As a self-publishing consultant and services provider, it is always an honor when I get to work directly with an author who has a truly remarkable story to tell. In this spotlight, I’ll be discussing Douglas Swinford and his book Planets, Transplants, and Autocorrect: Raising Three Daughters While Dancing Around Death and Divorce.
Feedback from the Client
I was so fortunate to work with Robert on my book. I was a first-time author who needed so much help to get my project to the finish line. There were so many details I didn't even know about or how to address! Robert knows his business and coached me to improve my manuscript exponentially. I completed the project with his help on page design and publishing, and his knowledge of category placement of the book resulted in the book achieving Amazon Best Seller status within 24 hours of launch, where it continued to be at or near the top sellers for the first few months. Robert is a tireless worker and is very detail-oriented. Thank you for helping me to produce the best book possible!
Douglas Swinford, author
The Portrait of a Man
My first impression of Douglas Swinford definitely involved judging a book by its cover. It’s a great cover, though! He immediately stood out as a salt of the earth, blue-collar American. Hardworking, fiercely loyal to friends and family, and perhaps a little rough around the edges, Doug shines as the “every man” we love to see succeed in life.
Friendly and humorous, Doug is the type of guy you want to shoot the shit with at a barbecue. If you ever have the benefit of meeting him or reading his book, you’ll quickly discover that Doug’s also a welcoming person whose warmth and openness make conversations feel light, even during heavy moments. He can take a joke, even if it’s in slightly poor taste and at his expense, but you also don’t have to be afraid to open up and be vulnerable with him. He’s unafraid to go below the surface, and his words move from small talk into deep conversation without missing a beat. This is the tone he set in our communications, and more importantly, that tone carries throughout his inspiring and entertaining memoir about maintaining hope in the face of what seems like insurmountable odds against a rare chronic liver disease.
The book isn’t really just a medical memoir about his strength as a survivor, though. It’s a story of family, of romance as a single father, of an earnest and humble man just doing his best to hold onto the American dream and, quite literally, his life. It also delivers the tried and true message that, given the opportunity, you should dance, sing, play, and savor life. Perhaps more than anything, it’s about the fact that if we put love into the world, we don’t have to face our troubles alone. I don’t want to give away too much, though. It’s a truly remarkable story and well worth a read if you enjoy personal memoirs written by real people.
RHP’s Involvement
When we started discussing his book, Doug had already written most of the chapters and was working with a developmental editor throughout the writing process. He brought me in to help with further editing, page design, eBook conversion, and assistance throughout the self-publishing processes.
We spent quite a bit of time working together closely to improve sections of the book, build a design he could be happy with, and iron out all the little details for publishing a book. We brought in a cover designer, but a lot of the work involved Doug and me plugging away at it together. Whenever I pushed him, he took my advice seriously, and when he disagreed, he pushed back appropriately. It is this type of back-and-forth that really makes for great books. It was truly one of those efforts where the momentum kept going, yet we still took our time trying to get things done well and not just done. In many ways, his book is one of those projects that really serve to remind me what draws me toward publishing work in the first place: truly inspiring stories from unique yet relatable voices.
コメント