1.2 The Book Publishing Process

category: Chapter Section
by Alexis Leon

In this section we will see an overview of the book publishing process. A successful book project starts as an idea and ends as a printed book. There are different processes that the idea will have to go through before it becomes a book. Along the way, many ideas will fall apart or fail to reach the final stage. In many cases the final book may fail in the market. Most of these failures, both during and after publishing can be avoided with careful planning, detailed research, and effective time management. We will discuss these issues later. The purpose of this section is to familiarize you with the publishing process.

The book publishing process will vary considerably from publisher to publisher. But the phases given in this section will be present in most cases. Every book starts as an idea. The idea could be that of the author or the publisher. If the book is the author’s idea, the author will approach the publisher. If the book idea occurred to the publisher, the publisher will find a suitable author.

Irrespective of the source of the idea, the author will have to write a book proposal, which will contain the details of how he would like to go about writing the book. It will contain a synopsis, detailed table of contents, expected time for completion, approximate number of chapters, pages, and artwork. In many cases the proposal will also contain sample chapters of the proposed book.

The book proposal is given to the publisher or an acquisitions editor of the publishing house. The proposal is usually reviewed by subject experts who will give their opinion on various areas like whether the book will sell (if yes, how many), what topics need to be included, what topics need to removed, what topics need to be expanded and so on. Usually, the proposal is reviewed by three experts and if two of them give the nod, the book is accepted. The acquisitions editor will also check for other details like quality of writing, the author’s credentials, etc. He/she will determine whether the schedules are in order and the cost of production will be covered by the revenue generated by the projected sales.

Once the proposal is accepted, the publisher will offer the contract to the author. Once the contract is signed, the author starts working on the book. The author and the acquisitions editor would have agreed on time schedules, milestones, and deliverables.

The author will deliver the completed chapters to the editor as per the schedule. These chapters are given to the technical reviewer. The technical reviewer will be a person who is an authority on the subject. The technical reviewer would review the book for correctness and clarity. The author would have to answer the queries posed by the reviewer and make revisions if required.

Once the technical review is over for all the chapters, the author should submit the manuscript to the publisher. The manuscript and the accompanying artwork would have to be submitted in the format specified by the publisher. The publisher will send the manuscript for copyediting. The copyeditor will check for grammatical errors, clarity, uniformity, consistency and other technical flaws. The copyedited manuscript is returned to the author. The author should go through the changes marked and decide to accept them or not. In this case the author usually has the final say.

Once the copyediting changes are approved and necessary revisions are completed, the author sends it back to the publisher who in turn sends it for typesetting. At the same time, the cover designer will start designing the cover. There cover designer will produce one or more designs and would send it to the author, editor and publisher for inputs and approval. The selected cover design is sent to for printing.

In the meanwhile, the typesetter would design the layout for the book and would convert the manuscript (the text and illustrations) into the new layout. The publisher will send the galley proofs (formatted pages of the manuscript) to the author for review. The galley proof process is essentially a last chance to make small changes and look for typographical errors. The author reviews the galley proofs, makes corrections (if any), and prepares the index and preliminary pages (preface, acknowledgements, dedication, etc.) and sends them back to the publisher.

During the final stages, the marketing department will sent out brochures and other information about the book to influential people and potential buyers. They will try to get the book reviewed by experts. The strategy is to create awareness about the book and also to influence the potential buyers. The author also promotes the book through personal websites, blogs, and other networking sites.

The publisher sends the corrected galley proofs and other material for printing. The book and the cover are printed and bound. They are packed and send to the distributors or bookshops. The book reaches the bookshops and the readers who in turn decide the fate of the book.

[Note: This is the first draft of the book. I would require your comments, suggestions and feedback to make the book more useful, interesting, and as error free as possible. Please send your comments, suggestions and feedback to me.]