This is post #4 in my blog series looking at self-publishing from a South African perspective. Check out the full list of posts on the Self-Publishing in South Africa page 🙂
As I pointed out in the introduction to this blog series, having access to the Internet means you don’t have to work with professionals who are based in your country. Email, Skype, Google Docs, Dropbox and other online services make it easy to communicate and collaborate with people all over the world. But if you’d prefer someone local, here’s a list of South African freelance publishing professionals. This is a post-in-progress, and I’ll continue adding to it as names are brought to my attention 🙂
Ebook & Print Book Formatters
(aka Ebook Conversion & Print Typesetting)
Renee Naude
David Henderson @ My eBook
Illustrators and Book Cover Designers
Renee Naude
Wendy Bow @ Apple Pie Graphics
David Henderson @ My eBook
Editors & Proofreaders
Catherine Busch Eberle @ Wordweavers
Angela Meadon
David Henderson @ My eBook
Kim McCarthy
Nerine Dorman
Bronwen Muller
Lisa Witepski
Audiobook Producers
Audioshelf
David Henderson @ My eBook
Publicists/Online Promotion
Helen Holyoake @ Helco Promotions
Monique Bernic
Please mention names in the comments if you’d like to recommend a local freelance publishing professional 🙂
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Thank you for the time and effort you put into this list, Rachel. It is appreciated. Have a great week.
You’re welcome, Murees! Most of them came as suggestions/recommendations from other authors, so it wasn’t too much effort for me 😉 You have a great week too!
We need to have you sum all of this up for a post at the IWSG!
Interesting question for you, Alex … do you know whereabouts in the world the authors of the IWSG are located? Are there many South Africans?
Hi Rachel.
If I may attempt to answer the last question…
To my knowledge, there are 3 or 4 South Africans over at the IWSG.
Thanks for all this info.
Great information Rachel! However, I would like to know if this applies for children’s books ( picture books) as well. Why did you make use of some professionals outside of SA instead?
Thanks, Micheline!
I need to check in with some authors of children’s books to find out what editors and illustrators they’ve used. I’ll post any updates here.
The reason I’ve used professionals outside of SA is because:
1) those are the people I “met” first (I started out as a blogger before I began publishing, and the writer-blogger community I found myself in consisted mainly of Americans)
2) most of my books are written with an American audience in mind, so it helps to have an American editor (because of American-specific spelling, phrases, and terms)
xx R
Do you mind sharing which editor(s) you’ve used personally? It’s hard to know who to trust with words and money. I’ve loved your books and will trust who you trust, if you don’t mind putting it out there for all to see…. I’ve followed your journey from the beginning, and think maybe I’m ready to take the publishing plunge. Thanks, Christy
Hi, Rachel.
Thank you for your great inputs. I’m searching for a way for a friend to have her books printed and bound (children’s books) and am turning up some crazy high numbers.
Do you have any recommendations on places in SA where printing a small children’s book won’t cost between R150 and R200 each? There will be zero margin for her at these prices.
Also – I have a friend to suggest who has done loads of copywriting and editing for print and magazines. Jenna-Lea Kelland from Copycat – I will share her contact details with you if you’d like them. It’s a little spammy to put them here right off the bat.
Thank you in advance!
Hi Angelique
I’m afraid I don’t know anything about getting children’s books printed, as I’ve only ever done novels. I’ll email you the contact details for someone who knows more than I do 🙂
Hi,
I use Gabby as my illustrator, she’s local and very affordable out of so many quotes I received. She does high-quality digital illustrations (children books included)
https://nightshadeberry.weebly.com/
A friend of mine is a voice artist, http://www.tylcreations.co.za/it-belongs-to-my-man/
Thanks for these recommendations! Gabby’s work looks amazing, and the samples from your voice artist friend sound fantastic. A great option for anyone looking for a male, South African voice.
Dear Rachel
I have an established hard copy bookstore on my website and all my books are ebook ready on epub, kindle and pdf. I need someone to provide DRM protection on my books to prevent copyright infringement.
Do you provide this service or know of someone in South Africa who can add this protection for me?
Hi Martin,
I’m sorry, I don’t offer that service and I don’t know of anyone who does. All the major ebook publishing platforms (Apple, Amazon, Kobo etc) offer the option to apply DRM to an ebook when publishing that book via each of those platforms. That’s the only way I know of to get DRM protection onto an ebook.