Manuscript Services
You have written something, or maybe you want to write something:
- An idea for a book;
- A number of small texts;
- A chapter overview;
- A complete manuscript;
- The first sentence of what will become your book; or
- Something else;
that you would love to see flowering into a real book!
What is it you are going to do to make this vision real?
Maybe I (Door de Flines/Flindor) can help you. I’ve worked as a senior editor for over twenty years in different publishing houses in The Netherlands, at commercial imprints such as A.W. Bruna, Het Spectrum and Meulenhoff-de Boekerij. In non-fiction mostly, which is also what I am concentrating on now. I’ve acquired rights to hundreds of books over the years, both in English as well as Dutch originals. I’ve always enjoyed working with authors on their next book.
The Book Idea
You have a crystal clear idea of what you want to write, or the idea needs some extra attention and polishing to get where you want it, before you start the actual writing.
How do you see your future book touching the soul of the reader? What will the reader experience when your words are reaching her or his eyes, mind and multidimensional senses?
The very beginning
In this phase, the start of our cooperation is as follows: write me an e-mail and I will pose a few questions about yourself and the purpose of your publication. You may want to answer these questions in our first conversation, in an e-mail, or you may make them part of a one page specifically written ‘pitch’ for your book. Your pitch and answers will start our conversation about them. This will either be done in a Skype conversation, or a meeting in my office. This conversation has two purposes: to assess from both ends if we are compatible in all possible ways – which includes finances. And the conversation should lead to clarity about your next step towards your published book.
‘Writing a book’ is a creative process. It cannot follow a fixed recipe and cannot be nailed down in any way. It is like a journey through uncharted terrain. Life is never boring while on this journey, all other emotions will be available to you in large quantities. If we are compatible and if we reach an agreement on the next step, I would be honored to be your mentor in your journey to become a (self) published book author. The next step usually also involves a comprehensible agreement that we both sign.
From Book Idea to Manuscript
You know what you want and I will facilitate you. You may decide for instance, that you want me to ghostwrite your book. We will have multiple conversations, I will record these and write first an outline of the book, followed by the chapters. Both the Introduction and the Epilogue are usually the very last chapters that I write.