Originally, I had several different dates in mind for when I wanted to have the official book in hand and ready to sell. When I first began, I had my sights on February 12, 2009. Well that date has come and gone as you can see. The second date I had in mind was October 9, 2009 and although its late-April, it would probably take an "Act of Congress" to actually pull off that date as well. Why?
In a few short months of researching the publishing biz, I'll learn some much. First-time writers and publishers, here's why you need to learn the biz. Do you know what OPD means or BBD? What about PCIP and PCN? Do you know what galleys are?
Okay, let's just look at OPD and BBD for a sec. OPD is your "official publication date". Your OPD should be 3-4 months after your BBD (or "bound book date"). The BBD is the date that you will have finished books in your hands - the ones that goes on the store shelves is what I mean.
Let's back up, even when you finish the manuscript, you should have it professionally edited. On average, this takes two to four weeks.
Then, you need to send your edited and proofed manuscript to the typesetter, which could take up to four weeks (that's a month).
Next, your manuscript needs to go to the indexer, which takes about two weeks. (Please get an indexer! I hate nonfiction titles that don't have an index. Without one, its so hard to quickly locate passages without having to reread the book or mark it up so no one else can read it.)
Then the cover designer and typesetter must be on one accord with the printers. Because in the end, the printing process will take four or five weeks. Even if you take the print-on-demand (POD) route, you are not exempt from the other steps listed above.
Let's jump ahead, if your title is something that appeals to the masses, then you need to start pitching your book, especially to magazines, at least 6-8 months in advance.
Now, let's jump back to while you are still writing, I haven't even mention the process for finding the cover designer, editor/proofreader, typesetter, printer, etc.
Bottom Line: I can't emphasize enough that you have to learn about the publishing business if you really want to reap the benefits. That's regardless if you're aiming to just be a writer and secure a big publisher to carry your work (which is rare for a first-time author), whether you're taking one of two POD routes - there's POD publishers and then there's POD printers (see Patricia Fry's book), or if you want to started your own publishing company, where you call all the shots, you gotta take the time to learn the biz even while you are still "writing your masterpiece".
There are two sides of this business: (a) there's the actually writing of the book and then (b) there's the publishing business itself. Once I start my self-publshing biz, I can already foresee people with manuscripts asking me, "Will you publish my book?" Unfortunately, the answer will be "No! But I will contract you the process for a fee." If they ask, "Why not?", then I rest my case. 'Cause if you don't know the biz then you might very well find your book somewhere on the shelf, but the royalty checks don't come or they're so small, you feel like you've been had. Until next time.....;-)
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Recommended Resources: Both of these authors have their own self-publishing business.
Bowerman, Peter. (2007). The Well Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living. In Appendix C of this book is a timeline where I got a lot of the information posted above.
Fry, Patricia. How to Write a Successful Book Proposal in 8 Days or Less (2nd Ed.). This is where I learned about POD publishers and POD printers.
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