Tell me about your vision.
Well, my vision is to help as many authors as possible
self-publish as successfully as possible.
And the reason I started doing these podcasts
is because a lot of authors online
seem to be overwhelmed by the process.
But self-publishing does not have
to be overwhelming if you have the right team on your side.
And that's what we do.
We make it easy for authors to self-publish.
And not only that, but keep control of their book
and earn more money every time they sell a book
by following the forgotten original model of self-publishing,
which has become buried in all of the noise.
Thank you for sharing that.
Can you tell me more about it?
Well, OK.
So original self-publishing meant that the author
was the publisher.
And the author would handle all the responsibilities
of publishing the book, including hiring the experts
to produce a good book, editors, designers, and so forth.
Well, somewhere along the line, it got all mixed up.
And now independent authors, self-publishers,
are hiring publishing companies.
And they are taking revenue out of their pocket
every time they sell a book.
So my goal is to just remind everybody of the original way
that you do not have to share your revenue with anyone
when you sell a book.
You do have the responsibility to produce a good book
that the market will accept.
And that that doesn't have to be overwhelming,
even though it could be if you follow the advice online
and try to do everything yourself
and try to manage everything yourself.
So we are basically publishing project managers.
And we can help facilitate the whole process for you
so that you don't have to suffer and get overwhelmed when
you want to release a book.
Well, let me ask you this question along the lines.
How similar or different are you from Amazon self-publishing
when authors can actually go on and publish themselves?
Well, we actually do recommend that the files produced
for the book are uploaded to KDP.com and also
another platform called IngramSpark.com.
But the problem with Amazon and some other approaches
is that they encourage authors to just do it themselves,
either by dumping their manuscript
into a formatting machine or designing their own cover
with a template.
But that's not the way a book is produced.
We all have the background in traditional publishing.
So we know the process is much more complex and much more
involved than that.
But the result is a beautiful book and a book
that's easy to read.
And isn't that why you wrote a book in the first place,
to get people to hear your message and share your wisdom?
Thank you for that.
That's a different angle of looking at it.
If I were to say about your vision about publishing,
where do you think this vision about helping
authors self-publish come from?
It comes from my experience.
I've been in the publishing industry for 52 years now.
And so I was trained the traditional way
in terms of recognizing good editing, good design,
good typesetting, good e-book formatting, and so forth.
So it's my background.
And I've been somewhat appalled to see
that the standards have been abandoned in many cases.
And the market is now flooded with low quality books.
And a book is a work of art.
It should never be produced in a low quality way.
So that's my inspiration.
What would you say in this case scenario,
you help people help with publishing
and make sure the book is a good quality content?
Obviously, they have to write it.
But what about the sales side?
What happens with sales?
Go ahead.
In marketing, a book is difficult.
And so we offer a couple of do-it-yourself
resources that authors who want to do the work themselves can
take advantage of those resources
and roll up their sleeves and put in the time
and market their book for very little money.
Or we recommend marketing people that we know and trust
and who get good results for authors.
So I just want to try to get more about your vision.
So I'm assuming your expertise is
just the publishing side when it comes to quality content,
style, templates, et cetera, how a person feels
when they're reading the book, correct?
Well, yes.
I mean, there's good editing and there's not so good editing.
And the same holds true for design and proofreading
and e-book formatting.
And in a lot of cases now, the proper level of attention
is not being given to the proper person.
So I think that's the way we're going to do it.
It's not being given to the preparation,
the production of the book.
And so that's where our specialty is.
I don't try to, I recommend marketing people
and I recommend marketing resources
because that's not my first experience or first
where our power is.
Our power is in the production of a beautiful book, which
is actually the first step in marketing.
Because if you don't produce a good quality book,
whatever you spend on marketing is going to be wasted.
That's absolutely correct.
There's no point in marketing a book that's, I mean,
maybe is a point, but it's not going
to have as much of a bigger impact if the content's not
and things are not done right.
So your brand, is it 1066?
1106 Designs.
1106, yeah, 1106 Designs.
I was trying to get the exact number right.
1106 Designs, when did that come about?
It's 1106 Designs Singular.
Design?
Yes.
OK, 1106 Designs, when did that come about?
Well, 1106 Designs was started in 2001.
And when I was looking around for a domain name at that time,
I couldn't find anything that described what we did.
So I used my birthday.
That is amazing.
That's crazy.
1106 Designs, I'm guessing that's where 1106 came from.
That's amazing.
Yes.
So tell me, Michelle, what is the why of what you do?
The why is to produce good books and to prevent the suffering
I see online.
OK, authors, there's so many people out there
that are telling authors what they want to hear
and not what they need to hear to produce that good book.
And there's a lot of suffering that's going along with it.
Authors are trying to, if it's their first book
and they're trying to manage a book production
process on their own, that's a daunting task.
It's a challenge even for us.
And it's what we do for a living.
So I'm seeing authors suffering needlessly
because they're trying to do something they are woefully
unprepared to do.
And sometimes, with the best of intentions,
they'll hire an editor that isn't qualified.
Or they'll listen to the advice online
and they'll go find a designer on Fiverr or someplace
like that.
And then they find out too late that the files
that they paid the person to create either won't upload
or aren't the right size or aren't the right resolution.
And we get calls about that every week.
Someone will say, can you fix my cover?
Well, it's too late then.
I can't fix your cover.
So it's just the internet is a great place for information,
but not all of it is correct.
And so that's why I'm trying to get the original message out,
which is that there are people like us who
know how to produce a wonderful book for you, which
is worthy of all the months and years you spent writing it.
And we can also help you because when we upload your files
to KDP and IngramSpark, we are uploading them
to your account so that we don't get any portion of your revenue.
You get every cent of revenue that's possible from the book
world when you sell a book.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.