The Book Publishing Process in the Internet Age

The book publishing process is in its age of enlightenment. Never before have writers exerted more influence and freedom in a realm that used to be dominated by balding monks inside a monastery hundreds of years ago. As such, it is only during this period in history when radical ideas, opinions and point of views have been presented to the public in a way that no longer needed the approval of kings, high priests and the intellectual elite. Even writers who have been shunned by traditional publishers may use the Internet either to self publish or to publish in other mediums such as a blog or a website. If your intent in reading this article is to have your manuscript published by one of those traditional publishers then read on.

The book publishing process remains widely the same save for some technical nuances that are ameliorated by technology. For instance, we now have word processors, instant thesauruses, spell checkers and of course the Internet that somewhat speeds up a portion of the entire process. Yet for all these changes, some of these processes remain the same. For instance, it’s still very rare for writers to directly approach the publisher. As in the times when the Internet was not yet in existence, writers would still have to procure the services of literary agents. Though Google for all its influence on our daily lives, is a great tool for looking for people such as literary agents it’s quite poor in determining which one is right for your particular work. That’s why you need to find a credible, up-to-date and trustworthy database or list of literary agents. From there, you could narrow down your search to those who might be interested in your manuscript.

It just goes without saying that a vital part of the book publishing process is the assumption that you already have in your hands a complete and proofread manuscript. This saves all of the parties involved with a lot of time and effort. The agent would then assist you with the negotiation and with the other nuances related to publishing. It’s safe to assume that your work will be checked, rechecked, edited, modified and even completely overhauled during the editing stage. Different publishers employ different methods and some may even hire or subcontract to freelancers. You could consider yourself lucky if your manuscript can come out of this phase unscathed. Of course, don’t forget about the part when your work would be designed and formatted according to the specifications of the publisher. They would then hire an artist to elaborate on your work graphically.

Perhaps the most tedious phase in the book publishing process is the part when your work gets to be edited and modified. This entails a lot of back and forth between you, the literary agent, the editor and quite possibly the freelancer who’s mostly doing the nitty-gritty aspects of this phase. As an author, patience is indeed a very valuable quality that would get you and your manuscript through to the printing phase.