When to Hire Help with Self Publishing: 3 Considerations to Help Decide
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Whether you choose to entirely self publish or work with a consultant, there are quite a few things to consider to bring your book baby to life. Before choosing your path, it’s important to be mindful of what steps are involved and consider your capacity. This episode explores what to think about when deciding what kind of help you’ll need to complete your publishing project. I also share what I outsource and also how to get the most out of relationships with contractors who support my book publishing processes.
If you want to work directly with me to create a profitable book that builds your authority, ties to your offers, and generates leads and clients, then Profitable Publishing™ Live is for you. Join me Feb 12-13th, 2026 (virtual or in person attendance available) where you’ll not only learn the profitable publishing™ process, but also have time to implement the steps with feedback at the same time. Visit www.ProfitableSelfPublishing.com/Live to secure your spot. Use code PODCAST for a rolling discount (the more you buy, the more you save)
TAKEAWAYS
Outsourcing Considerations
Publishing is in an investment (time, money, energy)
Options beyond traditional publishing and self publishing
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction to Outsourcing
05:07 Investing in Expertise
10:23 Consulting vs Hybrid Publishing
16:17 Outsourcing Options
22:57 Outsourcing Personal Tasks
Watch the video from the episode instead of just listening.
RAW TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to another episode of Profitable Publishing. This is the podcast for coaches, consultants, speakers, and service providers to be able to package your expertise into a profitable book. Today we're going to be talking about something you've probably thought of before, and it's actually a question that I got from a group that I was in. So let's go ahead and get started. The topic is whether or not you should outsource or what you should outsource. And so this is from Michelle. She's in a group that I'm also in for business owners.
And so her question is, to the authors who self-published their book, what parts did you outsource? And so I did actually answer her question in the group, but I thought this would actually be a really great podcast episode. And so I decided, let's go ahead and get it done. So personally for you, this question can vary for each book, for each phase in your life, for each thing that you have going on. It's not necessarily gonna be a one size fits all situation.
So I'm gonna give you a couple of things to think about so that way you can consider if you should outsource everything or if you should outsource certain components. Now, if you are someone who is maybe you're working full time and maybe you also have a business, you're likely gonna lean more heavily on the side of outsourcing because you just literally are not gonna have enough time to get all the steps done in a timeline that you are probably wanting to have based upon your business goals. And so for me personally, I'll also share what I outsource myself and not as a do as I say, not as I do thing, but I'm a little bit of an exception just because I've I published four books in five years and also, I'm sorry, five books in five years, five and a half, and I support clients to do this. so, that's why I I'll tell you what I do, but obviously don't feel like that's something you have to do because we are different. And so let's go ahead and get started. So the first thing you want to consider when you're thinking about what you should outsource, it's to really think about your time. And so, this looks like thinking about the time that you have that you can commit to either learning the process for the different publishing steps, as well as the time that you have and want to commit to actually vetting sources or making sure that the information you're getting is valid or making sure that it's a good source to even be following. Or on the opposite end, making sure that you are spending that time to vet individuals. If you know you want to hire somebody, you know you want to work with someone, then you obviously want to make sure that all the all the t's are crossed, all the i's are dotted and all that good stuff. And we'll talk about scammers and publishing another day, but it is a pretty rampant thing to have people who are a little suspect. And so you want to spend your time really focusing either on vetting folks to work with or really understanding the publishing process and learning the steps.
There are multiple steps and multiple components. And so you really want to think about, okay, if you're going to DIY or if you're going to do something with support, so maybe you're joining a coaching program for a certain portion, or maybe you are working one-on-one with somebody, you want to think about what really fits your lifestyle with the time that you have. And so if you know, okay, I really want to learn how to do this. I really want to take the time to understand it. Just be mindful that your book might take longer to come out and you have to be okay with that if that's what you're working with. And then you also want to consider, okay, maybe you do want to learn the process so that we can make sure that whoever you do hire is doing it with fidelity. That takes time too, and so it's important to really find that balance. Another thing you want to consider about timing is to think, would my time be better served doing something else that builds my brand more directly? Because obviously your book will build your brand, but would my time be better spent doing something that has a more immediate return that I can then use those funds that I make from that immediate return to then hire somebody who's qualified to do this. And then the next thing you want to consider is your money. Of course, obviously publishing takes expenses and that always, I always like make a face when I read online or people say you shouldn't pay for publishing. Literally publishing costs money. So you're either going to pay your time.
You're either going to pay money or you'll pay the next thing that I'm going to talk about. You're going to have to exert some type of exchange. There has to be something that's exchanged in order for you to get a book in your hands. And so when it comes to your funds, your finances, you want to think about it like this. So if you're thinking, OK, I don't have a ton that I want to invest in this or that I can invest in this, you have a couple options. It doesn't just have to be, well, OK, well, I'm going to do everything myself. You have options such as investing in courses to be able to learn up love of your skills. You have it options that maybe you're not able to purchase an entirely done for you package, but maybe you are able to do an option that's a little guided versus completely done for you. So don't feel like it's completely out of the box for you to be able to have to have the help that you need. And if you're going to invest a lower amount, keep in mind that it means that it's going to be more work for you typically. And just be open minded to that and be aware that it might take trial and error.
When you're investing in someone's expertise, you're investing in the time and energy that they have already spent. You're investing in the years that they have to be able to learn how to do this. You're also investing in their expertise. And so for example, one thing I do for clients is I evaluate other book covers that are in their genre. And then I also look and see, thinking about the things they've told me, I see, okay, well, actually this might be something that we can pull some inspiration from or for example for their keywords and categories if they're uploading, if we're uploading their book to Amazon, then I do the time to actually do that deep dive research for them. So they've invested in me because I've invested in myself to be able to understand what will help that book to sell and also what will help it to publish successfully. And so there is always gonna be a trade off. So if you are decreasing that investment that you have, then you might need to build in time for studying you might need to build in time for potential errors because maybe when you are completing these steps that you might end up having to redo them more times than if you were to hire a professional who's done this for years and years. Now on the flip side, if you're someone who's like, I'm ready to invest, I'm ready to go all in, wonderful, that's great. But you also want to consider that you need to vet folks accordingly. So there is this huge company that was charging $40,000 for publishing and publishing and marketing and people were not getting their books and so people just kind of went with them because they were kind of a big name in publishing and it turned into this whole thing and so just because someone has a higher price point that doesn't necessarily mean that they are just a better quality of a company or a better person to go with you really want to vet folks and you really want to vet companies to make sure it's in alignment with you and your goals and to make sure that they are someone who you would like to work with long term. It can take quite a bit of time to publish a book especially if you're going through the editing process with them, which is included in the packages that my company offers. And you want to be mindful that you are going to be locked in with them for a while. And you want to be mindful that you also are going to want to have extended conversations with the company or with the person. And so finding someone who's a good fit for you is so important. Even if you are thinking, okay, I can just pay somebody to do it and it'll be done. That's true to some degree, but you're still going to have to take the time and you're still going have to spend and expound the energy to build that relationship with them and to complete the processes that they have in place. And so when you think about it that way, you want to be very clear on what it is that you are agreeing to, and we'll talk about that in just a bit. But you also want to that relationship with that publisher and really see, is this somebody who I would like to help me bring my book baby to life? And so one story with that is making sure that or have a story for this, but making sure that you are in alignment with your desired results versus the outcomes that the company provides. And so one thing that people come to me and they'll ask me from time to time is, can you take a look at my book? Cause I want to see if it's good enough. And for me personally, I do not operate my company in that way. I don't say whether or not it's good enough. I'm not a traditional publisher. I'm not somebody who's going to gatekeep publishing. I'm not someone who's going to say, well, this is not good enough, I'm not a gatekeeper. I more so support you to be able to bring your systems and processes out to the masses or out to your desired audience and I help you to be aligned with the correct editor, to be able to look at the nitty gritty of it, so like the mechanics of your writing, the flow of your writing, that kind of thing. However, when it comes to the content, I generally attract people who are already doing something that is showcasing their expertise or they have a system or they have some type of framework that they're using and they're already able to get people results. So if you already have clients, you already have customers who you are using the exact content with to be able to produce some type of result for them, then packaging that into a book, one is a no-brainer, but also it already means that your content is good enough. So I'm not somebody who's gonna be like, well, this is not good enough, I'm not publishing this. Because in all honesty, that's not my job. My job is to help you bring an extra stream of income, to help you bring an extra option to generate leads to your business so that it already fits within your existing ecosystem. And so with that, I typically turn away folks who are looking for that validation that you're "good enough" because that's not what I do. It's more so I want to help support you to do what you do, but in a way that won't make you as exhausted as you might currently be.
Or that might not spread you as thin as you currently are because you have another component that is working behind the scenes for you in the package of your book. So hopefully that makes sense. So what I do, I of course do spend time building my clients up and also pray over them as well if it makes sense. But I'm someone who supports you to reach that end goal versus like, I'm not someone who's gonna say, I'm not someone who is similar to a traditionally published traditionally a traditional publisher in the sense that we're not accepting your book because of XYZ. Mine is more so do you fit or are our ideals aligned and is this something I think I can help you get a result with? If it's not then no I'm gonna say okay I think you should probably work with this person or you should probably work with this person and I say that because just recently someone wanted to refer a children's book author to me for publishing and I said well actually I don't do that for variety of reasons but it just wasn't a good fit in that sense because that's not typically the people that I work with from a publishing standpoint. I do work with children's book authors for marketing but typically publishing I'm not gonna touch that because it requires a whole different set of expertise that I haven't honed at this point.
When you are focusing on that higher investment, you want to really have high clarity about how you're communicating your vision so that way you get the desired result that you want. So you want to make sure that as you're vetting folks or as you're researching that the person or company that you're picking is really aligned with what it is that you want to do. You want to make sure it's something that done either personally, preferably personally, personally, as well as that they do for clients.
And then the next thing, so we've talked about time, we've talked about money, and then the next thing is your energy. Now all three of these are different ways to invest, and so energy is one that you're have to invest whether you are investing your time or your money. You're gonna have to give some energy. Now if you're someone who's like, I don't really have a ton of energy, if you're low energy individual, or maybe you're in a phase of your life where you just cannot commit the amount of energy to it that you need to, then you're likely going want to outsource things because if you don't, what will end up happening is your publishing timeline will take longer than you want. And then it'll also be something where you might become frustrated with yourself of like, it's been X number of years and I still haven't gotten this done. And so in order to just overcome that, then yes, I would suggest hiring for the majority, if not all of your publishing process.
Now at the same time, if you are hiring, you are going to want to be mindful that you still have to do some homework. So y'all know I have an education background, so you're have to do some homework. There's still gonna be something that's your responsibility on your end. So for my clients, for example, they have to respond to questionnaires, they have to fill out certain things. There's a few pieces that they have to do in order for us to do the rest. And the clients that typically are successful with their publishing or successful with their marketing have made sure that they do those things in a timely manner, they make sure they do them with fidelity so that way they're getting the results they want to see. And then also you have to show up to things. So for example, I do provide coaching as a part of my packages currently. And so making sure you're showing up and asking the questions and getting the feedback that you need and doing the things that it takes to build your confidence or overcome imposter syndrome or whatever it is that we're working on inside your publishing package. Those are all things that you're to have to make sure you're doing in order to get the results you want.
And then really understanding that even if you're hiring someone, it's a mutual partnership is key because yes, it's you're hiring this company. You're kind of offloading the responsibility, but you still have responsibility yourself, too. You have to be there in terms of being there mentally, physically in some cases, or even emotionally in other cases. Now, of course, we know life, life be life and life happens. And so as an example, there are times in my life where I've had to provide or I've had to have my VA do additional portions for me where maybe, for example, when my kids were babies. So I have a six-year-old and a two-year-old. So when they're a little little, I can't do as much. And so there's certain things that I have her do, or there's certain things that we might delegate to an outside company to support with, or there might be a time where I'm making sure that I'm hiring additional help to be able to get things done. On the flip side, if you're someone who has high energy, then that means you're going to be ready to learn the skills from the formatting to doing your copyright, to getting your ISBNs done, all of these different components, all these different steps, they all have multiple steps. just for formatting, there are multiple steps for formatting for the cover design. There are multiple steps for cover design. So if you're saying, okay, I have high energy and that can also mean that you might be committed to learning how to do the work, but you still may need support and that could be in the form of a course or short-term coaching or even attending something such as my live event, Profitable Publishing™ Live. It's a two day intensive to help you to be able to outline, to begin drafting, and also to understand how to publish your book profitably. And so I'll share some information about that at the end, or you can check it out in the show notes. And regardless of which option you pick, you want to make sure that you're asking for help, even if it means you have already started. So if maybe you started off and you thought, okay, ready to do this, I'm gonna figure everything out but then you get in it and you get overwhelmed. It's totally okay to upgrade to a different type of option for you, that's totally fine. Don't let pride or things like that get in your way of blocking you from being able to publish your book. And so now I want to speak to the folks who have already decided you want to hire someone for something, maybe you're not quite sure exactly what but maybe you understand okay. I can't do this by myself. I probably want to hire for all of it, if not most of it. But maybe you still want to be involved in the process because done for you kind of gets a bad rap because people think, or bad rap, people think, okay, done for you means I'm not doing anything. Absolutely not the case. There are definitely things that you need to do and done for you services. So when it comes to a couple options that you typically are going to come across is of course, self-publishing. We know that's an option. However, there are other options such as hybrid publishing or working with a consultant like myself.
So with hybrid publishing, you typically are sharing the responsibility as well as the royalties with the publisher. The ownership can vary. It really depends on the individual contract you have with the person or with the company. So be mindful and read your contract. Then if you're working with a consultant like myself, I consider myself to be a self-publishing consultant. I advise authors, co-jus consultants to be able to complete their book while also helping them execute it. So also helping them get done.
And I like to think of it as we project manager publishing for you. And so my authors keep their rights and royalties and I help them to be able to make wise decisions based upon their goals that they have. And so they're the owners of the book. I'm more so the one helping them get to the finish line. And so that looks like a couple of different ways. I mentioned the live event that's happening in February and then also when that event is over or anytime if you're listening to this anytime outside of the event, I do also offer this as a one on one service to be able to complete your book and to help you to be able to understand the profitable publishing process and apply it to your book. And so with that, you have different options. It doesn't just have to be self-publishing or traditional publishing. There's tons of options in between. And so when you're hiring folks, I'm gonna give you a couple of things to consider in your contracts and also just in general. So you wanna really think about and read the fine print about who's the owner of your work you want to make sure that you are looking at those ISBNs, the copyright section, all of that's very important because that's going to dictate what you can do with your book and where it can show up. And then another one that I find that clients don't consider if they work with a different publisher and then they come over to me is that where are your files actually stored in order for them to be uploaded to these sites such as Amazon or IngramSpark? What I found multiple times is that the author's files are inside the publisher's account on Amazon versus their own account on Amazon. And so they're not able to make changes. They're not able to update things that really affect their marketing, running ads. Like there's so many different things that are problematic with that situation if you want to have the ability to have flexibility. They're also not able to check their rights and rules, or I'm sorry, they're not able to check their royalties. They have to wait on someone else to tell them. And so I don't do any of that. I support authors to be able to house it in their own accounts, to be able to help them to have a full picture and have that ownership.
And so you want to look at that if those things are important to you. Now, also you want to consider your timeline. If you want your book out quickly, then you're likely going to have to hire someone and it's likely going to be more expensive if you're doing some type of rush situation. And then also if you want your book done professionally to attract your clients, to attract your customers, then you want to be willing to invest that time and money to get it done because when you think about it, you want people to invest in you, but then you might not be investing in yourself.
And so your book is an investment that will pay off for years and years and years to come. And so you really want to be mindful of not cutting corners. And if you're going to DIY some things, make sure they're things that still look professional. And if you are doing that DIY route, then you want to have time to learn how to process the information, not just learn it. So when I think about things such as you are focusing on when you're focusing on, I'm learning this thing, but now you have to actually apply the thing. And so that can be tricky if you are only focused on, okay, the course that you might be taking, for example, is this long, or maybe you're thinking, okay, my edits are this long. You also have to account for life. Like if you're working full time, if you have some other obligations, publishing on top of that can be very extensive. And so you really want to consider and be honest with yourself how you can make that happen that also in a way that also aligns with your budget and also your capacity that you have. So just really, really, really be honest with yourself about what you can get done and realize that it's okay if things change and things shift and that there's space for you to adjust accordingly. Now know for me personally, I look at my life and I say, okay, I only work with publishing clients during these months of the year. Cause I know personally, I like to be pretty much off for the summer and it could be the years of teaching that I like having that off for the summer. And so I'll do things that are a lower lift. Also, knowing that during certain times of the year, like the end of the year, so like November through December, that if you're having people do certain things for you, so if you're hiring contractors, then they might be off. And so you're having to account for that inside your publishing timeline because people will take off during that time of year more often than others.
Then you want to also consider your goals and think about, okay, is hiring this person or is doing this myself, whichever one you choose, is this going to help me to reach the goal that I want to reach? So for example, I've had people come to me and say, I want to reach New York Times bestseller status, but they come and it's less than 90 days before their book is out. And in my mind, I'm like, okay, if this is a goal you really want, you probably going to have to push your book back. And also you have to really consider, I spending the time doing the marketing that needs to be done?
That's something that takes months, if not years to prepare for. Also, you need to find somebody who specializes in that, because I am not that person. So, find someone who focuses on that, because that's more in alignment with what your goal is. And then, center someone who knows you want to use your book to attract your audience and build your brand. You also want to consider the things that you might have to build out around the book. So, if you don't already have existing services that already complement your book, you want to account for, if my book is going to be out at this time, is that going to give me enough time to create the matching masterclass? Is that going to give me enough time to get testimonials from my program? So for example, when I was first running my pre-order profits program, that is the program that I have that's a group accelerator and it supports authors to be able to pre-sell their book, their audience and generate income before their book was released. I knew that I wanted to use the case studies from the cohort of people inside the actual book, Pre-Order Profits, to be able to help people to understand in real time, like this works. And so if you don't already have this, if you are looking here, you can see that. And if not, I'll put it in the show notes. But you want to think about what are the things that I have to build on top of this that are outside of my book? And do I have the capacity, do I have the bandwidth to be able to include that in the timeline that I am selecting for this book?
Now, I promised I would share the things that I outsource personally, and so I'll share those and then we will wrap up. So things I outsource personally are things that take a lot of time and that also I understand how to do, but I'm okay having someone else do it. Now, for you, you might have a different way that you decide this, but when I think about it, I would rather pay someone to do something that they do consistently. So for example, for formatting, if all you do is format or most of the work that you do is formatting, the likelihood of you making a mistake is much lower than me making a mistake who might be trying to do 50 million things. So formatting, that's something I always outsource. And if you're not familiar with the term, it means that basically taking your book from your manuscript and putting it into a book sizing format. So it can be time consuming, there's a high margin for error, and if you make a mistake on your formatting, it affects your cover and it affects pretty much everything else in the book. So I outsource that.
Then I also outsource the editing. And so I do three rounds of editing. I work with editors that are aligned to the books that I publish and also them out, my clients publish. And it's always just good to have a separate set of eyes because you are so in it that you're not able to see those mistakes, those errors, things like that. Now I do manage the beta reader process for my books. However, in terms of developmental copy line editing, I typically outsource that. There happened a couple of times I've done copy and line editing myself.
But typically I have someone else do that and I do typically do my own proofreading, proofing. Then cover design is another one I outsource, but I outsource it with very clear and specific guidelines to the point where I'm picking the images, I'm picking the color codes, I'm drawing stick figures and doing mockups in Canva. Not to the point where it's so much that the cover designer doesn't have to do anything, but I am giving them a really clear picture of what I want so that way they can execute it.
And for me, that just fits with what I've done in my experience because before this business, before my food business, I had a business with my sister where we did wedding invitations and event decorations. And so I just naturally have an eye for artistic things. And so I can tell when a cover is like a great choice, where it's going to look good, even as a thumbnail size, when people are scrolling and when it's missing something. And so those are things that I personally outsource.
When you're deciding for yourself, you really want to think about your capacity. You want to think about the time you have, the money and the energy that you can devote to it, because all of that is going to affect how it actually comes to play. It affects how you're able to actually execute these things, whether or not you're able to execute them, and everything in between.
So if you know that you would like to work with me to be able to publish your book in either an individual or group setting, then I want to invite you to Profitable Publishing Live. It's a two-day intensive that's happening February 12th and 13th, and there are tickets available for the virtual or in-person option. And there, we'll be able to actually walk through the process of outlining your book, being able to share what kind of things you need to include in order to generate that income and to publish profitably, well as showing you the entire profitable publishing process so that way you can use this for a lifetime to come for all of your books. And so if that's something you want to learn more about, I'm actually including a discount code for podcast listeners so you can add the code podcast at checkout and the site is profitableselfpublishing.com / live and I'll put it in the show notes for you as well. Until next time, let me know what you are outsourcing and what you are deciding to DIY.
And until next time, thanks for tuning in and stay profitable.
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