Your Complete List of Outsourcing Resources for Writers

Let’s be clear. A traditionally published author gets almost their entire job outsourced as part of their publishing contract. In exchange for handing over about 90% of the income, they have a team in place to handle every aspect of the book except for writing it and some of the marketing.

That’s one of the two kinds of authors who don’t need this list. The other kind is the rare jack-of-all trades who excels personally in all of the following areas:

• Developmental editing
• Line editing/proofreading
• Layout and design
• Cover design
• Painting and drawing
• Social media marketing
• Traditional marketing
• Publicity
• Book printing
• Distribution and fulfillment
• Bookkeeping
• Accounting
• Public relations
• Basic Office Organization

For the rest of us (which is most of us), the best plan is to outsource the stuff you’re not great at to people who know the job. Actually, the best plan is to outsource everything you don’t love doing…but most starting authors lack the budget to do that. So start with what you can afford, and give more jobs you don’t love to somebody else with each new book. Here is our full and favorite list of resources to help you do exactly that.

Start With the Big Five

The resources below can put you in touch with people from multiple disciplines, providing one-stop shopping. More than a few authors start and finish their outsourcing search with one of these sites.