How do mainstream publishers produce books? And should you mimic them? Help for self-publishers

Unsure how mainstream publishers manage the editorial process? This post provides an overview and shows you why books take so long to get to market and what some of the costs are (to the publisher and even to the author!).

A note on scheduling … and marketing
In the mainstream publishing industry, books are commissioned and scheduled for publication often up to a year and a half in advance, sometimes longer!

That time frame isn’t down to the publisher being busy with other stuff; rather, it’s about giving the relevant team members the necessary time to take the book through a rigorous editing process and carry out a staged prepublication marketing campaign.

TOP TIP: When self-publishing, instead of promoting your book at the eleventh hour, plan and implement your marketing campaign well ahead of launch. That way, you can create a fan base and generate excitement about your novel before it goes to market, even pulling in some pre-order sales.

How do mainstream publishers produce books?
Every press’s editorial production chain is slightly different but the broad principles apply.

1. Developmental work
This is the first stage in the editorial process.

The editor (often the commissioning editor) will review the manuscript to check whether there are problems with the overall structure of the novel. Other key players may also be involved. Here, we're talking about issues such as (but not limited to) the following:

• Does the plot make sense and are all the loose ends tied up by the end of the novel?
• Does the narrative flow work?
• Are the characters engaging and individually formed in a way that draws the reader in and holds the story together?

This big-picture work is the SHAPING or STRUCTURING stage. There may be a lot of back and forth between the editor and author if there are extensive changes required before the book’s ready for the next stage.

​KEY MEMBERS: Author, editor, peer reviewers

2. Copyediting and line editing
When everyone’s in agreement that the shaping stage is complete, the editor hands over the project to the production manager. 

The production manager is responsible for seeing the book through to publication. A copyeditor (usually a freelancer) will work through the book line by line, word by word, to carefully smooth the text at sentence level, attend to inconsistencies and errors, and query any problems directly with the author.

This sentence-level work is the QUERY and CORRECTION stage. Depending on the extent of the problems, this process could take several months and require the copyeditor to work on parts of the text several times.
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KEY MEMBERS: Author, editor, production manager, copyeditor

​3. ​Design #1
When the key members have agreed that the correction stage is complete, the raw-text files are handed over to a typesetter (if the book is to be printed). This is where the first proofs are created.

The typesetter formats the book so that the layout conforms to the agreed house style and is designed so that maximum use of the page space is made. Printing is very expensive so minimizing wasted white space is a key factor in the process. The typesetter needs to balance costs against aesthetics.

This is the FIRST PROOF stage. The first proofs are essentially a first draft of what the finished product will look like when it’s picked off the shelves in a bookshop. The completed first proofs are delivered back to the production manager.
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KEY MEMBERS: Author, production manager, typesetter

4. Proofreading
The production manager sends the first proofs (perhaps a chunk of paper but increasingly a PDF) to the author and the proofreader (usually a freelancer).

Both will check them carefully. The proofreader may be asked to proofread blind or against the original raw-text files worked on by the copyeditor (the latter is much slower). The proofreader’s job is not to make extensive changes, but rather to draw attention to any final spelling, punctuation, grammar, consistency or logic problems missed at earlier rounds of editing or introduced during the typesetting stage.

Every change the proofreader makes or suggests needs to be handled carefully in case it has a knock-on effect on the design, the page count and, consequently, the printing costs.
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It’s demanding work that requires experience and judgement about when to change and when to leave well enough alone. Some publishers even pass some of these costs back to the author – eek!

This is the QUALITY CONTROL or CHECKING stage. The proofreader does not amend the raw text but annotates the paper or digital pages, often using proof-correction markup language (a kind of shorthand that looks like hieroglyphics to the untrained eye!).

KEY MEMBERS: Author, production manager, proofreader, typesetter

5. Final revision: Design #2
Now the proofreader’s corrected file and the author’s version go back to the production manager, who has to collate all the final amendments and instruct the typesetter to make the necessary corrections.

The typesetter creates a revised file and returns it to the production manager for sign-off. 

This the SECOND PROOF stage. We’re nearly there!
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KEY MEMBERS: Author, production manager, typesetter

6. File creation and distribution (print, digital or both)
The final countdown! The production manager works with the typesetter and printer to create the final print book that will be delivered to the relevant distribution channels.

​In the case of e-books, the production manager will commission a digital formatter to create e-Pub files that are compatible with the market’s major e-readers and other digital devices. 

This is the PUBLISHING stage. The book is delivered to market!

KEY MEMBERS: Production manager, digital formatter, typesetter, printer

The elusive publishing deal and the editorial process
As you can see, there are a lot of stages and a lot of people involved. And that’s why it takes so long and why it’s so expensive to publish.

It also explains, in part, why writers can find it so hard to get a mainstream publishing deal; if the book bombs, there’s no return on all that investment. 

For publishers, novels that need a lot of work, or that don’t fit neatly into an obvious and currently popular genre, are difficult to sell (the high-street bookshops don’t know where to place them to grab readers’ attention).

Should you mimic the mainstream publishing industry's editorial process?
Mimicry will bring you quality – there’s no doubt about that. It’ll also require a major investment in time and money.

We all have to make difficult choices about what we do to make the things we create the best they can be. But there are limitations. I’m passionate about the independent author’s right to write, and I know that your pockets aren’t bottomless.

I hope this has shed some light on the mainstream publishing process! Until next time …

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.