Can you talk about the developmental stages of how novels go from a concept through to a finished book? I'm trying to make a project take FOREVER for my character.
The different production stages can differ from publisher to publisher, depending on parameters like size, workforce, internal workflows, the actual project (i.e. the type of book being published), potential publishing cycles (are books published at any time throughout the year, or only at specific times, like ahead of book fairs or Christmas?), whether itâs a run of the mill print production or other mediums are considered like eBooks, websites, apps, etc.
For brevityâs sake, the following will focus on a printed fiction novel and point out some variations along the way.
From Concept to Manuscript:
The first question in your case would be: does the concept come from the writer or the publisher? You did not specify whether your character is the writer themselves or someone working at a publisher. I will assume your character is an editor and work from that point of view.
If the author brings in the concept, it would either be unsolicited, a reply to a contest (unlikely, since most contests by publishers Iâm aware of request finished stories, not concepts), or the writer is established at the publisher and encouraged/under contract to bring in new ideas on a regular basis. Itâs uncommon to have a debut novelist bring ideas to a publisher, as editors donât really have the time to read proposals. If you want to go that route anyway, Iâd suggest looking into literary agents.
On the other hand, an editor would most likely try to find an established author to go to with whatever concept they have conjured up. If we are talking academic publishers thatâs a different matter since in that case, an editor would be more likely to search for a renown voice in the field who may so far be unrelated to the publisher, or the concept would come from an academic writer trying to find a publisher for his work in the first place.
For pure fiction writing, the concept would likely be an up and coming trend, i.e. a genre thatâs doing very well or is just getting traction, or because an agent told the publisher itâs going to be the next best thing. This means that, ideally, the editor would want the manuscript to come along fairly quickly. But âfairlyâ can mean a lot of things depending on genre.
For lack of a better example letâs take a thriller by an author Ă la Dan Brown: If the concept is, letâs say, based on the Enigma machine, coming up with a compelling plot would take a lot of research on the subject, travels, interviews, Youtube videos. It can take literally years just to sift through all the information and decide what should be put into the book and what can be left out.
And even if the plot of a book has been established: some authors write faster than others (point in case: Stephen King vs George RR Martin), some authors need more hand holding than others, and letâs not get started on the attitude some authors might bring to the table.
Bottom line: if you want to take your time, do it here.
Manuscript to Print ready Files:
So the author finally produced a text. If this whole thing started at conception stage, you may have already wasted a year or two, if the author brings in a âfinishedâ manuscript, the work only starts here. I will not go too much into the actual editing process as this is a topic for another time, but in terms of development, letâs point out that the term âeditorâ can mean quite a lot of things depending on the publisher. Copy-editing can encompass anything from checking the text for grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors to consistency, plot, logic â basically, if the text makes sense. Some publishers may put more work and money into that process than others, and thereâs also different philosophies when it comes to author involvement. While some authors may be such hot shots no editor would ever dare touch a single word theyâve written, other authors will welcome the constructive input and work very closely with that editor (Harper Lee is said to have worked closely with her editor on To Kill A Mockingbird).
Ideally, all the editing work is out of the way by the time the manuscript is deemed ready for the typesetting stage. This is where the text is formatted for print and/or ebook production, which usually should not take more than a couple weeks. Unless you also involve an illustrator.
There may be more editing stages throughout the process to check for certain formatting errors. If you want to drag it out even longer, the publisher may give the author permission for one last look at the text before files are finalised. (This can be quite fatal. From experience, authors from the academic field love to rewrite whole paragraphs at this stage, just to make the typesetterâs life more miserable. I am being told by mod @byericacameron that a fiction author would rather not go down this rabbit hole, however.) The sensible thing would be to restrict the author in how much they can edit, and then enjoy the fallout when editor and writer start fighting about word choice and whether or not that plot point needs another 14 paragraphs to make sense.
A quick side note on illustrations and cover art: all that would usually run parallel to the editing process, and the authorâs influence can once again differ greatly from publisher to publisher. Especially when it comes to the cover image/illustration, and the title of the book, the publisher may reserve the last word on account of their marketing team usually being more informed about target group and current trends.
Printing, Delivery and Distribution:
I wonât go into too much detail here. At this point, the editor is usually handing responsibilities over to the production team and focuses on a new project. Small publishers may force their editors to see the project through to the end, though.
The production lead time from delivery of the print ready files to the finishing of the bulk can take anything from 2 to 8 weeks depending on quantity, the extent of the book, and how complicated the product is. Going with the run of the mill novel, the average would be 3 to 4 weeks plus shipping, which, in turn, can take anything from 1 to 4 weeks (depending on where the books are actually printed and where they need to be delivered to).
Absolutely anything can go wrong during that time, but none of that would necessarily concern an editor unless they have to continue communications with the author.
The same is true when it comes to distribution. All of that runs independently of the editor and author, so neither would be necessarily involved in the process.
The author will receive a couple personal copies free of charge, quite possibly even a discount when buying more copies, and books will be provided for signings.
If you want to build up a sense of urgency in your story you can have your characters work towards a deadline, i.e. a book signing or maybe a special event for which the book is being written for, and then have everything that can go wrong go wrong, because thatâs just how it works.
And there you have it: your finished book.From proposal to publication, this would take anything from a year to maybe even two years, and if that isnât long enough for you, please refer to the various points given above that would delay the production in whichever way.
(Please note the above does not include anything about sales, co-editions, product development or licensing rights, so if youâd like to know more about either or all, or the actual production of a book, please feel free to submit a follow-up question!)
