crazy.

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1106 Designs, I'm guessing that's where 1106 came from.

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That's amazing.

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Yes.

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So tell me, Michelle, what is the why of what you do?

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The why is to produce good books and to prevent the suffering

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I see online.

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OK, authors, there's so many people out there

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that are telling authors what they want to hear

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and not what they need to hear to produce that good book.

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And there's a lot of suffering that's going along with it.

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Authors are trying to, if it's their first book

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and they're trying to manage a book production

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process on their own, that's a daunting task.

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It's a challenge even for us.

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And it's what we do for a living.

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So I'm seeing authors suffering needlessly

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because they're trying to do something they are woefully

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unprepared to do.

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And sometimes, with the best of intentions,

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they'll hire an editor that isn't qualified.

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Or they'll listen to the advice online

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and they'll go find a designer on Fiverr or someplace

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like that.

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And then they find out too late that the files

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that they paid the person to create either won't upload

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or aren't the right size or aren't the right resolution.

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And we get calls about that every week.

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Someone will say, can you fix my cover?

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Well, it's too late then.

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I can't fix your cover.

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So it's just the internet is a great place for information,

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but not all of it is correct.

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And so that's why I'm trying to get the original message out,

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which is that there are people like us who

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know how to produce a wonderful book for you, which

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is worthy of all the months and years you spent writing it.

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And we can also help you because when we upload your files

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to KDP and IngramSpark, we are uploading them

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to your account so that we don't get any portion of your revenue.

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You get every cent of revenue that's possible from the book

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world when you sell a book.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.