So I promised my next newsletter would be more interesting, and while I do have a couple updates to share (nothing major, calm down), those updates actually tie in nicely to a thing I've been meaning to write about for a while. I get asked a lot "what's happening with the book," and while of course the process is going to look a little different from author to author and publisher to publisher, the basic components tend to be the same.

Now, this is only going to address traditional publishing, not because self-publishing is not a legitimate option (I know many authors who have great careers self-publishing!), but because I know next to nothing about it. My only insight into the world of self-publishing is that you have to wear a lot of hats in order to do it well–you have to manage editors and cover designers, become a master of design and layout, figure out a business and marketing strategy, and about a billion other things–and I feel I am only built for one hat: writer. So traditional publishing is what's best for me, because it means other people do all those other jobs that I don't want to do.

This is also only addressing novel-length fiction, not nonfiction or picture books, which each have their own unique processes.

Anyway, if you've ever wondered why it takes so long to go from publishing announcement to book-on-shelf, here's the basic process.

Step one: Write the book (or proposal)

This can vary a bit based on whether this is your first book (or not), and whether you have an agent or not. If you are unagented and unpublished, you have to write the book first. There are very few exceptions to this–so few, in fact, as to make the exceptions statistically negligible. So unless your mom owns the publisher and is ready to just hand you a contract for a book that only exists in your head, count on writing your book before going any further.

(In a later newsletter I will go into the process of writing and revising a novel, but that's its own long post.)

If you're already working with an editor at a publishing house (as I was after I'll Stop the World), or have already traditionally published several books, you may be able to submit a proposal rather than writing an entire book that no one has agreed to buy yet. A proposal is typically a complete synopsis (meaning it details the entire plot of the book, including the ending) along with a few sample chapters.

Step 2: Submit the book (or proposal)

Once you have written and revised your novel (or proposal) so that it's as good as it can possibly get without professional assistance*, it's time to start submitting it to either agents, editors, or both. Most writers wanting to pursue traditional publishing tend to want to submit to agents first, but there are some (typically small) independent presses who will accept unagented submissions.

If you want an agent, you'll need to write a query letter: a short email typically no more than a few paragraphs containing a brief summary of what the book is about along with a few sample pages. Every agent has different submission guidelines, and it's important to follow them precisely if you don't want your query fast-tracked to the garbage. If an agent likes your query, they may request more pages or the whole book. And then if they like those, they may offer to represent you. At that point, once you've both agreed to the terms of representation, your agent will take the lead on determining the right steps going forward.

If you're submitting directly to publishers, they will also have their own submission guidelines, which may be more involved than agent submission guidelines. Once again, do your research (ie: read their websites), and follow instructions to the letter. That may seem obvious, but you might be surprised at how many people don't bother doing even the most cursory amount of research before hurling their manuscript into publishing professionals' inboxes like cherry bombs.

If you already have an agent and/or an editor at a publishing house (as opposed to a freelance editor), you will give your book or proposal to them directly, and they will help you determine the next steps.

AT NO POINT DURING THIS PROCESS SHOULD MONEY CHANGE HANDS. If an agent or publishing house ever tries to charge you a fee for any reason, run. Best case scenario, they have no idea what they're doing. Worst case, you're about to get scammed.

*some writers hire professional editors before querying agents or submitting to editors, which is not necessarily a bad idea, but is absolutely not necessary. And if you do pay for a professional edit, keep in mind that your eventual agent or editor may still ask for substantial changes. So before you fork over hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a professional edit (and if you find an editor who is not charging at least a few hundred dollars for an entire novel, they’re either seriously undercharging their clients or you’re about to be very disappointed) ask yourself if you’re comfortable paying for an edit that could very well wind up being completely negated a little further down the road.

Step 3: You've sold your book! Yay! On to developmental edits!

While the first couple steps vary greatly depending on whether you're already agented and/or published, things get a little simpler from here on out. Either a publisher is going to want to buy your book, or they're not. Sometimes there may be a few more steps to get to that book deal; sometimes you can think they're going to buy it and then they don't; sometimes things just go wrong for all sorts of reasons. But for the purposes of this post, let's assume they've bought it.

If you've sold on proposal (as was the case with You Shouldn't Be Here), obviously you now have to write the book. There will likely be a deadline. This is... hard. I've only ever done this once, but I've heard other authors express similar sentiments. Writing a book that is already sold, that people are waiting on, is a very different beast than writing a book on your own time, and it's hard to actually understand what it's like without doing it. Just know that it's hard.

Once the book is written, regardless of whether that was before or after you sold it, it's time for developmental edits. This means that your editor will read your book and give you their ideas on how to make it better. These ideas tend to be story-related, such as clarifying plot points, solidifying character motivations, cutting or adding subplots, that sort of thing. Most editors will provide an edit letter–which is exactly what it sounds like, a letter/email where they discuss the edits they are suggesting and why–and many will also provide notes within the document itself using Track Changes.

After getting your edit letter, you'll start in on revisions. Typically the timeline for developmental edits is anywhere from a few weeks (I had three weeks for You Shouldn't Be Here, which is extremely fast) to a few months (two or three is fairly common). Many publishers will want at least two rounds of developmental edits, sometimes more, but again, this varies from house to house and author to author. After the first round, it's typically just adding onto and honing the previous suggestions, rather than introducing a whole new pile of suggestions, which can make subsequent rounds of developmental edits a bit less daunting than the first one.

Once you're finished with developmental edits, your publisher may want to send your book out for blurbs, the little endorsements from other authors that appear on the cover or back of a book telling people to read it. Sometimes the publisher will have some names in mind and will contact them on your behalf, sometimes they'll ask you to reach out to authors you know, sometimes your agent will get involved, and sometimes it can be a mix of all three. If your publisher does request blurbs, be very prepared for people to say no; blurbs require quick reading of a document that hasn't even finished making its way through the editing process yet, often during times when authors already have a lot going on, and it's very common for authors to have too much on their plate already to add anything else. So if and when one of your favorite authors declines to blurb your book, don't fret; it probably had very little to do with you, and everything to do with an overcrowded schedule.

[Below: my blurbs on the back of I'll Stop the World.]

Step 4: In the meantime, the design team is doing their thing.

One nice thing about traditional publishing is that publishing houses have a bunch of different departments working on your book all at the same time, which means that while you're plugging away on developmental edits, the design team is probably already brainstorming cover concepts.

How many concepts will you get? I have heard of numbers as low as one (me) and as high as 20 (LOL I wish). Again, this truly depends on the publisher (are you sensing a theme?). Some publishers like to give their authors lots of choices to pick from that they then revise in collaboration with the designer(s). Others just give a small handful of concepts and the author is allowed minimal input, and still others are just like "here is your cover, ta-da!"

Personally, I got two concepts for I'll Stop the World (my biggest contribution to the final cover: I suggested adding the rain, which was originally only on Design 2) and only one for You Shouldn't Be Here. Luckily, I absolutely adore the You Shouldn't Be Here cover so any more concepts would've been wasted anyway.

[Below: the original concept (L), and the final cover (R).]

Also at some point during this process, you are likely signing a contract (believe it or not, some contracts are not finalized until the book is well into the production process–it's not unheard of for covers to be designed and edits to be well underway before the contract is finally signed), and hopefully getting paid the first part of your advance.

Your book deal will probably also get publicly announced at some point, although this can sometimes take a while (case in point: I sold You Shouldn't Be Here on proposal in April, but the deal wasn't announced until October), which is why so many authors tend to post cryptic messages like "working on a THING that I can't TALK ABOUT YET but hopefully SOON!" I know it's annoying, but you must understand, sometimes it is either vaguepost or explode. Those are really the only two options.

Step 5: Copyedits

Once developmental edits are complete, your book moves on to copyediting, which is typically handed off to a new editor who specializes in knowing all the weird grammar and syntax rules you can never remember, like when to use "lay" and "lie" and the difference between "further" and "farther." The copyeditor then goes through your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb*, tightening up your writing on a technical level while also reading for consistency and accuracy.

Copyeditors are the heroes who ensure that your hero's eye color doesn't change five times, or that the antagonist doesn't enter the same room twice in the same scene, or that your love interest doesn't suddenly sprout a third arm during a steamy scene. They're the reason that you don't have three days in a row that are all Tuesday. They also fact check things like brand names, historical accuracy, pop culture references, and anything else that you may have missed.

Once the copyeditor is finished going through your book, you'll get another letter, and another version of your book marked up with Track Changes. Then you get to go through and decide if you actually did want that comma there, or if it was your intent to have those anachronisms, or if you meant to give your side character a different hair color in every scene. The turnaround on copyedits tends to be a little quicker than developmental edits, maybe just a few weeks (or sometimes less). There may also be multiple rounds here, but subsequent rounds will likely be very brief.

*CE note: while the idiom was originally "fine-toothed," it is now more commonly written as "fine-tooth." Okay as is, or would you like to update?

Step 6: Proofreading/Pass Pages

This can vary a bit too, depending on the publisher, but there's almost always a stage after copyedits where you get to go through your book one last time, looking for the teeny tiny things that may have slipped through the cracks. Some publishers will mail the author a printed version of their entire manuscript that has already been formatted to resemble what the final pages will look like. Others will email a formatted PDF that resembles a finished ebook. Mine, ever the outlier, sends me a spreadsheet of the stubborn errors that squeezed through copyedits, although I do get to review a digital mockup of the final layout separately and offer suggestions.

Regardless of what format your proofreading takes, this is the last chance to make any changes to the words on the page, or to let your team know if there's anything that needs to happen with the design or layout that is different from what they've currently got (such as moving page breaks, requesting special fonts, or pointing out spacing problems).

This is not a stage for making significant changes; each round of edits zooms in just a little more, and by the time you're at the proofreading stage, everything is pretty micro-level. Making a macro-level change at this point just mucks up the whole works.

Step 7: Production, marketing, and publicity

You're done! Except... you're not.

After you, the author, are done poking at your book, it goes to a whole bunch of other people who then get it all dressed up and ready to dance. Things like typesetting and layout and formatting need to happen, orders need to be taken, printers need to be... whatever you do with printers. I don't know. I just write the books. Basically, the next few months are devoted to actually turning these electronic files you've been trading back and forth with your editorial team into physical books that people can read, and that takes a lot of work. Not work for you, but work nonetheless.

However, it can certainly feel like nothing is happening in the months leading up to release, since the writing part is done. But there are still some things for you to do.

Somewhere either during or maybe a little after steps 5 and 6, it'll be time to talk marketing. Most publishing houses have an in-house marketing team whose job is to help you sell your book. However, what they're able/willing to do with you is going to vary quite a bit based on the size of your publisher, the amount they've invested in your book, what other titles they have in the pipeline, and a million other factors.*

This can include things like the distribution of digital or physical ARCs (advance readers copies), ad campaigns, influencer partnerships, social media campaigns, giveaways, librarian and bookseller outreach, and all sorts of other options. The marketing team will also weigh in on things like taglines and flap copy (the little plot summary that goes on the back or inside dust jacket of the book), trying to make your book as appealing as possible to the masses.

Meanwhile, you may also be in contact with a publicist or publicity team (either provided in-house by your publisher, or contracted just for your book), who will help with things like arranging interviews, bookstore events, festival appearances, and more.

It took me a while to figure out the difference between marketing and publicity, since they are so closely intertwined, but essentially the marketing team is all about getting people to notice your book, and the publicity team is focused on getting people interested in you (and by extension, hopefully, your book). Not every publisher provides every author with a dedicated publicist (most will at least have a marketing department); if you don't get one, you can either hire one yourself, or just run your publicity yourself. There's no right or wrong, and what's right for you will depend on your skills and resources, what your publisher is doing, your comfort and time, and a host of other factors.

In my case, I'm fortunate to have both an in-house marketing team and publicist that do the vast majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting the word out about my books. That said, the publisher involvement in this process doesn't tend to start ramping up until at least about six months from launch, sometimes even later. Which means that most of the stuff you see authors doing to promote their books (ie: pretty much everything having to do with You Shouldn't Be Here so far) when they're more than six months out from launch, they're doing on their own. So if you've been wondering why it all seems so slapdash, that's why.

Anyway, once you're within a few months of your release date, your publisher will likely start sending out copies of your book to reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and other early readers to start building buzz. Sometimes you will also get an advance copy or several to pass out (or just to hug; no shame in wanting to cuddle your book). Appearances, interviews, and guest posts may start getting booked. Giveaways might happen.

Basically, once you finish writing the book, your job then becomes to make sure people know about it (an utterly terrifying prospect for most authors, honestly). The hope is, of course, that all that effort will pay off in lots of people buying and reading your book once it releases! Maybe even writing a review online (always the dream)! But of course, that is never a guarantee, which is why the mantra of most authors who have been doing this a while (which, to be clear, is not me; I'm still a publishing infant. I just have a lot of friends who have been doing this for much longer than I have) is "write the next book." Because at the end of the day, the only thing truly within your control is the writing.

*To that end, I've made a short survey in the hopes of gaining some insight into exactly how things like publisher size and marketing spend play into copies sold for first-time traditionally published authors. If you are a novelist who has traditionally published at least one book in the past few years, and who has access to your sales numbers for that debut year, I'd appreciate if you'd take a couple minutes to fill it out! I will keep it open for at least a week, and then make the all of the results public, along with my own analysis of what they mean.

Which brings me to...

I actually have a wee bit of marketing of my own to reveal today! As with so many things with publishing, my editor and I have been going back and forth with the marketing team for the past couple months trying to pinpoint exactly how we want to talk about this book to the world, and the marketing copy for You Shouldn't Be Here finally appeared on Amazon today! (Followed shortly, one would hope, by other retailer sites; it's hard to know how long it will take for it to be everywhere, since every site pulls their data at different times. Bookshop.org, for example, still hasn't updated the cover for this book, and it's been public since the beginning of December.) I'm so glad to finally have this out in the world, so people can see what this book is actually about. Check it out!

Unlike the marketing copy of I'll Stop the World, which I actively encourage people not to read (this is my own fault for writing a book with a twist that also defined the genre of the book), I actually really like this, because it gives you a good idea of what you're getting into with You Shouldn't Be Here... while also keeping quite a few tricks up its sleeve.

If that sounds interesting to you, I'd love it if you'd preorder You Shouldn't Be Here from the retailer of your choice!

I would be remiss not to mention...

We have a new foster dog! This is Bonnie.

​

We picked her up from the rescue on New Years Eve, and she is both the best and worst foster we've ever had.

Best because she has one of the sweetest dispositions I've ever encountered in a dog. She loves everyone she meets, human or canine. She is curious and happy and playful and extremely smart. We're not sure what exact cocktail of breeds are in there, but if she's not at least part Golden retriever, I will, uh, well I'm not sure but it'll be extreme.

I have reason to believe that she was kept as an outdoor pup for the first ten months of her life (she's about 11 months now) and didn't receive a ton of human interaction during that time, but rather than create trauma, it seems to have only made her more determined to enjoy life and love her humans to the fullest. I love her. She's a delight.

AND.

She is a holy terror.

The thing with extremely smart, energetic dogs is that–much like smart, energetic humans–get bored if they're not constantly given something to do. You'd think our other two dogs would be enough to keep her occupied when we're working, but the thing is, they're extremely lazy. I mean they like to play sometimes, but Bonnie wants to play all the time. And our pups do not go for that.

So what does Bonnie do when she's bored, full of energy, and everyone else is busy?

Well, she steals things.

Lots of things.

Here is a long yet incomplete list of things Bonnie has taken from inside our house, through the dog door, and left in the backyard: a bottle of TUMS, the TV remote, an Echo Dot, a roll of electrical tape, countless dishrags and potholders, many socks, my right AirPod (RIP), numerous stuffed animals, several shoes, two wallets, a pair of headphones, an empty orange juice bottle, the smoothie attachment for a NutriBullet, an entire package of Kraft American singles, and, somehow, my entire bag of laundry after I came home from a weekend writing retreat.

Most of these things she does not ruin. Some of them (namely, the most expensive things), she does.

And here's the most frustrating part: I know exactly why she's doing it. She wants us to engage with her, and when we don't (read: can't), she's like "hmm, the humans seem to be doing lots of inside things but I want to be outside. I KNOW, I shall take the INSIDE things OUTSIDE and then the humans will come looking for them and then they will PLAY WITH ME!" It's basically toddler logic, which makes sense, because an 11-month-old smart dog is about the intellectual equivalent of human toddler.

With the right family–preferably one with extremely active humans and pets (neither of which exist in our house)–I truly believe Bonnie will thrive. I think she will need a couple months of intense training and very intentional interaction, and will then be an amazing dog for the rest of her life. I even think she'd make a fantastic service dog; she's definitely smart enough, and having a job would probably provide exactly the sort of constant stimulation she needs.

But in our mostly indoor household with dogs that prefer to lounge around all day, play for 30 minutes at night, and then lounge some more... she's gradually Marie Kondo-ing all of our earthly possessions. They do not bring her joy, so they must go.

Anyway, if you happen to live in the middle Tennessee area and live in an active household who feels up to the challenge of training a very smart high-energy dog who is guaranteed to love you more than any human has ever been loved before, Bonnie is available for adoption. You can apply here. She will be so excited to meet you!

Also maybe lock up your valuables.

Just a reminder...

Authors, please fill out my survey!

And as always, dear readers, thank you for being here. There are so many things in life constantly clamoring for attention that it can be hard to decide where to place our focus. I appreciate you lending yours to me, at least for a little while.

Talk more soon.