Carla King

Carla King – Designer

Let me help you figure out how to get your book finished, find early readers, formatted, distributed, and marketed in the right categories.

Overview

I started self-publishing my adventure travel books in 1995. Self-publishing didn't become popular until many years later, so it wasn't until 2005 that I went from snubbed to very popular! Authors whose publishers gave them lowball advances started started coming to me for publishing help, as well as new authors who realized that traditional publishing was a failed system.


I enjoyed teaching so much that, in 2010, I founded the Self-Publishing Boot Camp educational program of books and workshops. I've run more workshops than I can count, have created over a dozen online courses, launched the Author Friendly podcast, written six books on self-publishing, and I love helping authors writing and publishing books in all genres.


At the San Francisco Writers Conference, I run the self-publishing and technology track and many sessions and panels on various aspects of independent publishing.


It's interesting that no matter what I talk about - book design and formatting, distribution, beta readers, virtual assistants, finishing your manuscript, your author website, podcasting, audiobooks - it all comes back to book marketing.


So whenever I talk with authors, it's with a marketing mindset. I believe that book marketing should start now, even if you haven't finished - or even begun - writing your manuscript.


I also believe that marketing your book should be fun. So I help you set it up that way. (It's probably easier than you think!)


Sure, there is some tedious work to be done if you want to be successful as an author-publisher. I make it as easy as possible though, with worksheets, cheatsheets, and checklists so you don't miss a step.


If you need education in a certain aspect of self-publishing I can put you in one of my online courses. This is cheaper than one-on-one consulting and it's more efficient and cost effective. By the time we talk, you can ask me the harder questions.


Hey, I'm a geek and a travel writer and I love trying out new things. In second grade I won a gold star for Haiku so I count that as the beginning of my writing career. Even before I finished college I was working as a technical writer in Silicon Valley, then in Multimedia Gulch working on scripts for CD-ROMs. Though I was trying to be a travel writer starting in 1988, I started my career in travel writing in 1994, when I wrote a guide to bicycling the French Riviera.


In 1995, I helped launch this new thing called a blog for this other new thing called the World Wide Web. Most people had heard the word Internet but didn't know what it was all about yet. I loved it. My job was to test ride a Russian sidecar motorcycle called a Ural for the American importers, to see if it worked well enough to import as a specialty bike.

I set off on a solo journey around America with the bike and a laptop. The blog ended up being about breakdowns in small towns all around the USA. I had a blast riding and writing and then creating a book from the blog posts. I went on to blog my way around the world in other unreliable indigenous motorcycles. I also started teaching writers how to blog and create websites.


My writing passion is on the topic of travel but I'm an avid reader of all genres, devouring at least a couple of books a week, and have edited all kinds of stories, as well as fiction and nonfiction books.


If you need help finishing your manuscript, building your author platform, deciding how to distribute your book, editing, designing, formatting, or any other writing or publishing task, please ask. I'd love to help!

Services
Languages
English

Work experience

Self-employed

Jan, 2016 — Present

Learn how to prepare your manuscript, create your publishing business, make, distribute, sell, and market your book.

Choose from over a dozen self-paced online course with lifetime access or purchase the bundle.

I have offered self-publishing workshops to conferences, groups, writing clubs, and other organizations since 2005.

Projects

The Consumer's Guide for Writers & Self-Publishers

This trusted resource is packed full of reviews of the tools and services that help you write, edit, format, design, fund, publish, sell, market, and promote your books.

Keeping up with the products, tools, and services that help writers and self-publishers has been a passion project of mine since 2008 when Amazon and Smashwords launched self-publishing tools. It's not an easy job today as dozens of new products are launched and improved upon each year.

You need this guide (which is free from my website, by the way), to take all the doubt out of your decisions about what vendors to use in your journey as a writer and an independent author.

Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors

The Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors is now available in its 5th edition!

- - - - -

You are an author. Be proud. Be excited. Relish the glory of a finished book. But hold on, don’t get ahead of yourself. The last thing you want to do is publish your book before it’s ready.

Yes, there is still more work to do to produce your book professionally and to make sure it sells.

Make it easier by following the complete step-by-step process in this 5th edition of the Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Independent Authors.

With over twenty years as a writer, self-publisher, web developer, and publishing coach, King has distilled what you need to know to succeed in plain language even a beginner can follow.

You’ll learn how to do critical market research so your book reaches the right readers, how to find book reviewers and early readers who will become your superfans, and how to produce a high-quality book to professional standards so your book competes with the best in your genre.

Find out how to set up a publishing business, how to choose a print-on-demand and ebook distribution service, how to market using social media, and how to reach the traditional media when it’s time to launch your publicity campaign.

This all-inclusive guide will help you do it all yourself or, if you’ve got the resources to hire out tasks, you’ll learn how to negotiate with editors, designers, marketing and PR consultants, and other publishing professionals.

You'll also get access to reader’s resources to get updates to this guide and other bonuses.

Portfolio

Gone are the days when women stayed at home, while men did all the intrepid travelling and exploring. This is a collection of travel tales by women.
A knee replacement guide written by an experienced Physical Therapist, with a twist - a bonus story told through family conversations, as the matriarch prepares for her surgery. After years of knee pain from the wear and tear associated with osteoarthritis, Gr... read more
"Thank you" is what I thought I was supposed to say, when told I didn't 'look Jewish.'" What will make it irresistible for Jewish women to free ourselves of internalized anti-Semitism? This book responds with a rare blend of healing stories, fascinating histor... read more