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Welcome to the question-a-day month meme! You can still add questions. Check the LJ version for the most current schedule by clicking on the month meme tag.
Dhampyresa asked about the process of publishing a book, from first idea to publication. There’s actually several different roads for this, depending on whether it’s traditional or self-publishing, or whether I write solo or collaboratively. For this, I’ll assume you mean solo, because I’ll write on collaboration later.
In the beginning is the idea. I have lots of these. If I stuck just to the novel ideas I have right now, I’d have enough to keep me busy for the next ten years. So it’s not so much getting an idea as prioritizing an idea.
Due to laziness, I tend to prioritize the ideas that won’t take extreme amounts of research or worldbuilding. (This is why the lesbian dragonriders book got pushed back – it requires both. Anyone have good, vivid references for WWI-style dogfighting and aerial strategy?)
So, I’ve got my moderate-worldbuilding, moderate-research idea. I then contemplate and outline, then start writing. Eventually I have a manuscript. Here’s where paths start diverging.
If I’m going to self-publish, I polish, proofread, write a blurb, and create keywords. I get other people to do the cover and formatting. I usually solicit some reviews from bloggers. Then I publish. Ta-da! Once it goes live, I send out a message to my mailing list to let them know I have a book out. If it’s a sequel, I update the previous book to put a link to the sequel at the end of it. I will probably also put the first book on sale, to lure new readers. Once the manuscript is ready to go, the rest of the process takes anywhere between a week to two months. The difference depends on things like whether you had the cover done in advance and your formatter’s schedule.
If I traditionally publish, I send it to my agent to submit to publishers. This part takes between one month to one year, but could be longer. (If an agent can't sell a book in a year, it may not sell at all. Submitting without an agent takes far longer.) If a publisher or publishers wants it, they send a contract, which I and my agent ponder. It usually goes back for revisions/requests. Contract negotiations can take six months. Then the editor asks for revisions. I do them and send them back. The editor will usually do at least one round of that. This part takes between three months and two years. If it takes longer than four months, most of that time is spent after I’ve sent back my revisions and am waiting for the next set of notes.
Eventually, the manuscript goes to copyediting. It will be sent back to us with a bunch of corrections, from typos and grammar errors to questions about word usage and catches on continuity errors, like characters’ eye color changing. I fix the problems, answer the questions, and send it back. Then it goes to proofreading. I again get the proofread manuscript to check and do my own proof. Then it goes to ARCs – Advance Review Copies. These are sent to reviewers, and may have errors. My first book’s ARCs had a MISSING CHAPTER. (Usually errors are not that bad.) This part takes about three months, I think. Finally, the finished book comes out, and everyone rejoices.
As you can see, a big difference between traditional and self publishing is time. You do most of the same things either way— writing, editing, proofing, formatting, getting a cover, sending out review copies, etc— but because there’s so much less waiting between tasks with self-publishing, the whole process is significantly faster.
Dhampyresa asked about the process of publishing a book, from first idea to publication. There’s actually several different roads for this, depending on whether it’s traditional or self-publishing, or whether I write solo or collaboratively. For this, I’ll assume you mean solo, because I’ll write on collaboration later.
In the beginning is the idea. I have lots of these. If I stuck just to the novel ideas I have right now, I’d have enough to keep me busy for the next ten years. So it’s not so much getting an idea as prioritizing an idea.
Due to laziness, I tend to prioritize the ideas that won’t take extreme amounts of research or worldbuilding. (This is why the lesbian dragonriders book got pushed back – it requires both. Anyone have good, vivid references for WWI-style dogfighting and aerial strategy?)
So, I’ve got my moderate-worldbuilding, moderate-research idea. I then contemplate and outline, then start writing. Eventually I have a manuscript. Here’s where paths start diverging.
If I’m going to self-publish, I polish, proofread, write a blurb, and create keywords. I get other people to do the cover and formatting. I usually solicit some reviews from bloggers. Then I publish. Ta-da! Once it goes live, I send out a message to my mailing list to let them know I have a book out. If it’s a sequel, I update the previous book to put a link to the sequel at the end of it. I will probably also put the first book on sale, to lure new readers. Once the manuscript is ready to go, the rest of the process takes anywhere between a week to two months. The difference depends on things like whether you had the cover done in advance and your formatter’s schedule.
If I traditionally publish, I send it to my agent to submit to publishers. This part takes between one month to one year, but could be longer. (If an agent can't sell a book in a year, it may not sell at all. Submitting without an agent takes far longer.) If a publisher or publishers wants it, they send a contract, which I and my agent ponder. It usually goes back for revisions/requests. Contract negotiations can take six months. Then the editor asks for revisions. I do them and send them back. The editor will usually do at least one round of that. This part takes between three months and two years. If it takes longer than four months, most of that time is spent after I’ve sent back my revisions and am waiting for the next set of notes.
Eventually, the manuscript goes to copyediting. It will be sent back to us with a bunch of corrections, from typos and grammar errors to questions about word usage and catches on continuity errors, like characters’ eye color changing. I fix the problems, answer the questions, and send it back. Then it goes to proofreading. I again get the proofread manuscript to check and do my own proof. Then it goes to ARCs – Advance Review Copies. These are sent to reviewers, and may have errors. My first book’s ARCs had a MISSING CHAPTER. (Usually errors are not that bad.) This part takes about three months, I think. Finally, the finished book comes out, and everyone rejoices.
As you can see, a big difference between traditional and self publishing is time. You do most of the same things either way— writing, editing, proofing, formatting, getting a cover, sending out review copies, etc— but because there’s so much less waiting between tasks with self-publishing, the whole process is significantly faster.
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