Potpourri
Publishing: A Timeline
"Why can't you write faster?" I get this question from my most avid readers. The reality is that even if I could write a book a day, I couldn't get more than a few books published a year at one publisher (and two books a year is the best schedule I've ever had--the closest schedule I was given at Avon was every 9 months).
If I wrote for more than one publishing house, I could have more books out a year, but they would be different kinds of books. Most publishers don't want to compete with another publisher producing the same author writing the same thing. So that's why you'll see Famous Author A writing historical romances for Avon, big contemporary romantic suspense books for St. Martin's, and humorous series fiction for Harlequin. But you won't see two different publishers publishing Famous Author's historicals. That means that no matter how many historicals I write a year (and two is probably my limit, although that depends on my schedule), my publisher is only going to publish two or three at most. It has nothing to do with how fast I write.
So why can't they publish more of my books a year? Because they have other authors, all of whom have readers clamoring for more books, and they can only produce so many at a time. Now on to the next question: why does it take so long for a book to be produced?
The Publishing Process
This chart is a generic one. Each publisher has different schedules, and each one calls its departments by a different title, but the order of the activities is pretty much the same. The chart starts when a contracted book is turned in; then it goes by month until it's published. Most publishers of single title books (as opposed to the series books published by Silhouette and Harlequin) prefer a year's leadtime. They can produce books faster, but they have to squeeze up every timeline, and that causes other books to be delayed, so they don't like to. And certain publishers routinely have a shorter lead time.
Each editor has at least 20 authors, usually more. If each of those authors produces one book every nine months…well, you get the picture. The publicity department is juggling ALL the authors in the company, as are the sales and art departments. They're all busy, busy, busy.
| Author | Editorial Dept. | Marketing Dept. & Publicity Dept. | Production Dept. | Art Dept. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1-2 | Editor reads book. Sends author a revision letter or requests revisions. | Concept for cover art is discussed. Artist is hired. Sketches of idea are made. | |||
| Month 3 | Author has to revise. Usually author is given 2 weeks to revise. | Sketches are passed to Editorial for input. | |||
| Month 4 | Editor reads revised mss., then passes it on to Production. | Book is assigned to a copy-editor. | Artist is chosen (if cover is painted and not done in-house using computers). Models are hired and photographed. | ||
| Month 5 | Copy-editor edits mss. for mistakes in grammar, spelling, etc., and inserts printer's marks. | Art is generated, type put on, and cover mock-up produced and passed to Editorial for input. | |||
| Editor reviews copy-editor's corrections; sends mss. to author. | |||||
| Month 6 | Author has two weeks to review copy-editor's changes and approve or disapprove. | Cover changes made and full cover produced. Author is sent a copy. | |||
| Author reviews cover and suggests any changes | Editor sends galleys to author. | Inputs author's changes on master copy. Oversees the production of page proofs (or galleys) | First set of covers is printed to use in marketing the book. | ||
| Month 7 | Author has two weeks to review galleys and make any last-minute changes |
Marketing begins. Salesmen visit bookstore buyers to get orders. Advanced reading copies (uncorrected) are sent out to generate interest. Covers are sent to any store buyer who might want to order the book. |
Author's changes incorporated for final cover when possible. | ||
| Reviews author's galley changes and sends to production. | Inputs author's galley changes on master copy and sends it off to printer. | ||||
| Month 8 | |||||
| Month 9 | |||||
| Month 10 | Publicity starts sending out ARCs to reviewers and setting up booksignings or appearances (for bigger authors) | ||||
| Month 11 | Book is printed, based on number of orders. | ||||
| Month 12 | Book is distributed. |