What is Creative Matchmaking?
Community is crucial to experiencing creative success.
I’m not talking about achieving it.
But feeling it.
Feeling your team rally around you and knowing them as individuals. Valuing their unique talents and being valued in return.
Authors used to reliably find this community within their publishers, garnering the businesses the common name “publishing houses” as a result, but that has fallen largely out of practice. Many authors, particularly debut authors, report feelings of isolation and depression in their traditional publishing efforts.
And with the global growth of remote team collaboration and of successful hybrid and self-published titles, it’s time to ask: what’s holding you back from building a community of experts for your book to get it’s best shot while creating fulfilling, creatively-aligned relationships?
There are three components to a successful match.
Throughout 1,500+ successful introductions between authors and independent or freelance creatives, I’ve determined a formula for identifying optimal, longterm collaborations:
Complimentary and Mutually Valued Skills. Each party must provide an expertise or perspective the other lacks and crucially acknowledges that they need help with.
Mutual Benefit of the Relationship. While the client’s gain may seem obvious, the independent’s benefit is just as crucial whether it’s financial gain, creative exploration, or professional advancement.
Inherent Chemistry. This is the hardest to measure, which is why I hop on calls with all parties to get to know them as individuals and assess their interpersonal potential.
Matches to Write Home About
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Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage by Susan Conrad (Jan. 2024)
Cover Design & Interior Layout: Danna Steele ● Proofreading: Author + Rose Friel ● Upload & Distro Support: Lex Statzer
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Music for the Developing Brain by Jane J. Bader (Mar. 2024)
Copyediting: Anastasia Voll ● Proofreading: Laura Cail ● Cover Design: Tara Long ● Comprehensive Design + Interior Layout: John van der Woude ● Publishing & Launch Promotion: Jesse Sussman
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COREAGEOUS by Valerie Walsh (Mar. 2024)
Line Editor: Laura Cail ● Proofreader: NAME ● Upload & Distribution Support: Christian Dufner
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Bet On Yourself by Sarah Turner (Apr. 2024)
Cover Design: Jess LaGreca ● Illustration: Lindsay Bailey ● Interior Layout: Danna Steele ● Copyediting: Tara Taylor ● Upload & Distribution: Christian Dufner
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Finding Value by Christine Cooper (May 2024)
Developmental Editing: AJ Hendrickson ● Copyediting: NAME ● Cover Design: Julia Kuris ● Interior Layout: Lawna Oldfield ● Upload & Distribution: Christian Dufner
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Keep Calm and Code On: A Tactical Guide for Navigating the Pitfalls of Software Development by Alex Lau (Jul. 2024)
Proofreading: Laura Cail ● Cover Design & Interior Layout: Jason Arias ● Upload & Distribution: Christian Dufner
Pay Transparency for Equitable Hiring
Twice a year, Foreword Literary Consulting surveys volunteering editorial and design subcontractors to gauge the market rates for individual deliverables and varying levels of expertise. These rates are then released to the public to increase awareness in the value of each asset in manuscript and book development and encourage equitable pay for freelance work.
Participation is compensated with complimentary early access to the results.
The Fall 2024 Survey is now available!
Are you ready to empower the freelance market?
We work alone, but we need each other.
On principle, Foreword Literary Consulting encourages clients to re-engage with the contractors they meet through Creative Matchmaking for career-long collaboration and relationships — particularly if it’s outside of matchmaking. That is the sign of a match well met!
As a result, Foreword Literary Consulting can only measure the minimum generated value of the matches made through Creative Matchmaking in any given quarter.
Take a look at the minimum values generated per quarter ►