Sell Your Manuscript? Great! Now What Happens to It? (Part I)

For most authors, the inner workings of a book publishing house are like the inner workings of the computer on which they wrote their manuscript: a big mystery. But if you're lucky adequate to sign a ageement with a publisher, it's in your best interest to understand the process of turning a manuscript into a published book.

The citizen you'll deal with at your book's publishing house will most likely be only your acquiring editor, their editorial assistant, and possibly person assigned to promote your book in the marketing department. If you have a literary agent, he/she will deal with the citizen responsible for drawing up your publishing contract. But many more citizen work behind the scenes to make a book happen, including those such as me in the copyediting department.

Clean House

These days, for most books about a year passes in the middle of the ageement and the publication date. The time frame varies widely based on the type of book, however--political books are often rushed to publication in months to make it onto shelves before determination day, but nonfiction books sold on the basis of just a proposal may take up to two years if you still need to write the book.

Why does the book publishing process take so long? Why can't they just draw a cover and print it? I'll tell you about one reason: the need for copyediting. I don't care if you and your best friend have proofread your manuscript 800 times. I don't care if you've employed a good freelance editor. No manuscript I've ever seen didn't need copyediting.

A copy editor is trained to look for things neither you nor your acquiring editor look for. Your editor is focused on broader article issues: character, plot, themes, structure. The copy editor knows every minute rule of grammar and punctuation in The Chicago hand-operated of Style (our Bible) and how to apply them. If they're good, they also know when to forget those rules and when to leave your writing alone in order to reserve your unique authorial voice.

They'll insert commas to make a sentence clearer. They'll ask "What do you mean by this?" or "Is this the same 'Joe' you mentioned back on page 23?" They'll consideration if you repeat a sentence from page 3 on page 452 and know that "Dr Pepper" has no period. They're the first real reader who is approaching your novel or nonfiction with a fresh, unbiased eye, and it's a keen eye, so pay attention.

It takes about a month to copyedit most manuscripts, after which you will have a few weeks to recap the copy editor's work and answer any queries. Remember that your name will be on the cover, so ultimately all decisions are yours; but also remember that copy editors are very skilled professionals and, yes, they may know more than you do about clear aspects of writing. Respect their work. It helps turn your manuscript into a clean, professional bound book.

Sell Your Manuscript? Great! Now What Happens to It? (Part I)