Fiverr — Build Your Publishing Team [Service Review]

When you first have the idea to create and sell your own book, there’s an initial thrill and excitement. Especially when you decide you are self-publishing, and not going through the traditional publishing route. You know that you have full control over your book, your vision, and eventually your profits. However, what you might not realize in the beginning is that creating and publishing your book can be HARD when it’s only you.

But it doesn’t have to be a one-person job. You can turn to others for help while still retaining full control of your book. Everyone needs help, and the more help you receive, the better your book will turn out. Maybe that means someone coming in and editing/proofreading your book because you know that a new set of eyes on your manuscript will do wonders for everything that you might have missed. Or you know that graphic design is not your strong suit, and paying someone to do your book cover might just be the best option.

Why struggle alone in the book creation process when there are plenty of resources available to make your life easier? That’s where Fiverr comes in. Fiverr is a great platform that supports you on your book creation journey.

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is an online platform for freelance services. You can hire freelancers who will help you take your vision from concept to bestseller. Basically, sellers list their services, and the buyers can review their gigs, ask questions, and if they’re pleased they can purchase their package.

When Fiverr first launched their platform each gig/service cost $5 dollars. But with the growth of their company, now sellers can list their own price. Don’t worry — if you are on a budget you can still find a seller that offers gigs for as little as $5 dollars, but if you are looking for a more in-depth package you can find that too.

So no matter what you can find a seller that works best for you and your budget.

Fiverr Terminology

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details about Fiverr, let’s first go over their common terminology, so it’s not completely overwhelming.

1. Gig: A service offered on Fiverr’s website.
2. Seller: A registered user (freelancer) who offers Gigs
3. Buyers: users who purchase services on Fiverr.
4. Gig Packages: allow Sellers to offer services in different formats and prices. Packages can include upgrades, which lets Sellers price their service for a basic price of over $5.​

These are the main terminologies that are good to know. You can find a full list of Fiverr terms on their site.

What Services Does Fiverr Offer?

Fiverr has so many services it’s easy to lose track. Even though there are an abundance of services to browse through Fiverr makes it easy to navigate. At the top of their homepage, there are 9 categories to choose from:

1. Graphics & Design
2. Digital Marketing
3. Writing & Translation
4. Video & Animation
5. Music & Audio
6. Programming & Tech
7. Business
8. Lifestyle
9. Industries

Within each category, there are subcategories to help you further find what you are looking for. For example here are the subcategories for “Graphics & Design”:

As you can see there are plenty of subcategories to choose from. But if you don’t feel like browsing through all their subcategories there’s a nifty navigation bar at the top!

So if you are looking for editing gigs, just type in “editing” at the top, and all matters related to that will immediately show up. When using Fiverr for book creation purposes, the categories that you are likely to use are cover design, illustrations, editing, proofreading, and more!

From the home page, to navigating the categories, Fiverr makes using their platform seem like a breeze! Will using their service be just as easy as finding what you’re looking for? Let’s now dive into how to use their services for the betterment of your book and find out.

Narrowing Your Options on Fiverr

Now that I’ve explained what Fiverr is and what they offer let’s talk about getting what you need from this online platform. Now for someone like me, when writing a book or even a blog post I make a lot of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and my first draft is always a ROUGH first draft. So I would personally start by using Fiverr for their editing gigs.

Getting a fresh pair of eyes on a draft is always the way to go because no doubt they will catch what you missed, and offer a different perspective that can be helpful in the long run. After navigating through their gigs and finding their editing section, Fiverr will give you a long list of sellers.

This screenshot only shows the first four sellers, but do not fret there are so many sellers to choose from. Seriously, there are multiple pages with sellers. But the real reason why I’m showing you this screenshot is because at the top they have sorting options for you to choose from and narrow down the selection that best fits you.

For example, say you are on a budget, and you know the only money you can dish out right now is about $60–100 dollars, you can set that budget and it will automatically give you sellers within that budget.

Another really helpful sorting option is delivery time. What if you have a deadline to get your book out, and you can’t wait another week to have someone edit your book. No worries with their delivery time sorting option, if you need something done within 24 hours they can get that done for you! They also have the option to narrow down the seller details and service options.

With all of these options to narrow your search down, you will definitely find what you are looking for. Now it’s just a matter of “Who do I want”?

Choosing a Seller

It’s time to choose the best seller for you. After you’re done putting in your preferences a list of sellers will appear and now it’s time to do your research. Take your time with this, make sure that the seller you choose will work best for you.

The great thing about Fiverr is that they give you full details about the seller and the packages that they offer. If you click on one, it will take you to a page with details about the gig/service, and the seller. It also shows the packages that they offer and you can choose which package works best for you.

Please note that the above package is just an example. No packages are the same. However, each seller will have a basic, standard, and premium package. The service and specific details in each package though will vary depending on the seller.

Additionally, Fiverr displays reviews on this seller and their package at the bottom. So you can go through the reviews and make sure that this seller is top-notch.

My suggestion is to not pick the first seller you see; go through them, compare their packages, reviews, gigs, and even the seller’s bio. Not only do you want to make sure that their package is right for you but you also want to make sure that personality and workflow fit yours.

After going through many sellers you finally found a couple that you like, but you’re not 100% ready to purchase their service because you still have a few unanswered questions. Well, Fiverr has got you covered with that as well.

Under the “About The Seller” section, there’s a button that says “Contact Me”. You can message them with any questions you may have and give an explanation of what you are working on. At the top it will give you the information on their average response time, some are longer than others depending on the seller’s schedule.

Once you have asked and they have answered your questions and it’s looking like it’s a perfect match, you can go ahead and purchase their package and let the process begin. You are then one step closer to publishing your book, and with outside help, this book creation journey will be that much easier.

Conclusion

If I haven’t made it clear already, use Fiverr! It’s a no-brainer. Their platform is easy to use, they give you thousands of sellers to choose from, and you can easily find someone that is within your budget and fits the best for you. Don’t know how to get there? You can find them on our partner's page or you can go directly to their website.

Oh, I almost forgot, if you haven’t already check out our YouTube video on How To Build Your Dream Publishing Team.

That’s all I got for you today. See ya later folks!

Originally published at https://blog.lulu.com on March 26, 2021.