Today’s blog post is brought to you by Autumn, Forgemaster of Design.
I’d like to imagine that, when you visit Fablesmithy, you aren’t greeted by the clanging of tools or heavy smoke puffing out of the forge, but rather the hammering of keys and the waft of our third espresso of the day. Instead of ingots stacked against the wall, it’s a tower of books. And the smithies are covered in ink rather than ash.
Curious about what we do here? Lemme show you around.
OUR ORIGIN STORY
I’m a writer myself and often hang around on X’s #WritingCommunity, where I’ve gotten to know some of the most impressive writers in the indie author space. Over the years, I’ve listened to their triumphs and their struggles and always felt an itch that I could possibly be helpful in some way…
Sometime last fall, two thoughts occurred to me in succession:
(1) Wow, it’s a huge pain in the ass for indies to find, vet, and hire freelance designers, editors, and narrators.
(2) Too bad they can’t hire my friends and me, who know how to do all th–HOLD ON A MINUTE.
And bam! The idea for Fablesmithy was born.
It seemed oddly precipitous that four of us were itching for more creative work and happened to have the right array of skills, knowledge, equipment, and talent to create a total book production studio. We’d all be able to do what we loved while also helping make the lives of indie authors easier.
Before we had finished putting together the company, we already had authors hiring us. We even had to delay our launch in part so we could keep up with the work.
The Forges
We have three different forges cooking here at Fablesmithy to address the guts (the text itself), the skin (the cover), and the astral projection (the audiobook version) of a book:
- Editing (developmental, copy editing, line editing, proofreading, and interior formatting). You pick which level of editing is right for your book: do you want a deep dive, structural edits, or a simple proofreading pass? We can also ensure that your ebooks and printed copies are properly formatted no matter the device or trim level.
- Design (book covers, advertisements, social media banners, “bookmercials,” etc.). More than ever, authors need strong book covers to draw in readers and compete in the crowded online marketplace. But we can also go beyond that and design Amazon promotional graphics, advertisements, logos for swag, etc.
- Narration (audiobooks, voiceovers, and music). Audiobooks have become hot. In 2022, they brought in over $5 billion in revenue, and they’re expected to reach $35 billion by 2030 (source). There’s no reason why indies shouldn’t compete with the big dogs in the audiobook space. We have both female and male narrators here at Fablesmithy and aim to make audiobook production an affordable option for authors.
You can pick and choose which services you’d like from each forge, but if you bundle all three together, you’ll receive a discount. Convenient, eh?
The Forgemasters
Our forgemasters are, well, not particularly brawny or bearded (except Derek; he has the proper face-ware to be here), but they are pretty talented:
- Derek, Forgemaster of Editing: The Impressively Bearded One has worked as a professional editor in the medicolegal realm for over a decade. He has a great ear for cadence and flow, and as a former enthusiast of Magic the Gathering, he knows how to litigate grammar rules as if they were created by Wizards of the Coast.
- Autumn, Forgemaster of Design: That’s me! I’m the founder of Fablesmithy and also a science-fiction / speculative writer myself. I’m obsessed with fonts and treat my font library like an eccentric earl gliding her ladder across multi-storied bookshelves while singing (off-key). While graphic design is my passion, worry not—I don’t design like the meme.
- Alyssa, Forgemaster of Audio: This woman chews through books like they’re potato chips (and by “chew,” I mean “read” and not that she’s secretly a hungry, hungry caterpillar). She’s also a trained vocalist with a beautiful voice and a range that could dwarf the Rockies. When she randomly breaks out into song, birds come to dress her and mice make her pasta.
- Joe, Forgemaster of Audio: Joe’s been a theater kid for so long that, at some point, someone will need to coin the term “theater senior.” He’s also an agented actor, a video game designer, and a technical wunderkid / wunderadult / wunderfuturesenior. (We’re pretty sure he doesn’t age. He might either be a vampire or Kenneth Parcell from 30 Rock.)
The Future of Fablesmithy
As we continue to grow, we plan to create guides to help authors navigate the self-publishing scene and to answer your questions, such as: What platforms are best for selling books? How do I get into brick-and-mortar stores? What do I need to know about audiobook requirements? Where and how do I advertise my book? And more.
In fact, if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover in future posts, please let us know in the comments!
In the meantime, we’ll be offering various promotions during our opening launch. Join our newsletter and follow us across our social media profiles to be the first to know about upcoming promos.
You write it. We forge it.
