People often ask ‘What is Publishing?’ and have very idealistic views of what it means for an aspiring author. Publishing consists of putting out anything for distribution or sale to the public. Publishers do the final work on books and electronic books (eBooks) before they are published. Currently, eBooks represent 25% of all book sales in America. Although some publishers prefer traditional books over e-books, most customers like e-books because they are digital, reduce the expenses of printing and binding, are environmentally friendly and are available to a huge number of people on various e-reading devices.
What Is Publishing?
Publishing a book is the process of transforming a manuscript that was formerly private to be accessible to the public.
More than just producing and releasing books, commercial publishing aims to sell such publications to sufficient readers to generate a profit.
A typical book consists of three core elements: the book itself, the supply of books, and book sales.
Choosing which publishing business to hire is tough because of the abundance of services and book distribution packages available for free. Look for the primary component that influences your choices and be on the lookout for three things: the expenses publishers incur, how much help they give, and the number of retail locations they can reach.
There are several additional services that publishers provide, other than just book distribution. Books with high standards must first be critiqued and checked to find areas that may be corrected, including spelling, punctuation, and overall writing style. Publishers will give you several possibilities, depending on your choice. The final product will be better if you submit more draughts to a publisher.
Most publishing houses will assign additional design jobs and traditional ones, such as art directors and designers. In addition, authors may also have marketing and promotion teams capable of selecting an appropriate publication date for the book, creating buzz about it in advance of publication, and designing a marketing strategy to promote the book.
With an up-to-date, clear explanation, a publisher takes your book manuscript and helps you fine-tune the areas that require improvement. They also then distribute your book to retailers. Ultimately, choosing one publisher over another depends on your desire to pursue your project and how many services that publisher can provide for their pricing. Be aware of which publishers will help you during the whole writing process and which publishers are interested in your work.
The Seven Processes of Book Publishing
- Planning
You always make a plan before you start something new. First, you need to schedule your writing time and decide what services you will be choosing. Second, your plan has to be good and make sure you revise it at least two times. If someone who is more experienced than you in this field can help, it would be great. A good plan can lead you to success, while a bad plan can cause your failure.
- Editing
Deciding what degree of editing is necessary at the planning stage will help to optimize your workflow. As you continue reading, you will learn about all the various editing levels. With the editing process nearing its conclusion, writers may feel that their work has been considerably improved, although first-time writers may be afraid initially. They’re unclear whether or not someone is going to inspect their job carefully. Before moving forward, you should know what to anticipate from the editing process. Editors play an important part in editing a book. It is also crucial to understand an editor’s job and what your job as a self-publisher is.
- Cover And Interior Design
Your book cover is the main driver that drives readers to your book. If readers are drawn to your book, the next thing they would notice is the interior design of the book. If both are eye-catching and appealing to the reader’s eyes, then the chance of increasing sales is very high. It is always best to hire a professional for your book cover and interior design because they know what’s best for business. You can also design your own cover and interior design, but the chances of success would be odd as a writer is familiar with writing and not the designing stuff. So leave the job to those who are experts in their field.
- Proofreading And Indexing
Finally, proofreading is the last stage of the whole book production process. Even the greatest editors will not find every problem in your book. Thus it is critical to have someone else check your work. The difference between a professional-level book and one that is not quite there will be professional writing. While a bit of inaccuracy in your book won’t destroy you, there might be many more, and if you didn’t proofread it, you would seem bad.
An index is a valuable tool to assist readers in locating specific information in your book, but it is not extremely necessary. An index is often found at the back of a book and includes extensive information on all of the central topics that you cover in your book.
For authors, indexes and the contents page at the start of the book might often be confused as the same thing. This is because it has a table of contents with the chapter names and page numbers and occasionally headers from the chapters in the table of contents.
- Printing
It’s particularly advantageous for self-publishers to have some understanding of the printing process. This stage examines the numerous printing alternatives available, the number of copies to print, printing costs, and the remaining possibilities.
- eBook
To get extra sales from your book, it is highly recommended to convert your print book copy into an eBook because many readers have digital reading devices, and they would be purchasing the electronic version of your book. Writers generally hire eBook experts for this, and they get the digital version which is very easy to upload on digital stores.
- Distribution
Many bookstores don’t want to work with self-publishers who have just one book. So, if you consider distributing your books on bookshops, you need to know how and what benefits you need to consider using a distributor if you want to do it on your own. Then, after copies of your book have been successfully distributed, all you need to do is wait as your book starts generating sales.
Conclusion
Many writers believe that writing a book is the most tedious part of their work, but the truth is that things are just getting started. Publishing a book is even more hectic than writing and involves seven essential processes. However, if you complete each process successfully, you are on the verge of generating profitable sales.
Joanne Martin is an International Best-Selling Publisher and Author. She’s the CEO and Founder of Golden Earth Publishing. Her bespoke publishing house specialises in corporate books, children’s books, solo author books and manuscript development for innovative business owners and creative thought leaders. You can view her books, colouring books and journals, including options for purchasing on Amazon.