The bond formed between FriesenPress’ published authors and their production team is a powerful one. Our Author Experience feature gives our authors a platform to tell the story behind the publication of their story, in their own words. 

Garth Laidlaw first contacted FriesenPress in April 2014:

FriesenPress made the entire process of creating a book, from concept to completion, as simple as I’d hoped it would be.  As both the author and illustrator of my book, I dreaded figuring out how to manage each of the technical steps to self-publish my children’s picture book.  Eventually, I discovered FriesenPress who offered all of the services bundled nicely into a package that made me feel like the whole process would be much easier. It allowed me as the creator of the work to focus on what I do best – to create the content!

When I had my manuscript edited by the editing department, I was very impressed by the advice provided.  I thought I knew my story well until I read through their great suggestions!  The process of having a professional editor adjust my writing was worth the investment alone.  It was so much easier for me to begin creating the illustrations with the suggested changes I got from the content edit.

The process of having my work edited professionally has made me realize how many different ways there are to phrase a single thought or idea. I went into the process feeling over-confident in my writing but when I saw the editor’s great suggestions it was a humble reminder of the value of having new, trained eyes on my work. [Tweet this!]

After some of the manuscript edits, my actual interpretations of the setting and characters was different.  It’s pretty amazing how my own visual image for each illustration would change, for the better, after the welcomed suggestions from the editor.

At first, I felt like I was going to be in over my head, but everything unknown was explained as Galia, my Author Account Manager, helped me navigate from one step to the next. I really loved how each part of the self-publishing equation was taken care of - there are few options for authors out there that offer such a complete package.

I'll be contacting FriesenPress again with my next children's book!

- Garth Laidlaw, Author of Sayni and the Windowjet Brothers