Book Review: Navigating Indieworld By Julie Gerber and Carole P Roman

NAVIGATING INDIEWORLD
A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Publishing and Marketing Your Book

By: Julie Gerber and Carole P. Roman

Published: September 4, 2016

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Non-Fiction

I have reviewed many of Carole P Roman’s children’s books over the years. She started writing later in life and has self-published all of her books as well as creating a business of marketing and self-publishing many books for other authors. In this book, she collaborates with her daughter to offer advice and steps to follow for those wanting to write a book and look at possibly self-publishing their book.

Even though I have no intention of ever writing a book, I found this book helpful as a way for me to understand the process that authors go through to “sell” their book and get it into the hands of readers. As a blogger and book reviewer, I get emails on a daily basis from authors and publishers asking me to read their book. I can’t possibly read every single book that comes into my path, but I do read each and every email and respond when my interest is piqued. I found some of the advice regarding what to put in your synopsis, back cover, and the elevator pitch extremely interesting. I can think of many books that I felt gave too much info on the back cover and others that gave unnecessary information about the story. This can make or break it for a reader. I learned that there was a standard size range for books to fit on library shelves and you want to make sure your book fits those ranges.

After reading through this book, I can appreciate the time self-published authors spend on creating, selling, and marketing their book. All the hours spent writing, editing, and publishing and authors are still not done, My job of reviewing their book is just a small piece of that marketing puzzle.

Gerber and Roman do an excellent job of giving ideas and explaining each step of the process in a simple and easy to understand format. Each chapter is brief and to the point and authors can make a checklist of sorts to help them stay on task and work their way through the process of self-publishing.

Gerber and Roman also offer lists of websites that would be helpful to authors in their writing process as well as publishing and marketing. I must say, that I was thrilled to be one of the respected websites listed as providing quality reviews. I appreciated that the authors warned readers that bloggers and book reviewers have limited time to read books. They recommended using their correct name and respecting their time and not expecting a review in just a few weeks. I am grateful that Gerber and Roman shared this with authors and especially the point that just because you send a book out doesn’t mean you will get a review. As a reviewer, I know how much time and money is spent getting books in the reviewer’s hands and I do my best to review as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

I read the kindle version of this book which I purchased and unfortunately found several mistakes throughout this book in grammar and misused words. One of the focuses of the book was the importance of editing and I was surprised to find so many mistakes while reading. It’s one of my pet peeves while reading a book. While I know not every mistake can be found all the time, I felt like this was a book that needed to make that a priority due to the subject matter.

I highly respect Gerber and Roman for all their work writing and promoting authors. They have been fabulous to work with over the years and I look forward to reading many more of Roman’s books. If you are dreaming of writing a book, this is a must-read for you early in the writing process.

Julie Gerber

 Julie A. Gerber is the founder of Away We Go Media, a social media management and consulting firm for authors. She is also a blogger at All The Hits and Misses, Executive Vice President/Business Manager at TopShelf Magazine, Assistant Publisher/Director of Social Media at TopShelf Indie Authors & Books, and co-author of Navigating Indieworld: A Beginner’s Guide To Self-Publishing and Marketing Your Book as well as the best-selling paranormal, Tortured Souls: The House On Wellfleet Bluffs. She can usually be found refereeing her sons or glued to her desktop as she works from home. She lives in Georgia with her husband, two kids, and her little sidekick, a doting Pekingese rescue named Abby. Check out her website, HERE.

Carole P. Roman

Carole P. Roman is the award-winning author of the Captain No Beard series. Both Captain No Beard-An Imaginary Tale of a Pirate’s Life and Captain No Beard and the Aurora Borealis have received the Kirkus Star of Exceptional Merit. The first book in the series was named to Kirkus Reviews Best 2012. Captain No Beard and the Aurora Borealis has just been named to Kirkus Reviews Best of 2015. Each book in the series has won numerous awards including the NABE Pinnacle Award, ERIK Award for 2013, ForeWord Review Five Star and Finalist in the Book of the Year, and Reader’s Views Children’s Book of the Year 2013, Shelf Unbound Best Series, Back to School Resource Winner, IAN, National Indie Excellence Award, MoonBeam Award for If You Were Me and Lived in…Scotland. She is also the author of the award-winning non-fiction culture series If You Were Me and Lived in…exploring customs and culture around the world. She co-authored Navigating Indieworld: A Beginner’s Guide To Self-Publishing and Marketing Your Book, which earned a 5 Star ForeWord Review Clarion Review. Roman lives on Long Island with her husband and near her children and grandchildren. Check out Carole’s website, HERE. 

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