How Books Get Published

For many aspiring authors or curious readers the publishing process is a strange and mysterious one - especially to an outsider. It can be quite difficult to see the inner workings of a publishing house or a bookseller and many readers, though they may be dedicated to their favorite authors, have not an inkling as to how a book makes it from the authors pen to the cash register at a bookstore. Many readers would find it very interesting to learn how books make it from one corner of the world to their very own bedrooms so read on for some interesting facts about how books make their way through the publishing process.

Books obviously start out as ideas in an authors minds and are then transferred on to paper but the length of time it takes to get them to the reader from when they are first written is surprisingly long. The process of writing a book alone can take a great deal of time. While there are some authors that they say take no more than a few months to write a book (some boast finishing books in matter of weeks or even days) it takes most authors about a year to complete any given novel. This, of course, depends on the type of book being written, what genre it’s in, and how much work is done to edit it. Within that given year a writer may also spend time looking for an agent or a publisher even before the book is written to save themselves time down the road - this may also have something to do with the corresponding seasons during which books are published.

After this its time for an author to find an agent for certain as most publishing houses deal almost exclusively with agents and many of them wont’ even bother to look at a proposal that isn’t submitted by an agent. The average house deals with an overwhelming amount of submissions and most of them simply don’t have the resources to deal with all of them. An editors main job is to keep in good standing with a group of agents that let them know what’s new and upcoming and what may be of interest to the house. A good agent will help you polish off your proposal and submissions according to the industry standards and will probably know which editors are most likely to be interested in the type of book a certain author has written. This can be invaluable, time-saving knowledge that no good author can afford to be without.

It’s also well known that while most New York houses specialize in large commercial fiction there are lots of smaller and more distinct houses that work with nonfiction and smaller genres. These smaller houses do pay attention to unsolicited manuscripts and will take new writers from their slush piles because their submissions and selections are more limited. On rare occasions larger publishing houses will take manuscripts from writers that don’t have an agent but this is extremely unlikely.

Once an author has found an agent and then a publisher the book (hopefully having been finished) is moved into the editing stages where a publishing house will take it on, help the author finish or edit it, draft up book covers and marketing or publicity plans for it and generally do their best to make sure that the book is a success. This can be a trying time for a book and an author as many people are fighting over it, making it be known what they think of the book and how it should be put together. Everyone has their own opinion and is eager to share it. For the most part thought this is an important time of the book because it can determine how successful a publisher things it will be which may translate into how much they will promote it.

After a book is ready for it’s debut the publishers will send out bound galleys to get reviews and blurbs to put on the cover and after a grueling process of reviewing for the author it will finally be released and sent out to bookstores. The number of sales it makes in the bookstore determines whether or not you, the reader, ever hears anything about it. There are plenty of no-name authors out there that never have a chance to have their books really read simply because they don’t garner enough publicity for their books or because their publishing house doesn’t put enough effort into it to encourage the book to be successful. This makes many authors frustrated and encourages a lot of them to take matters into their own hands, planning parties and publicity events, encouraging friends and family to buy the book and doing a lot of general marketing all on their own. Many famous authors have much of what they do now due to their own publicity work. Even famous writer John Grisham spent some time trying to sell his own novels at garden clubs and outside of courtrooms, oddly enough.

If an author lucky enough to have their book be successful then its off on tours and signings which is usually what gets it into the hands of reliable and devoted readers. This kind of attention garners reviews and publicity and eventually turns into book signings, and maybe even a movie deal down the line. If a book makes it onto the New York Times Bestseller list then it is given more prominent placement in bookstores and can even be featured on television shows and so forth. That’s when readers become extremely aware of it and it gets even more popular and successful.

The road for a book to get from an author to being published and adored by fan is a long one but it’s well worth the journey and when it finally makes it a reader is always grateful for the new book they can grow to love as they read it.