What to Expect When You're Birthing a Book
The critical stages from manuscript delivery to your book's publication day
New authors are rarely prepared for all these stages, which can stretch the timeline between manuscript delivery and publication to several years.
Hello Loreates,
Well, America looks grimmer and grimmer from where I sit. I try to balance my life these days between terrified activism and retreat into writing concerns, with an escape walk with audiobook in the middle. One of my countless grievances against Trump is the years of focus and normalcy he’s stolen from all of us. When I think of how differently our daily lives would be unfolding if Kamala had won, I want to wail.
The hijacking of America also affects my topic for today. Because it matters what kind of a world your book is born into. Books, like babies— or movies or music or theater, for that matter—have to be received and noticed in order to thrive. They cannot thrive if they’re born into a world at war, in which everyone is too distracted or distraught to pay attention to the newcomers. I know this because my novel, Flash House, was born in the middle of “Shock & Awe” and my Glorious Boy was just about still-birthed by the start of the pandemic. I am currently living in dread of the circumstances awaiting the book I just ghosted, due out next spring. And I wish the publishing world would wake up to the need for serious contingency plans for books that launch during national catastrophes. Because this happens far more often than any author wants to believe, and there is no industry-wide Plan B. But I’ve written about that here:
What I want to share with you today is the production process that normally leads to a healthy book birth. New authors are rarely prepared for all these stages, which can stretch the timeline between manuscript delivery and publication to several years. It can be nerve-wracking to keep getting your manuscript back for review and revision, over and over. But that is standard operating procedure.
Forewarned is forearmed. If you know what to expect, you’ll be able to calm down and take the delays and seemingly endless assignments in stride. You’ll also be better equipped to tell if things go awry, and then— perhaps— pivot accordingly.
So if you’ve got a new book in the works, have just been signed by an agent, or landed your first publishing deal, congratulations! Here’s what most likely awaits you as your book baby inches toward its birthday.
Pre-orders stoke your publisher’s excitement for the release, and if you get enough of them, they could land you on the bestseller list your first week of publication.
From manuscript to book baby
There’s no doubt about it, landing a book deal is thrilling. Money is nice, if you’re lucky enough to win a big contract, but the major reward for most authors is the knowledge that you have a team of professionals who believe in your work so much that they’ll invest their own efforts to get your words out into the wider world.
Once your contract is signed, this team will advise and encourage you. You’ll have a clear deadline and a target word count. If you sold the book off a proposal, you’ll now have to write the damn thing. If you sold the book off a completed draft, you’ll now have to revise the damn thing. In other words, you’ve got the equivalent of one trimester behind you. Two to go.
Let’s call these two book trimesters Editorial and Production.
If you’d like to read more about the making of a book deal, read here:
Editorial
The first months after your contract is signed are all about getting your words right. And once the euphoria of the deal is over, this stage will feel a lot like the first trimester. Your agent will fall back. Your editor will give you some preliminary feedback and advice. You might have to fill out a bunch of paperwork for your publisher about your author platforms and promotional network. But then you’re expected to return to your desk and get busy writing or revising. Alone. Until you hit your first delivery deadline.
Delivery schedules can vary wildly, depending on the nature and length of the book, but I’ll track the timeline here for my most recent project, which is fairly typical, at least in my experience:
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