A lot has to be done to take a book from manuscript to publication. Here’s an overview of the many steps in this journey.
So you’ve got a book deal. All that work, all the uncertainty and doubts have finally paid off. You’re not at the end of the journey, however; in fact, you have a long way to go before your book gets into stores. Here’s what to expect between the moment you sign your contract and when the first copy of the book is sold.
The main milestones in the publishing process
The process that goes from manuscript to finished book has a number of fixed milestones, though some of these may be different depending on the size of the publisher and how the book is published. These steps assume that the book is published in hardcover or paperback, not digital only, where the process may be simpler because production is less complex.
The first step is deciding on a publication date. Many factors influence this choice of date. Publishers take into account the genre and the type of reader they expect to buy your book.
Many novels are published between September and November to take advantage of the potential holiday market. Other novels, such as those that are considered to be summer reads, may be published in May or June. January is also a good time to publish fiction because people are indoors a lot more, recovering from the holidays, and maybe looking for something new in the new year.
Initial author information
There are a lot of moving parts to the preparation of a book, and many things happen concurrently. One of the first things the publisher will do is send you a questionnaire to get some information about you. This will help them determine how to publicize the book and prepare a short biography to use in marketing. The publisher will likely also ask you for a headshot. It’s a good idea to have this done by a professional photographer, if you haven’t already had one done for your website.
Editing
The editing process for a book has several stages, and the amount of time this takes varies according to the type of book, the market, and the quality of the manuscript. It’s likely that your agent will have already done some editing of your manuscript, but the publisher will continue this process.
The first type of editing is called developmental editing. This looks at the big picture of the book. For a novel, this looks at characters, plot points, settings, descriptions, voice, and dialogue; all the elements that give the book its flavor. An editor may ask you to add or remove characters, move scenes around, cut chapters, or more. For nonfiction, the process is similar, looking at the flow of the book and its overall arc. The editor may suggest reframing your arguments, presenting them in a different order, or diminishing or expanding certain parts of the book.
Once this process is completed – this can take several months, and involve several rounds of editing – the manuscript goes on to line editing. The line editor looks at each individual sentence and makes suggestions as to how to improve them. Later in the production process, copy editing and proofreading involve more granular editing, and, for nonfiction, fact-checking may be done, with fact-checkers verifying sources and bibliographies, and indexers may prepare an index for some books. All of these tasks are done by people for whom it is their specialty.
Production
While this later editing process is occurring, the publisher will start considering production. This involves designing the book’s cover and dust-jacket, as well as the interior design of the book. The latter is generally simple; publishers use common page sizes and fonts, but depending on the length of the book, they may alter this so the book doesn’t have too many pages. If your book contains photos or illustrations, this is taken into account at this stage.
Cover design is extremely important because, well, you can judge a book by its cover in some cases. It’s the first thing people see when looking at a book. Authors can have feedback on cover design, and may even make suggestions as to what they would like. This doesn’t mean the publisher will necessarily agree with you, but they are committed to making the best possible cover that shows the uniqueness of your book, and that also ties it into the look of your book’s genre so it’s easily recognizable.
If there’s going to be an audiobook, this will be created once the manuscript has gone through the full editing process. Some authors may narrate their audiobooks, though professional narrators are generally a better choice, unless the author’s voice is well known.
Marketing and sales
The marketing and sales process starts when your book is scheduled and continues after publication, at least for some books. Publishers don’t do much publicity for most first books, unless the author has some sort of following. But they present the book at sales conferences, launch meetings, and to large booksellers. They add it to their catalogs, websites, and other databases so it can be found easily.
This part of the process also includes looking for blurbs – generally, it’s the author who looks for blurb writers – sending out ARCs (advance reader copies), both physical and on NetGalley, so reviewers and influencers can read the book before publication. Early reviews on sites like Goodreads can help drum up pre-orders, which are extremely important.
This is when the author should plan how they can publicize the book. Authors can go to festivals and conventions, be a guest on book-related podcasts, contact online book clubs, and even try to be interviewed by their local newspaper.
Finally, your book is published
This is the day you’ve been waiting for. You celebrate, look at reviews (or not), and hope that the book sells. You may find a positive initial reaction; if there are enough pre-orders, the book can hit some best-seller lists, since they’re all counted on publication day.
Money
In Understanding Book Advances and Royalties, we look at how advances and royalties are paid. In most cases, publication date means that you’ll get a second partial payment toward your advance. You won’t, however, get any royalties until you earn out the advance. Royalty statements are generally generated every six months, with payments occurring weeks or months after that date. In other words, don’t expect any royalties for a while.
However, your agent may be working on selling subsidiary rights, such as options for movies or TV series, translation rights, and other types of adaptations.
It’s been a long ride from the first queries you sent to agents to finally holding copies of your book in your hands. The process is complex because there are many people and companies involved. Hundreds of people work to bring a book to market, and that’s before thousands of booksellers start selling it.
If you’ve reached this point, congratulations. Just make sure you’ve been working on your next book while everything else was happening so you can do it all again.
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener. He also offers one-to-one Scrivener coaching.