A Journey Through Traditional Publishing

I don’t know if you’ve written a book, but it is an interesting process. I have written a manuscript. I refuse to call it the four-letter “B” word at this point because, well, you know…jinxes, bad luck, broken legs, run-on sentences…

This being my first manuscript, and me being a naive newb, I have decided to take the path of insanity: Traditional Publishing. Many fellow readers and writers suggested self-publishing. That is what all the cool kids are doing these days, but no. I wanted to make the process extra hard on myself. I’m not knocking self-publishing. It’s hard too, just for totally different reasons. Now, come with me on a journey through the traditional publishing process. 

I’m somewhere between 99% and 1% finished. Roughly. The manuscript has been written, rewritten, edited by me, edited by test readers, edited by me again, edited by a professional editor, edited by me again, back to the professional, and back to me. Nauseated yet? It is now out for its final test reading and depending on the comments that come back, I’ll either have some more editing to do, or have a good cry and then have some more editing to do. The editing could go on for decades, but I’ve been at this for a year and a half and am itching to move on to the next step.

But you don’t just send your manuscript to them, oh no-no. They won’t even look at it. To get an agent, you have to send out queries. Many, many, many queries. Or so I’m told. Your query is a one-page letter, on white paper, Times New Roman 12-point font, and basically has to sell your manuscript in 1.2 seconds. They read an infinite amount of these so it has to be stellar and catch their interest in the first two eye blinks.

Agents work 100% on commission and only make money if they can get your book picked up by a publisher, so it is a major commitment for them. This means they are to really, really like a query or they pass on it. If I am graced by the gods, I might hear back sometime in the next 6 weeks to 6 months with a request for a synopsis. If they like that, they will ask for more pages. Eventually, many moons later, they will ask for the whole manuscript. And could still not make an offer of representation. I’ve read stories about authors that wrote a few queries and got an agent and about authors that wrote to over 200 agents before they were asked for more pages. 

Now self-publishing is Now once I have my agent extraordinaire, because dammit, I will make this happen, it is their job to find me a publisher. But it’s still not guaranteed. Just because an agent loves you and your wannabe bestseller doesn’t mean it’s the right time for the publisher, or the market, or the editor’s dog just died and a dog dies in your book and they just can’t go through that again. The timing really is magic.

At this point, it’s advised to just forget about your agent and let them work. I’m supposedly supposed to concentrate on the next book in the series and pretend not to check my phone a thousand times a minute to see if we got an offer. Weeks or years later, in my delusions of grandeur, I’ll be offered a publishing contract. Which, if I accept, can take up to ANOTHER six months to hammer out the details—how big the advance will be, foreign rights, the before mentioned book cover design, audiobooks, net profits vs gross profits (gross profits for the win!), intellectual property, pole dancing at the book signings, etc…

So, in summary, twenty-seven-years from now my urban fantasy will be traditionally published and have a home on a book store shelf near you. 

After having re-read this, self-publishing is sounding better than ever. But is a completely different beast, and we’ll tackle that topic at another time.

Happy writing.