Steps to Publishing a Book: The Timeline

October 05, 2009 by Wheatmark, Admin

For first-time authors, the book publishing process can be a daunting one. Writing and publishing books is not just a creative endeavor, it’s a job. And with any new job, there is a learning curve. So to help you over the hump, the following is a follow-the-bouncing-ball approach to explaining the publishing timeline.

Step One

You may be surprised to find out that the first step is not to write the book. We at Wheatmark encourage authors, even before they fire up their computer and crack their knuckles, to think seriously about who they believe is going to buy and read their book.

We often hear, “This is a book anyone would want to read.” This is false. The best way to market your book commercially is to figure out your niche of readers. This is often an obvious answer for nonfiction books. For example, a book about succeeding in sales is likely to appeal to business people involved in sales. The most obvious readers are going to be managers looking for new training skill sets or sales people looking to hone their techniques to better serve their organization and better reach a client. With fiction books, that audience may be harder to figure out. But it isn’t just who may like to read your book. It may be who will talk about and buy your book. For example, if you have written a horror fiction novel, the obvious marketing target is people who like that genre. However, maybe your main character is a spooky cat vampire. So now you can tailor your marketing down even further to people who like cats or vampires and horror fiction.

We have developed a book marketing research tool that will help you determine who your audience is going to be, even before you start. It is an invaluable tool to helping authors focus their book and give them suggestions for crafting their work to make it more commercially viable.

This is also the time to think about your marketing plan if you intend to sell your book to the public. We offer a free book marketing guide to help guide you in the right marketing direction!

Step Two

Now you write the book. This step can be incredibly challenging. It’s one thing to have an idea, another to know who you want to sell it to, but to finish the project to “The End” can be very hard. Many writer websites recommend setting page or time goals to help you stay on task. We also provide several articles on writing on our blog. One way to help you structure your book is to create an outline for your book. Then write in those outline blocks. That way, when you get stuck in one section, you can write in another predetermined section. Sometimes the later chapters will inform the early chapters!

Step Three

Edit, edit, edit your book! For many, this is the part that breaks their will to go on. Wheatmark offers several editing services, including developmental editing, to help you through this stage. Many authors feel comfortable figuring out where their book needs work, but for others, a developmental edit can help show them places to elaborate or to cut. We recommend that all manuscripts go through a professional copyeditor. The investment will be worth it. In publishing, a book editor is kind of like a project manager. They don’t “edit” your book for content or typos. They make sure your book looks like a book before going to the printer. It is your responsibility to find your mistakes. Your publisher will make the changes you request.

Step Four

If you are going to try to publish your book through a traditional publisher you’ll likely need a literary agent. Most publishing houses have submission mandates that must be adhered to. Before sending out manuscripts, make sure you are following the guidelines. On the same note, most literary agents require submissions be done a certain way. By not following guidelines, you damage your chances at finding representation.

If you are going to self-publish through a company like Wheatmark, we will want to talk to you about your submission and find a publishing package that will work best for you and your project. We prefer files to be done in Microsoft Word or a computer program like it, but we also have ways of handling other formats. We frown at scrawls on napkins though.

Step Five

After signup, companies like ours will have your editor contact you so that you can begin discussing your vision for your book. At Wheatmark the author has a lot of say about cover and interior design. Our experienced editors will discuss the process and make suggestions about effective design plans with you. Many authors have their hearts set on certain page counts, fonts, and images to be used in the book and we do our best to push those ideas to fruition. Depending on the book and the author’s involvement, the book layout process can take two weeks to nearly a year. It just depends on the author’s timeline in Step Six.

Step Six

After the layout phase, an electronic file of the book will be sent back to the author. Nearing the finish line, this step can often drag on for some time because it is the time the author gets to spend with the book with a fine-toothed comb. Even if your book has been copyedited, going through the book line by line is essential to make sure that every typo has been caught, every sentence is properly punctuated, and that the book is exactly the way the author wants it. Often, this author review period will go on for some time. Make sure that you have set aside the correct amount of time to for editing and printing in order to receive your books in time for any scheduled marketing events such as book signings!

Step Seven

Market your book. Based on Step One, you should have some idea of how you plan to market your book. Hopefully you’ve been generating buzz for your project for the duration of the process and now you can really hit the gas and get the marketing plan kicked into high gear. If you have hired a publicist, they’ll be asking you to do some work marketing your book as well!

Good luck! If you ever have any questions before, during, or after your book is published, we’re always here to help!

Tags: publishing
Filed Under: Publishing