I have always loved books. Engaging with set books in school and that indescribable feeling of reading a powerful sentence over and over and over again made me choose to study English Literature. Very boring, not the medical degree we're encouraged to go after, and quite nerdy LOL.
But I can't quite explain my love for the craft behind the writing, and how unrealistically excited I get by the structure and rhythm of a good sentence.
That eye for details has led to more disappointment than I'd like to admit. After enjoying the classics more than once, I started reading books closer to home, only to be sorely let down by editing that... wasn't there. I've come across beautiful stories that made me cry with their honesty and depth, but that deserved to be told so much better. I've studied novels that had lesser stories but were better told. And I knew our stories deserved that same standard.
This is what led me to start Wilman Fikker Publishing House. My decision to keep our editing prices low never made business sense. Everybody told me so. But it's been over 3 years and we're not yet insolvent, and we'll keep going for as long as time and love for the craft keep us going.
It has never been easier to publish a book. You have the app / software, and access to printing, and the dream of holding your own book in your hands is no longer, thanks to this modern world, reserved for the lucky few.
But with that access comes responsibility. Responsibility to your story, responsibility to the world of literature, and responsibility to every author sharing that shelf with you.
When a reader picks up a self-published book and finds spelling errors, inconsistent tense, or dialogue that feels completely unnatural (who talks like that?), they will put that book down. But the bigger problem is that they may never pick up another self-published book after it. One badly edited indie novel becomes the reason a reader never takes a chance on an indie author again.
That is the cost of skipping the edit.
Your book doesn't exist in a vacuum. Once printed and bound, it becomes part of a growing library of indie authors, and every well-edited title strengthens the credibility of them all.
But the truth of the matter is that authors who cannot afford editing will publish without it. There are people who have poured months or years into a manuscript and then found that professional editing costs more than they budgeted for (often more than the printing itself). Faced with a choice between publishing unedited or not publishing at all, they publish.
And every author who chooses to publish without editing drops the standard a little further for us all.
We started Wilman Fikker Publishing House because we saw this gap. On one side, there are authors with the most beautiful and powerful stories that deserve to be told. On the other side, there are editing rates that put professional quality too far out of reach for many of them.
Money has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Let's not let it stand between an author and a well-told story. A story written by a first-time author deserves the same editorial expertise as one backed by a traditional publishing house. The reader certainly cannot tell the difference between the two if both have been properly edited. They can most definitely tell the difference if one has not.
What good editing actually does
Most people think editing means fixing spelling and grammar. That is only one small part of it. There are layers to the process, and each one serves a different purpose. It takes years of studying language and literature to understand how writing works at a structural level. That is exactly why editors exist, and it is exactly why we do what we do.
Developmental editing examines the structure of your story and is often the most costly and time-consuming. A good developmental edit will pick up on pacing issues and check for character and point-of-view consistency. It looks at the big picture elements like whether the story holds together and whether the reader's journey makes sense from beginning to end.
Copy editing catches the patterns you can't see in your own writing because you are too close to it. That adverb you love and do not realise you use too often, the dialogue tags that try too hard... these are things that can only be caught by someone trained to look for them. Our editors can see what is wrong with a sentence, explain why it is not working, and advise how to make it better. This is what you are paying for when you hire a qualified editor, not just a pair of eyes, but an educated understanding of language and storytelling.
Line editing makes sure every word earns its place and leaves enough room for the reader to fill in the gaps and feel like they are actively part of your book. The most memorable books are made this way.
Proofreading is what many people think editing is, but it is actually only the final step. Missing full stops, repeated or missing words, and formatting inconsistencies are picked up at this stage.
Every editing layer matters, and each one is the difference between a book that readers love (one that earns their trust in the author and the editor behind them) and one they close before chapter two.
Why our prices stay low
We could charge more. The work warrants it, and the market would bear it. But higher prices would mean fewer authors getting their manuscripts edited. And fewer edited manuscripts means more books entering the market that reinforce the perception that self-published books are somehow lesser.
Our mission is to raise the standard of self-published books. We want the reader who picks up a Wilman Fikker Publishing House title to feel no difference in quality between that book and one from a traditional publisher, and we want every author who works with us to be proud of what they put into the world.
Keeping our prices accessible is how we make that possible. It is how we ensure that a well-told story is not let down by avoidable errors. It is how we keep the door open for first-time authors who might otherwise never get their work professionally reviewed.
Every self-published author is an ambassador for self-publishing as a whole, and we are honoured when you trust us with your words. When your book is well-structured, well-paced, and free of the errors that make readers lose interest, you are raising the bar for every indie author who comes after you.
That is why we do what we do. That is why our prices are where they are. And that is why we will, hopefully, Almighty-willing, keep doing this work for as long as there are stories that need telling and authors to tell them.
Khadija, Director, Wilman Fikker Publishing House