Do you ever stop to think about the process involved in getting a book from the author to the reader? It’s quite surprising how many different stages there are; if you self-publish you will already know but if your book is with a publishing house you may be unaware of the entire process. The publishing team is made up of the editing department, design, marketing, sales, production, contracts, publicity and many more. Every department pulls together to get your proposal or your manuscript to a book that is ready for publishing. Here’s how it flows.

Editing

The first port of call is the editorial department. Together with the author, the editor will help to guide the flow and the language of the book, bringing it all together in a readable format. On the side, the editor will also be working with other departments to come up with the title and subtitle if needed, one that will sell your book. You, as the author, will have some part to play in that but don’t be surprised if you are not as involved as you think you should be.

Production

After the editorial department, it's off to production and the first hands it will fall into are those of the copyeditor. In the production department, many hands will design your book, lay the pages out, work out how many pages it is, what the word count is and work on getting a cover designed. It is their job to see the book gets to printing and then onto binding or, if it is an eBook, to get it created and formatted correctly.

Marketing and Publicity

All the while your book is in the editing and production departments, marketing and publicity are already working on the book launch. They work with the editorial department to come up with plans and strategies for marketing and to get the book under the noses of book buyers. Marketing will also take care of social media and online marketing, while publicity will deal with print and broadcast online media, very powerful when it comes to spreading the word.

Sales

The sales department is responsible for selling your book to the many hundreds of retailers – the small bookstores to the major chains, and the wholesalers who supply a large number of markets. The Sub-Rights department is responsible for selling the rights for the book to be published in different formats, in different languages and for adapting it to suit the various types of media.

Every department involved works hard and works together to ensure the book is properly launched in the marketplace. But it doesn’t all come to a stop once the book is published. Many of these departments, including sales, marketing, and publicity continue their work long after the launch – it is their job to get it from the wholesaler to the retailer and from there into the hands of the public. As you can see, it isn’t a five-minute job and the author will need to be involved deeply every step of the way.