The Ins and Outs of Publishing, part 1
So, you want to write a book—awesome! Maybe you’re just in the idea stage and want to get a feel for what’s ahead, and maybe you’re sitting there with a finished manuscript thinking, Well, what now? Consider this your publishing cheatsheet as you navigate your way through this world that feels completely unknown, maybe a little gate-kept, and also a place you desperately want to be a part of.
Traditional Publishing
When you go to Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore, you’ll see mostly traditionally published books. When we say traditionally published, we mean books that have been through a publishing house. This side of publishing is complicated, both in process and history. The way traditional publishing works hasn’t changed much in fifty years. (In late 2022 editors at HarperCollins went on strike for more competitive pay, among other demands, a move that the industry hadn’t yet seen. When the HarperCollins and union agreed on a contract in February 2023, the resulting pay increase affected salary minimums across the industry.)
When writers think about being published, they often default to traditional publishing. Traditional publishing comprises five main publishing houses and their imprints: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. Squeezing into one of these publishing houses almost always requires literary representation. Smaller publishing groups may have different requirements for manuscript submission.
Literary Agent
Your first step in seeking traditional publication is to acquire a literary agent—but you need to be strategic about it. You can’t just blast out generic query letters to anyone and everyone. Do some homework before even looking into agents: Where does your book fit in the current market? What need does your book fill in the current market? Who is your target audience? What books are comparable to yours that an agent and publisher could use to guide acquisition and marketing? You’ll also want to cover all of this in a query or book proposal.
Side note: Nonfiction books, written already or not, need to be submitted to agencies with a book proposal. Fiction manuscripts can be preceded with a query letter only. Book proposals and queries deserve their own post entirely!
Make a longlist of potential literary agents (PublishersMarketplace is the best place to start sifting through potential representation.) Pay attention to what the agents’ needs are; most will be very specific in what they’re looking for and not looking for. Don’t waste anyone’s time by trying to break through into an agency that has no place for you right now. Once you have your initial list, go back through and doublecheck that your book fits their needs, niches, and genres, and then start with your queries / book proposals.
While queries and book proposals require their own set(s) of blog posts, the most important thing to know and remember is that your queries and/or book proposals need to be personalized. Yes, personalized. Ensure that the agent knows you’ve done your homework by being specific in your letter. Acquiring a literary agent requires savvy and some know-how. You want to not only convince the agent that you have a good book that fits into the market, but you also need to convince them that they can sell this book to publishers.
Note that agents don’t typically expect their new authors to have a manuscript publish-ready, but it does work in your favor to have done your share of edits and revisions and rewrites. Submit a manuscript that is polished, not your actual first draft. Hiring independent editors is ideal for this task.
Acquisitions, contracts, advances, and royalities
The first editor your book encounters in the traditional setup is an acquisitions editor. This is the person who decides whether your book fits in their publishing house and existing body of books. When a publisher accepts your book, you’ll sign a contract and often receive an advance. When a publisher signs a contract and negotiates an advance, they are projecting how much money they think your book will make. Your advance is “paid back” to the publisher with your royalties. Yes, your royalties first go back to the publisher until you’ve paid back your advance. Once you’ve repaid your advance, the royalties are all yours.
Editing and editors
You’ll be assigned a lead editor on your manuscript, though your book will go through several sets of hands and eyes. This is good! You want as many trained eyes on your book as possible before publication. Depending on the state of your manuscript upon acquisition, you might work with a separate developmental editor first (but not always). If you’ve sold a book proposal and don’t have a full manuscript yet, you’ll work with an editor on writing that first draft. Your editor will give you writing deadlines, and you’ll go from there.
You’ll spend most of your time with your lead editor on substantive (also called line) edits. This is the messiest part of edits and rewrites. Your editor will comb through your book, and depending on how well they clean up the edit before they send it back, it might look like a bloodbath (but it’s usually not nearly as bad as it looks!)
In traditional publishing, the editor is working for three people:
The reader
You, the author
The publisher
Your editor is walking a tricky tightrope where several interests vie for attention and prominence. Trust that your editor is doing their best, and that they are probably navigating many dynamics outside of their interactions with you and your manuscript.
Somewhere between proofreads and galley proofs, you’ll get an egalley copy of your book, an advanced review copy (ARC), or both. These are early copies of your book sent out to book reviews, bookstagrammers, and bookstores. The copy in these galleys isn’t final, but close enough for early readers to start building buzz.
Your manuscript will also pass through copyedits, proofreads, and galley proofs. (Galley proofs are done when your book is typeset and almost ready to go to print!) When you sign with a publisher, expect this process to take at least a year.
Publication, marketing, and promotion
Only the biggest of author deals merits a good marketing budget with traditional publishers. Expect to do your own marketing legwork to talk about your book, build buzz, and garner reviews. Publishers put the marketing burden primarily on authors, so get comfortable talking about your book a lot. You’re in seller mode now, and building your own reader-base is the best way to sales and book reviews.
You’d be wise to start building your author platform now. Yes, now, before you have a deal, an agent, or even a manuscript. Agents and publishers often factor in an author’s platform when deciding on acquisition. Remember, the publisher wants to know if they can sell your book. The more people you have in your audience already, the better chance your book has of selling. If you haven’t started building your platform yet, start now.
After that long-awaited publication day, you’ll be in marketing mode for a least a few months. Many authors go on a book tour, visiting bookstores and book festivals talking up their book and meeting readers. If you’ve done your work building your platform and generating buzz, this part will be fun!
Gatekeeping in publishing
Everything you read just now is how publishing is supposed to work. But remember how I said traditional publishing hasn’t changed much in fifty years? Unfortunately, authors in marginalized groups have a much harder time breaking into traditional publishing. If you’re a person of color (especially a woman of color), queer, or disabled, navigating this route of publishing will be harder than is will be for white, cishet, able-bodied writers. This isn’t right, and many writers, editors, and readers are demanding more diversity in traditional publishing. As a reader, intentionally seek out stories by writers with marginalized identities and review those books, indicating to publishers that this is what you want to read.
Part 2 on publishing will come soon! I’ll link it here as soon as it’s ready.
