Publishing in a Nutshell. Sort of.

You tell people you wrote a book.

What’s the follow-up question to this?

“When are you going to get it published?”

Am I right?

They say: “It’s so easy now, right, with Amazon and everything? You just put it out there?”

Wellllllll, not exactly.

I’m going to do my best to summarize the steps to getting published—both the “indie” route (self-publishing your book on Amazon) and the traditional publishing route (publishing through a small or large publishing house).

Here’s the breakdown of becoming traditionally published:

1. The obvious, you write a manuscript. During this step, you should also be educating yourself on the market and publishers to have an idea of where you’re headed. Become familiar with authors of a similar style to use as future comps (comparisons for proposals). AND know your genre well enough to have a sellable, yet unique hook that will set your manuscript apart from what’s already out there.
2. Edit like crazy!!! The number of edits varies between people. Could be anywhere from 1-10 times or a million, it’s up to you.
3. You send your manuscript to other writers and critique partners, get feedback, and change half your book (or scrap the whole thing and start again). This stage can be brutal and heartbreaking. Receiving a constructive critique forces you to develop thicker skin. Some writers can’t get past this stage due to the hurt and lack of feeling like they’re “good enough.” You can also submit to complete strangers through various contests as well to get honest feedback.
4. Once you rewrite portions or all of the manuscript, you can share it with beta readers (test readers) and get an overall feel for the story based on their feedback.
5. Then its back to the editing board for more edits and corrections.  You could be stuck in this phase foreeeever. Sometimes, you just need to learn to be like Elsa and let. it. go.
6. Once you feel the manuscript is polished to the best of your ability, it’s time to query. (This is only necessary if you want a bigger publishing house. Smaller houses don’t require you to have a literary agent and you contact their editors directly.) Querying is sending a letter with a small resume and a taste of your writing. You have to sell them on you and your entire book in five pages or less! No pressure. You should also have your proposal ready, just in case they ask for it. If they’re interested, they’ll request more manuscript pages along with a proposal. (Keep in mind, 96% of authors seeking agents get rejected.) **I highly recommend pitching to agents (at conferences) in person. The success rate of getting your manuscript accepted is much more likely AND you get to see how well the two of you “jive” together.
7. (Let’s assume you landed an agent.) Next, your manuscript gets submitted to publishing houses via your agent. And then you wait. And wait. And wait. This step can take years. Getting traditionally published is tough. The competition is FIERCE. There are roughly 300,000 books published in a year––not counting self-published works. Fewer than 1% of manuscripts that are submitted are published. (Writers, don’t despair though, there is hope. Check out this article I found to be rather enlightening.)

That’s all just to get IN to a publishing house. Let’s say, you got “in.” Congratulations! (This part can vary as different houses have different processes.)

1. You’re “in”…and by in, that means an acquiring editor has requested more of your manuscript (more could mean the first five chapters or the entire manuscript)
2. Your acquiring editor likes it, they move it forward to an editorial committee.
3. The majority of the editors like it and vote to move it forward to a full pub board consisting of the editorial committee, sales, marketing, the publishers, and a number cruncher. (Sometimes a house says no at this point, because they already have too many similar genres at the time and they’re looking for something “different” to fill a need. It’s not necessarily because your story isn’t great.)
4. Your contract then volleys back and forth between your agent and the publisher before an official contract arrives for you to sign. Keep in mind, everything leading up to this step can take anywhere from months to years.
5. Then it’s onto the in-depth editing process (somewhere between 3-5 edits). An editor makes suggested changes and you help fulfill their request while also maintaining your author “voice.”
6. Cover design is mixed in there too. The author will be asked to fill out a marketing questionnaire for the cover design and back cover copy and then approve the suggested designs.
7. You continue prepping to help your publishing house market your book (because publishing houses will still require you to do the bulk of your own book promoting)
8. Market your book and THEN, 1-2 YEARS after signing your contract, your book meets the world.

Should you go the indie route, most steps are similar, but can get more complicated because you are your own boss and have a lot of decisions to make without a “team” backing you up.

1. Write the book
2. Edit a million times
3. Send to critique partners and beta readers (if so choose)
4. Send to a paid editor (not a step to be skipped)
5. Make another million changes
6. Send to editor again for final polishing
7. Then there’s a whole slew of things before posting your book on Amazon such a cover design, formatting, learning KDP, then there’s setting up your release date, promoting your book and marketing, etc, etc…and probably ten other things I didn’t mention. (Oh and of course, all this comes from out of your pocket on a book you may or may not sell)

There and pros and cons to both routes, it’s all about finding the right fit for you.

In conclusion, the next time your well-meaning (truly) friend or family member is inquiring as to when your book will be published, save yourself some breath and refer them to this page. 😉

Writing (and publishing) a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be committed to the long haul. There are no shortcuts. Well, maybe there is, but the quality of your story will suffer.

Writing and publishing a novel is no easy or small task, but it’s a good thing dreams are worth it though, right?