What is Book Publishing: Everything You Need to Know
Ready to turn that Word document into a book but unsure of how to proceed? Book publishing can be daunting, especially for a first-time author. In this article, we will break down the process of traditional book publishing and guide you through various facets of the book publishing industry.
What is Book Publishing?
Book publishing is the process of creating written content to be distributed to the audience either through printed or digital versions. It involves multiple stages, including writing, editing, designing, printing, marketing, and distribution.
Unlike the publishing of fiction and non-academic books, academic book publishing focuses on a niche set of audience. The creation and distribution of scholarly writing, such as guidebooks and textbooks, require deep research and analysis in specific domains. The primary objective of academic book publishing is to advance scientific knowledge rather than focus on a mass-market appeal.
Types of Book Publishing
There are two types of book publishing: traditional publishing and self-publishing.
Traditional Publishing
Traditional publishing is the conventional way of publishing books, wherein you send a book proposal to a publishing house. This can be done either directly or through a literary agent. After a thorough review of your book proposal, the publishing company determines whether they wish to support you in your publication journey.
If they decide to proceed, they will offer you a contract outlining their terms and conditions. You may then coordinate and negotiate with them until the terms of the contract are satisfactory to both parties. Once your book is accepted for publication, the publishing company will edit, design, market, and distribute your book. Penguin Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers are some well-established publishing companies.
Self-Publishing
Like the name suggests, self-publishing is an approach where the gatekeepers of traditional publishing—namely literary agents, publishing houses and, reviewers—can be bypassed to publish your book on any self-publishing platform. However, academic books do need to be peer reviewed before publication.
This is typically preferred by first-time authors or authors publishing on niche topics since they find it difficult to navigate the traditional publishing route until acceptance. The advantage of self-publishing is that the authors have complete control of how the book is written, edited, designed, marketed, and distributed. Most authors use a professional book editing service to assist them is editing and designing the book. Platforms like Amazon KDP and IngramSpark are well-known for distributing E-books and print-on-demand books.
You can read in detail about how to self-publish your book here.
Process of Book Publishing
The traditional book publishing process can be categorized into 7 simple steps.
Step 1: Preparing the manuscript
When you have an idea for a book, you begin writing a first draft and gradually develop the chapters to create a complete manuscript. Researching for a suitable idea for a book could take time, especially when publishing academic books. Unlike fiction writing, your academic book should address a knowledge gap and contribute to advancing scientific research.
Most first-time authors prefer writing a book based on their PhD research topic. But converting your dissertation into a book requires you to extract relevant information and modify the presentation of content in a way that’s suited for a book. Although this is the first step, you need not finish your entire manuscript in the case of academic books. You can work simultaneously on your manuscript and book proposal (Steps 1 and 2) to save time and move faster towards publication.
Step 2: Book proposal creation
Book proposal is as crucial as a book manuscript, if not more. A well-written book proposal can be a game-changer in your book publishing journey. Think of it as samples given out for tasting at a food cart; if they are not good enough, nothing gets sold!
Here’s a detailed blog on how to write a book proposal. But to give you a gist, a book proposal should persuade agents to collaborate with you in your book publishing journey. Rather than highlight what the book is about, a proposal should underscore why the book will sell and why it deserves a publishing platform.
When publishing academic books, preparing a book proposal first helps you develop your book manuscript well. Because book proposals often include sample chapters, you will get a good head start on finalizing the chapters and sub-chapters for your book.
Step 3: Finding a literary agent
Although directly approaching a publishing house is an option, it is better to be represented by an agent. Yes, literary agents do ask for about 15% of your proceeds once your book is published. But they do not charge up front. In other words, if your book doesn’t sell, your agent receives nothing! So, you can be sure that once an agent chooses to represent you, they will be strongly committed to seeing your book through to publication.
Identifying the correct literary agent for you is a sub-process in itself.
- Make a list of agents known for publishing books in your genre. Since we are focusing on academia, look for agents experienced in dealing with academic or scientific book publishing.
- Send query letters to agents after shortlisting names. It is better to use personalized query letters that are sent in batches. This way, you will get a chance to improve your queries by understanding what works best to pitch your book.
- Do not forget to follow up. Literary agents receive thousands of requests for collaboration and need to sort through numerus book proposals to pick the right one. So, be sure to reach out to them a second time if your first query letter is ignored.
- Once you receive offers from agents, take time to decide who you want to work with. You should be able to work in harmony with this person for a long time; so do not be in a rush to settle. Talk to them and take time to assess whether your goals for the final book manuscript align well.
Step 4: Approaching publishing houses
Next, your literary agent starts submitting your proposal to publishing houses. Your agent is likely to have an already established relationship with acquisitions editors (AEs) from various publishing houses. So they will know what these AEs like to see in your book proposal and recommend certain modifications.
Their pitch to publishers can make or break your book publishing process. But considering that there’s not much you can do during this waiting period, utilize the time to complete your manuscript. Academic book manuscripts require sufficient time, effort, and research to reach a publishable stage. So, before the involvement of publishing houses, ensure you have everything ready from your end.
Step 5: Contract acceptance
Once a publishing house decides to publish your book, you will receive a contract from them though your agent. This stage involves a lot of negotiation and communication until a satisfactory agreement is reached.
The contract clearly sets in place the details of the publishing deal, like the advance money offered, the royalties, the publication date, and other relevant information. There might be a few things you are not entirely happy with when you receive the first offer. For instance, the cover design pitched by the publishing house may not align with what you pictured for your book. However, a good literary agent should be able to help you reach a middle ground during negotiations.
Step 6: Book completion and finalization
After finalizing the contract, your book should be completed, edited, formatted, proofread, and peer reviewed. All academic books are peer reviewed to maintain the scientific integrity of published content. The publishing company also provides additional feedback on how the manuscript can be improved, so a final copyedit and proofread are mandatory as well. The book then moves on to the pre-production stage, wherein the cover design is finalized, a feasible marketing strategy is set in motion, and a distribution plan is decided.
Step 7: Marketing and distribution
The publishing company helps market your book through various avenues, but there are ways for you to promote it as well! Have a blog? Talk about your new book and reach out to your audience. Is collaborating with other bloggers possible? Capitalize on these platforms for cross-promotional activities.
Furthermore, you will need to abide by any other promotional activities planned by the publishing company. For instance, speaking at conferences is a great way to promote academic books. If you are presenting a poster, capitalize on the opportunity to speak about your upcoming book.
Soon, you will have your published book and it will begin selling through the distribution network.
Cost of Book Publishing
Ideally, traditional book publishing should not cost the author anything since the publishing house takes full responsibility for the end-to-end publishing of the book. However, there will be pre-submission costs that should be borne by the authors to ensure a high-quality submission.
Let’s talk about the book proposal. You can write and edit a book proposal on your own, but incorporating a professional editing service can arm you with a strong, well-written proposal that’s more likely to impress a literary agent. Professional book publishing services even assist in preparing your sample chapters and editing your book manuscripts. All this could cost you anywhere between $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the kind of services you choose.
When it comes to copyediting and proofreading, publishers are likely to support you after offering you the contract. However, if you wish to have these done before submitting your manuscript to the publisher, you must bear the expenses. The cost can vary for freelancers and service providers; it is up to you to determine whether you wish to invest in them.
There could also be costs for using copyrighted material in your book. It could be an image, tabular data, or graphical representation; you will need to get permission from whoever owns the copyright to have such content published in your book.
While the publishing company predominantly oversees the promotions post contract acceptance, you might have to bear additional expenses that come with it. For example, if you need to travel to a conference to talk about your new book, the publishing company will not cover the travel expenses. If collaborating with an influencer for cross-promotion is on your list of marketing activities, all related expenses fall on you.
Having said that, traditional book publishing does not cost you as much as it would in the case of self-publishing. Moreover, publishing a book is likely to increase your reputation in the scholarly industry, help you network better with your peers, and even aid in advancing your career. So, if long-term benefits outweigh the initial costs, it is definitely worth spending money on getting everything right for your book to be published.
Choose to publish your book your way! Check out Editage’s Book Publishing Services and get published today.
