A quick guide to understanding the publishing process.
It may be you’re going to publish for yourself or you’re going to work with someone to help guide you through the process. Either way, the major stepping stones are similar. Presented here is my process for working with clients.
The Manuscript
Everything starts with the manuscript. It has to be as perfect as you can make it. Not just the story, but also the spelling and the grammar. Nothing is going to ruin your day faster, if you spot a bunch of spelling mistakes five minutes after your glossy new book hits the doormat. Do everything you can to make the manuscript as perfect as you can. Don’t worry about making the layout fancy, just focus on the words.
When the book is eventually submitted to Amazon for publishing it’s not a difficult process to fix errors and re-submit, but it is time-consuming which means it can get expensive.
If your manuscript has lots of different formatting styles, indents, different typefaces, images that are INTEGRAL to your telling of the story, this will add to the time required to layout the manuscript for printing and of course the cost.
Controlling embedded image layout for paperback or hardback is simple but it is difficult for the Kindle where layout can be dynamically controlled by the reader. Getting image layout optimised for the Kindle can be time consuming. Aka expensive.
To keep costs down, make the manuscript as perfect as you can, minimise additional formatting and minimise the use of images, unless they’re integral to the narrative.
The Book Size and Layout
How big will your book be, what layout will it use?
Find the size and layouts you like the most from your own bookshelves (it’s fun). When you have the book size and layout you want, take photographs of chapter headings and pages. Measure not only the front cover top to bottom, but from side to side too. Then measure a sample of page margins, top, bottom, left and right. Do the same, measure a sample of chapter headings and normal pages. Pass everything to your publisher. Use millimetres.
If you want an intricate layout, with quotes and diagrams atop each chapter it's going to take someone time to source copyright free quotes, create the diagrams and layout both the quote and the images in the book. Time taken by someone else on your behalf is going to cost you money. Keep it simple to keep costs down.
The Cover
Find three to five covers of books that you love that have some thematic resonance as your book. Send photos of the covers to the cover designer explaining in each case why the cover stands out for you. Once more, if you’re paying someone a low rate to produce a cover, they’ll have less time to dwell on your input before producing the cover.
The Publishing Process
This is how it works for me. It will be similar with other publishers, they’ll usually confirm their process.
Once we’ve agreed to proceed.
- You’ll know the base cost. You won't be asked to pay anything at this stage.
- You’ll send me the manuscript. The manuscript can be in any Word Processing document format. Google Docs, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.
At this point I’ll review the manuscript to see if any additional formatting is necessary for the story. If there is, this is where I tell you what it’ll cost to add them, calculated in hours required above the norm.
- If I’m designing the cover from your selected cover images this is where we’ll talk about what the cover might become.
- If I’m taking original artwork or images you’ve provided that you want converted directly into a cover (very little design work), we’ll confirm the quality of the source images. Or make sure we have suitable images.
- If you are having the cover designed separately then I’ll have to let you or your cover designer know how many pages there are in the book, this will impact the size of the spine created as part of the cover.
Once we’re good to go (this is where money is exchanged), I’ll immediately start work on the main book block. The book block is everything between the covers. This stage tends to happen quite quickly, less than a week. I’ll send the completed book block to you for review, laid out as agreed. Reviewing this book block is your very last chance to identify spelling errors. Up to fifty simple error fixes, not document re-writes.
Changes are incorporated into the document and the book block is re-issued to you for a final – good to go proof. This review is only looking at the layout. It’s your book. You have to be happy with it.
While you’re working through these iterations of the book block I’ll be producing the cover, if that’s something I’m doing for you. There will be a base template produced which you’ll provide comment or direction or even greenlight. Changes to that cover will then be made and any effects applied. Once we have agreed on the cover it will be polished and made ready to publish. This process can take several weeks.
Once the book block and cover are completed we’ll have two PDF files and a Kindle file. At this stage we’re good to go. I’ll send you the files.
Actually Publishing
Publishing on Amazon is as simple as publishing can be, but that’s not to say it isn’t involved.
If you are not familiar with filling out online forms you will be well served to have someone to hand who is. You need to sign-up to Amazon KDP and then go through the process of publishing the two PDF documents (book block and cover) and the Kindle file I have supplied.
If need be I can walk you through the process of the sign-up and publish process, it’s about two one-hour sessions. You can request that. It’s a Zoom or Teams call.
Once the book is published, you can order a proof copy from Amazon or just hit the publish button and dance in the clouds. The actual publish process from hitting the button to the book being available is usually about twelve hours. It may vary.
What next?
If you spot any spelling errors, it’s going to cost to get them fixed. Decide how important it is over the cost and we can go around again with the book block.
If you would like me to send you all the source files created in producing your book I can do that on request.
Cold Feet?
If at any stage you want to stop the process let me know ASAP. I’ll let you know how many hours I’ve spent on the project.