Pile of Books on Wooden Table

Wendiilou Publishing

Wendiilou Publishing is a hybrid publisher and publishing preparation service. We provide all the services you need to create a professional book from editing, proofreading, and formatting, to cover design and publication. Our services can be accessed individually or combined into a complete publication package.

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Email Address

wendiiloupublishing@gmail.com

Phone Number

0468 998 268

Owner - operator

Wendy Brown

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Wendiilou Publishing, Books, and Gifts: Our story.

Wendiilou came about out of a dissatisfaction with the available options for authors. When my mum wrote her first few books, the only real option available to her was vanity publishing - expensive, time-consuming, and ultimately unprofitable.


Then, someone suggested self-publishing, so with little more than a manuscript, a cover concept, and some optimism, we gave it a shot!

Through trial and error, and more trial, and bigger errors, we worked our way through and discovered, that daunting as it was, we could do this - and if we could do it for ourselves, we could help others.


So - initially we started Reading Stones Publishing, focussed on clean and wholesome, spiritual, and Christian titles - but what if a book didn't fit that box?


Wendiilou Publishing was borne of not wanting to be stuck in a box - and here we are. At Wendiilou, we can help you publish your book - regardless of your theme or genre. From editing and proofreading, to cover design, we have the know-how to get you there, and we do it for a fraction of the cost of vanity publishing.

What We Offer

Editing

For just $2.00 per 100 words or part thereof, we will give your work a thorough edit and proofread, offering suggestions, checking for consistency, and ensuring a professional final product.


Proofreading

Already had your book editied? Our proofreading services are just $1.00 per 100 words or part thereof. The final, and absolutely essential, step before publication.

Formatting

Professional formatting of your book ready to publish. Print and eBook formatting available from $15 per 100 pages or part thereof. Print formatting is included in our "Proofread + Publish" packages

Covers

They say "Don't judge a book by its cover", but of course, people do. Whether you have a fully-formed cover concept in mind, or no idea where to start, we can help.

Our cover design services start at $25

Manuscript Assessment

Just want an opinion on your book? We can help there too. Our manuscript assessment service will provide you with a through assessment of your book, with notes on story line, gaps and inconsistencies, character development, as well as work required for editing and proofreading.

Up to 300 pages $50 301-600 pages $75 601 + pages $100


Book reviews also available. Contact us for more information.

Publishing

The all-important final step - publishing. Wendiilou utilises a print-on-demand service for publishing. While some costs involved in this are outside of our control, we only charge you what it costs us, plus commission on sales- as low as 20%. Contact us for a quote.

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Click on the link below to visit our online store:

Meraki Books and Gifts

or pop into our new shopfront,

92 Otho Street

INVERELL, NSW, AUSTRALIA


Please note: this link will take you to our shop website.

Reviews

At my first attempt at writing a Children's Book, I found that Wendy was extremely helpful with giving me some guidelines on what I should do & helpful hints to complete my Children's Book.


Being unsure of what had to be done so Wendy was able to give me Feedback when I felt discouraged & felt like throwing the towel in.


With Wendy's encouragement, I was able to complete my project. I can't speak highly enough of Wendy. She is highly recommended - Juleeia Sneesby

[The Adventures of Dai, and, More Adventures of Dai and I]

FAQ

·FAQ – WENDIILOU PUBLISHING & READING STONES PUBLISHING


So,I’ve written a book – how do I go about getting published?

  • The most common way is to contact publishers and submit your book for consideration – be prepared to be turned down – a lot.
  • There are 4 main types of publishers:
  • ·Traditional Publishing - Most traditional publishers will not take on new authors, or only take on a couple each year. While the most common comment I see about traditional publishers is that “the don’t charge you”, this is completely incorrect. Traditional publishers may not charge you up front, but they will keep a high percentage of your royalties – they need to make money too. If you sell $1m worth of books, you may only see $200,00 or less


  • ·Vanity publishing – these will generally publish anything – however, they will charge you a lot of money, usually in the thousands, and that won’t even cover proofreading or editing services. They will send you a lot of documentation and instructions on how to format everything to their specifications, but it is all up to you. We have had some experience with this, and once our files were submitted, if there were any changes needed, we were looking at hundreds of dollars extra. Then, they proceeded to contact us regularly for marketing packages – again, costing thousands of dollars. On top of this, they only paid 10% royalties.


  • WE ARE DIFFERENT
  • Hybrid publishing – or assisted self-publishing. This is what we do. We offer a range of publishing and preparation services: each service stands alone but can also be combined in a complete publishing package.
  • ·Editing and proofreading – these should be done by someone other than the author. It is very easy to miss mistakes when you know what it is supposed to say. We offer this service as part of our business, we don’t insist you let us do it, but we do insist that you let someone do it. Most editors will charge you between 3-5 cents per word, although this can vary considerably. If you are lucky, you may have a friend or relative who will offer their services for much less.
  • ·Cover and book design – decide how you want the book to look – enlist the help of an artist/designer for your cover. Again, this can vary considerably in price and be aware of copyright issues that could arise from the use of images and fonts.
  • ·Formatting – your book will need to be formatted so it is consistent throughout and meets the printer’s specifications. This should be checked and rechecked as technology can have a tendency to change things without warning – we have been caught out once or twice!
  • ·Publishing – we can take care of the publishing for you – see “Self-publishing” below, greatly reducing your upfront costs as we can buy bulk ISBNs, and already have our ABN and account set-up, saving you time and money.
  • Higher royalty percentage. Some hybrid publishers will charge a lot of money up-front, and then pay you 100% of your royalties, others, like us, will charge a lower up-front fee, and then keep a smaller royalty percentage, we keep as little as 20%, but we are also flexible in our arrangement because we never want to make publishing inaccessible.


  • Self-publishing.
  • ·In addition to the usual (Proofread/edit/format/design) you also need to purchase 1 ISBN for each version of your book: e.g. softcover/hardcover/eBook. In Australia, this is done through Thorpe-Bowker and the price starts at $44/ISBN plus a registration fee and then reduces if you buy in bulk.(10/100/1000)
  • ·To self-publish through IngramSpark, you also need to set up an account and have an ABN. IngramSpark are an American-based company, but they do have a printing facility in Australia and a distribution network of over 39,000 retailers. We have been very happy with their service over the last 3 years or so.
  • §In all cases, if your book is published in Australia, you must submit a copy to the National Library and your state library. These are kept as a permanent record. Books can be submitted as physical or digital files. If submitting a physical book, you must provide 2 copies (one for state and one for national), digital files only need to be submitted once.
  • Royalties - When you self-publish, you do all the work, and therefore get all the royalties. We do offer a support service, for a minimal hourly fee, to help you get all set up and going if you choose to follow this path. Once our support fee is paid, there is nothing extra to pay us.


I want to write a book – where do I start?

  • Write!
  • As your ideas come to you, write them down (you may not remember them later). Even dot points can help you to remember your ideas.
  • If the idea of writing a whole book is too overwhelming, just write a chapter, if that’s too much, write a paragraph – you will get there. Don’t worry too much about the sequence at this point…. You can always rearrange things later.
  • Get a trusted friend to read what you have written, get feedback from them and use this to improve your writing.


How do I set a RRP for my book?

  • The RRP is a suggested price for retailers to sell your book. We offer retailers a 55% discount on RRP – and most retailers will not stock books unless they get the maximum discount. So, we set our RRPs by looking at the printing cost of the book, plus the 55% discount and then set it high enough so that we can receive a royalty payment. When we sell books face to face – rather than through a retailer, we consider the printing and delivery costs of the book and then set the price.


Why is my book listed at different prices on different sites?

  • The RRP is just a suggestion. Once a retailer has purchased a book (usually for 55% less than the RRP) they can then sell the book for however much they want, depending on how much profit they wish to make from it. Their price has no bearing on royalties, as by the time it is sold by them, the author has already been paid.


I am an illustrator/artist – how can I let people know that I could do illustrations for their books?

  • We have a page on our website [woodwendy1982.wixsite.com/readingstones] called “Artists and Illustrators connect”, this is a free service we decided to offer, where artists can supply samples of their work and authors can contact them directly. Artists can set their own prices and negotiate payment directly with authors.
  • §There are also websites specifically for these kinds of services – for example airtasker and fiverr where people looking for someone to do a job, and people looking for jobs to do can connect.