The Story of Being Published in Fifteen Objects
What to expect and what to enjoy, from contracts to prizes.
Being published is a long-drawn-out process: it can also be exciting, disheartening, stressful and confusing. On the one hand there are clear phases and stages that need to happen, on the other hand people inside the trade often forget that our work may be at the heart of the process but we don’t know what that process is. So this is a run-down of the whole eighteen-months-to-two-years it’s likely to take, embodied in actual objects and with links to explain more.
If you are self-publishing obviously you have far more control, but it’s well worth getting your head round all these topics as a way of understanding how to make the most of it all in as clear and efficient a way as possible.
Contract. No longer a wodge of paper, just a pdf, but it has the same status: a legally binding agreement wherein you grant a publisher the right to reproduce and publish your written work, in certain forms, in certain geographical areas, for a certain length of time. You are not selling them the copyright, but you may also be granting them the right to sell subsidiary rights such as translations, the audiobook, or theatre/screen adaptation rights. More about contracts here.
Manuscript. Check if there’s any form or filetype they particularly like it in, but mainly just make sure it’s clean and clear. If it’s like this, no one’s likely to complain, or to curse you under their breath.
Author’s Questionnaire. A big form from your publisher. You fill in details of everything that’s useful to the publicity, sales and marketing departments. For example: your full contact details and relevant biography; the book’s title, setting, plot, main characters, genre, wordcount and USP if it has one; your idea of its readership and places to promote it; your experience and platform for writing about this topic. They will also use it to produce the Advance Information (AI) sheet which contains all the key info for the book trade and media outlets and an author photo.
Proofs. Probably a .pdf. After the structural, line and copy-edits, your absolutely last chance to pick up typos and change anything which must be changed. If you change more than 10% of the text you will be charged for the typesetter’s time. No one I’ve met knows how 10% is calculated, but it’s definitely less than 8,000 words on an 80k book. Ideally there’s a second proof-read after those changes, plus someone at the publisher or typesetter should also proof-read it, but don’t hold your breath.
Cover. The most important marketing tool of all, which must attract the right readers (and hopefully repel the wrong ones before they post rude reviews online). With luck, you’ll love it, but contractually you don’t have right of veto (as you do over the text), only the right to be consulted. Cover fights are one of many times that having an agent to fight on your behalf is a huge help. It is a big part of your book becoming real, so enjoy it, do everything you can to get it into your own social media blatherings and consider getting business cards, bookmarks or postcards printed to give away. More about covers here.
Photo by Kate Dacres-Mannings on Unsplash Galleys/bound proofs/Advance Reading Copies. All the same thing: a version of the not-yet-printed book for potential reviewers, endorsers and media outlets. Physical ARCs are expensive to produce, so much will be done via .pdfs and on platforms such as Netgalley. They’re produced long before the final proof-read, so they carry a health warning that reviews and quotes should be checked against the published version. If physical ARCs arrive, you are allowed to carry one around, do the Happy Author Dance, and even take it to bed with you. More about all forms of the book here.
Reviews. Print media book pages are ever shrinking, but reviews can sometimes be got; get them up on your website, make the most of them on social media and keep a physical copy for the pleasure of it. Good online reviews from readers are also to be cherished, posted and perhaps thanked on social media. Get key phrases into your brief bios for events where you can. More about reviews here.
Author’s Copies. Contractually you will receive anywhere between six and twenty free copies of your book, for you to sell or give away. You will also be entitled to buy more copies of your book (and possibly their other books) from your publisher at author’s discount, which in my experience is around 40%. If you do a lot of events where you (rather than a bookseller) are supplying and selling your books this can be a nice little earner.
Hardback. Hardbacks have got more lush, with gorgeous embossed covers and spredges; if you have one it will be published first, along with the ebook. But increasingly publishers don’t find hardbacking makes a difference to sales and reviews, and decide the production costs aren’t worth it. When it arrives, you are allowed to carry it around, do the Happy Author Dance, and even take it to bed with you. More about all forms of the book here.
Glass of prosecco. Or celebratory drink of your choice, obviously. Not just at the launch you or your publisher organises at a bookshop or perhaps upstairs in a nice pub, according to budget, but also when you sign the contract, when your ARCs and author’s copies arrive and possibly when your agent or editor takes you out to lunch.
Bookshop. Still the great embodiment of human reading, although for not-already-celebrated authors the traditional book-signing only really works when the author has lots of local friends who will come and buy (and surely they came to the launch and bought their copy then?). Evening events do better but take much more organising. In the chains, window- and front-table positions, three-for-twos and BOGOFs usually cost your publisher money. In the independents positions are all about them knowing their customers and what will sell. Booksellers are terrifyingly well-read, significantly overworked and startlingly underpaid; be friendly, professional, helpful and grateful.
Paperback. The usual type of physical book. If the hardback cover went down well with the trade the paperback may be similar, though tweaked for the smaller size; if it didn't go down well, the cover may be drastically re-thought for the paperback. When it arrives, you are allowed to carry it around, do the Happy Author Dance, and even take it to bed with you. More about all forms of the book here.
Tent. Booky events are an ever-increasing part of the industry, and the book festivals are a sizeable part of that. They’re fun, grim, energising, exhausting, good networking opportunities or great for publicity, according to temperament. Your book sales won’t begin to pay for your time but if it’s Arts Council funded you should be paid a bit; either way, the organisers or your publisher should pick up your expenses. You may be asked join a topic-centred panel of authors or be interviewed on your own: don’t agree to hold the stage solo unless you’re happy and confident to do so. More about events here and Ten unapologetic ways to ask to be paid here.
Перевод, 翻訳, vertaling, traduccion, अनुवाद, fordítás: Your (or your publisher’s) contract with a foreign-language publisher will probably include you eventually receiving somewhere between one and six copies of the translated book and having to find shelf-space or a recipient. That is usually as exciting as it gets, unless you read the language, so enjoy.
Trophy. Book prizes are not handed down from heaven as bags of free gold: someone has to pay for it all, and the winning author’s cheque is the least of the costs. But they do sell more products and help make books in general more visible, which is why publishers are willing to supply copies, and pay entry fees and/or further contributions if their books are long- or short-listed or actually win. Many prizes are genuinely trying to reward good books, but fundamentally all a prize listing or win tells you is that this is a/the book which, on that day, in that place, that set of judges could agree should be listed or win: no more, and no less. More about prizes here.