Okay, so you’ve written a book. Okay, so you want the book published. Okay, so you have to decide how you want your work to be published. So what do you do?
In a recent blog post, I discussed the three main roads to getting a book published: commercial, indie (or self) publishing and vanity publishing. Before you even decide which road you wish to take, the first thing you do is your homework! The first thing you have to determine is what a publisher does.
Wikipedia defines “publishing”, in the sense of publishing a book, as “the process of production and dissemination of literature, music, or information — the activity of making information available to the general public”. (The Wikipedia entry also discusses briefly the three main roads to getting a book published I mentioned in my previous blog post: commercial, indie or vanity.)
There are several basic stages to publishing (and the pre-production phase has several sub-stages):
No matter which road to publishing you decide on, you still have to negotiate with whomever is publishing your book, whether it be a commercial publisher, a vanity publisher or freelancers and printers if you decide to independently publish… for revenue to the author, editing costs, design costs, printing costs, marketing, printing and distribution.
Editing is done to improve the quality of an author’s work, or to weed out any factual errors or major gaps in consistency of the work. There are different types of editing: developmental, copyediting, proofreading.
Once the text of a book is finalised, the next phase is to design the book. This is what makes a book look like a book and includes artwork (the cover, interior photographs or images, and the appropriate licences for the artwork – artwork is subject to copyright as well!). It also involves deciding on the fonts used in a book.
Sales and marketing is closely entwined with the editorial process. Once the cover images are produced or chapters are edited, sales people may start talking about the book with their customers to build early interest. Publishers more often than not produce advanced information sheets to send to customers or overseas publishers to gauge interest possible sales. Advance review copies are also sent to reviewers to garner advance interest in the book.
Once the pre–production phases are well under way, the printing phase begins. The first step involves the production of a printed proof, where a book is printed for final checking and sign-off by the publisher. The proof shows the book precisely as it will appear once printed and represents the last opportunity for the publisher to find and correct any errors.
The last stage in publication involves making the product available to the public, usually by offering it for sale. In the book industry, publishers often send copies of the finished book to reviewers as sample copies to aid sales or to be sent out for pre-release reviews (as mentioned before).
Large commercial publishers more often than not employ staff to take on each phase of the development process but will have work done by freelancers. Smaller mid–list publishers and independent publishers more often than not will engage freelancers to take on the roles that the larger publishers employ full time staff to do.
With vanity publishers, the cost involved for the author to engage the vanity publisher to take on the production more often than not far exceed the cost that the author would pay if the author engaged independent freelancers to take on the same tasks.
So, the moral of the story? Do your research!
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Website
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
Post Comment
Δ
We use cookies to give you the best experience. Read our cookies policy.
