Author’s Assistants Gaining in Popularity Worldwide

July 7, 2009 - PRLog -- Los Angeles. It is estimated the at least 50% of the over 300,000 books published in the United States each year are now self-published. Authors are turning to assistants to bridge the gab and handle tasks that were once the responsibility of publishers.  This has created lucrative new business potential for virtual assistants and businesses that assists in the publishing process such as proof-readers, graphic artists and internet marketing specialists.

The primary market for virtual author’s assistants is nonfiction authors who are subject matter experts in their own professions, have the goal of getting a book published and have budgeted the estimated $10K to $15K to do it. The typical client is a working professional coach, therapist, attorney, accountant, or speaker.

According to Karen Reddick, MVAA (Master Virtual Author’s Assistant), “I’ve always loved books and it is so rewarding to help authors get books published.  As soon as I became certified as an author’s assistant, I found seven new author clients in two months.  I work with authors almost full time at this point.”

Authors are grateful for the kind of help that they used to only be able to find through publishers or figure out themselves.  One of Karen Reddick’s clients, author of Great With Money: The Women’s Guide to Prosperity Ellen Rogin, says this:  “As a new self-published author, I relied on Karen’s expertise to complete many of the projects to get my book from computer to printer.”

The virtual assistant industry is a thriving, even in a tough economy.  There are approximately 7,000 virtual assistants in the US with estimates of 20,000 worldwide.  Since more and more of the 20 million small businesses in the U.S. are outsourcing the virtual assistant industry is showing no signs of slowing down.

“There are fewer than 300 trained, professional virtual author’s assistants today worldwide, so this is a huge opportunity,” says Jan B. King, creator of the Professional Virtual Author’s Assistant Certification and Training Program hosted by The Publishing Store. “We expect that number to be almost 2,000 in another year because the demand is great.  Many businesspeople are taking this downtime in workload to write books and they need virtual help to get them written, published and promoted well.”

About The Publishing Store

The Publishing Store (http://www.publishing-store.com) is the online professional training resource and bookstore for the publishing industry. Providing resources and training to authors, author’s assistants and industry professionals.

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Los Angeles based we offer resources and coaching to publishing professionals and authors. We also train individuals to work with authors as professional assistants allowing authors a self-publish and provide career opportunities to virtual assistants.