Some time ago Laurie Goulding, Black Library author and editorial stalwart, posted a response to questions about the intricacies behind getting a book published - not the authorial work itself, but the lesser-known but truly vital efforts that take a long, typo-riddled Word document and transform it into a majestic, physical book. Unsurprisingly this process is very involved, and hopefully explains why it generally takes a year to get a book onto bookshelves in-store!
”So, the process might differ from publishing house to publishing house, but this is the general gist of it. (This is NOT exclusive to BL, or anything like that. It’s fairly standard across major publishers.)
An author submits their first draft. An editor receives it, and reads it. They can’t skim it - they have to assess it critically, word by word, and make notes, check facts, confer with their peers. In general, for a book between 50k and 100k words, this takes 1-2 weeks but can be more.
(Depending on how many projects an editor has stacked up, they might not be able to START reading for up to 6 weeks. Editors aren’t waiting around for a specific book to show up, they have other stuff to do every day, and other books.)
The editor then gives feedback to the author. This is usually typed up and emailed, but sometimes you can do it face to face - if 1) the author is available, and 2) the feedback is quite light. The author is then given a new deadline for redrafts, depending on the amount of work involved. The longest you’d expect would be another month, because authors have lives outside of writing…
The author submits the revised draft, and the editor checks what has changed throughout. This can take a day or so, maybe a week at most. If the new draft is good to go, then the process moves on. Otherwise, it’s more feedback and repeat the previous step.
Next, the book goes to a desk editor. They tidy up the manuscript, format it and get it ready for copy-editing. It then goes to an external freelance editor who is familiar with the author and/or series, to make sure there is consistency from the ground up. The external copy-edit can take up to 6 weeks, as they read it line by line and make changes, plus they compile spelling lists and any queries that they can’t immediately answer (IP stuff, especially).
Then the desk editor reviews those changes, to make sure it’s good quality and nothing has gone crazy or off the rails with the author’s original work. They might make some more tweaks as well. This can take up to a week (but this was always the biggest bottleneck at BL as we only had ONE desk editor for a long time… for ALL books…)
They then send the edited manuscript to be laid out as a rough version of the book, with Production. They might be able to do this within 30 minutes, or it can take a week. It depends on whether they are experimenting for a standalone book or new series, or following a template from a previous series.
The rough layout then goes to AT LEAST 2 external proofreaders, who check for typos, comedy hyphenation across lines (a$$-orted and ar$e-nal are two of my favourites!) and any last issues that have slipped through. (For HH products, I used to also give it one last continuity check at this stage, for added consistency across the series.) This takes about 2 weeks, but can be longer if the book is longer or there is more to check in other books.
Assuming the cover art and adverts are ready to go, the book can then be fully laid out, with graphics and internal art where needed. This takes a week, minimum.
Then the book goes into sign-off. It has to be peer-reviewed by people from EVERY team in the department who worked on it. Any issues have to be fixed now, or they are going to be in the final printing. This can take a day for super-urgent products that HAVE to go to print right now, but you inevitably get mistakes that are missed… and the longest I’ve ever known was 2 weeks for a proper, thorough sign-off. The overall manager of the department also has to look at every single product, at least quickly, so they know everything that their name is indirectly attached to within the company - this can be another bottleneck if that person is out of the office, or on holiday.
(At this stage, there is usually a reprographic check, to make sure that the colour values will work when printed. This can take as little as a couple of hours, but it depends on what else the guys there are doing at the time. If there are errors, it has to roll back to sign-off again.)
The files then get uploaded to the printers’ file servers. Most English BL books are now printed in China, because the quality is better and the cost is lower. (Sorry, UK printers! It’s just business.) This takes 30 minutes.
The printers then print out a proof copy, and send it back to the publishers. This has to physically arrive in-house to be checked over, which can take a few days even by air courier from China to the UK, and then it has to be looked at by at least 3 different people to check for any final-final issues. Generally, this is all good and nothing changes… otherwise, repeat sign-off AGAIN, and all the subsequent steps.
Once that big red button is pushed, the publishers have no further control over the printing process. It takes MONTHS. They will receive early samples to check (Correct paper? Gloss? Foil? Any issues at all?) but all being good the stock will arrive 4-5 months after final approval, ready to be shipped. And shipments only go out once a month, because that’s how sea freight containers work. If a book misses the container, it’s waiting 28 days minimum - so you have to plan this stuff VERY carefully, allowing plenty of time.
AAAAAAAND, bear in mind for all of this, people only work office hours. There are national holidays. There are unforeseen problems. Always.”
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