New editing business to focus on ebooks
A new Australian editing business aimed at individual authors wanting to self-publish ebooks launched this month.
Ebookedit was founded by Nicola O’Shea and Keith Stevenson. O’Shea is a regular freelancer for many Australian publishers, is involved in the New South Wales Writers’ Centre mentor program and the Australian Society of Authors’ manuscript development service, and has taught editing for the Australian Publishers Association, the University of Technology Sydney and Sydney University. Stevenson is a former editor of Aurealis Magazine and publisher of coeur de lion publishing.
Ebookedit offers editing services, which are undertaken by O’Shea, and ebook and print-on-demand file formatting and conversion services, which are undertaken by Stevenson, and contains an overview of the self-publishing process and links to further information on its website. While the business currently caters for individual authors, as opposed to small publishing companies, O’Shea and Stevenson told Books+Publishing that this may change in the future
‘Along with everyone else, we’ve witnessed the shift in the publishing industry caused by the rise of ebooks and the growth in independent authors choosing to publish their own work,’ said O’Shea of the decision to launch the business. ‘While there are quite a number of US-based businesses offering file conversion and editing services for these authors, there aren’t many on the ground in Australia yet. Also, while working with authors in a freelance editing capacity, we’ve become aware of a strong interest from many of them in pursuing self-publishing [so] we decided to develop a business that could help them achieve their goals.’
O’Shea said that ebookedit’s connection to the local industry will set the company apart from other self-publishing services. ‘We’re based in Australia, we understand the Australian publishing environment, and we have almost 20 years of editing and publishing experience to draw on,’ she said. ‘Our services are also designed to provide the maximum flexibility and control for the author. The author can choose which editing and file conversion services they want us to provide.’
O’Shea said that the company is not a publisher, with clients retaining full rights to their work. ‘We don’t publish the books overselves—the author retains full control over marketing and selling their work—but we understand the various file requirements of the major publishing platforms and provide a number of versions of the converted file to meet those requirements,’ said O’Shea.
For more information about ebookedit, visit the website here.
Category: Local news
