I’ve written before about FastPencil.com, an online collaborative portal for authors. But “online collaborative portal” doesn’t really convey the whole juicy picture.

Here’s more of the story: When you decide you seriously want to write a book, you may just start writing. Or perhaps you start thinking things through and realizing there are lots of details standing between you and a published book. This may add to your stress, or cause you to put off the whole idea once more.

Or maybe you find out about free publishing sites, like Lulu.com. You go there, find out you have to produce a PDF for the whole thing to work right. You enter into the operational labyrinth–and find out there is no phone support, and email support is leisurely. You make it through the process, somehow; the book looks good on-line, so you order a proof copy, as they recommend. The book arrives a few days later….and it’s full of garbage, because the PDF conversion didn’t work. The on-line version Lulu.com showed you looked fine; it just didn’t come out that way in the book.

Now try to find out what went wrong. And by the way, the book and shipping were at your expense.

I worked with an author who went through 5 cycles like that until getting it right.

FastPencil is different. For one thing, it lets you write on-line; no need to worry about conversion. For another, when you’re ready to convert to different formats, FP worries about that for you.

The FastPencil Marketplace gives you access to cover designers, editors, promoters, and a variety of publishing and distribution options. All inexpensive. (You’ll soon see courses there by me and Dr. Bill Quain that offer you some extra assistance in writing and promoting your book; watch for them.)

Membership in FastPencil is free.

Filed under: book love • book printing • book writing • marketing • publishing • steps to write a book

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