What are the steps in the publishing process?
The steps of the publishing process from when the contract is made are: the editing of the book, the design of the jacket and the writing of the blurb on the jacket, which is the description of the book and a little description of the author, which goes on the back flap if the book is going into hardback. Then, the editor gets to the process of getting the book into bound proof, which looks like a real book, but it's not. What the publisher does is publish about 200 copies with a different cover, and these are uncorrected proofs, so not the final version of the book. This is months before the publication of the book. They are sent out to magazines and some editors, and to bookshops, to try to get bookshops to read it and get behind it. The editor will send the book out to other writers, if it's written by a first-time writer, because you want to get quotes on the book, you want to get other writers to say it is wonderful and the most exciting book they've read in years... etc. etc. These proofs are very important things in publishing. They have to be designed and look good. The other steps in publishing involve all the different departments communicating to the production department, in order to get the book to physically impress - get the typesetting, correct it, the book bound up, etc. There's also the rights department that sell 'sale of' rights if they can; to sell it to America, to all countries of the world that you can sell it to, and maybe film a television or radio reading. Then there's the publicity department, who are in touch with the press and try to get profiles of the authors placed in the national press. They get the book out to magazines, to all the local and national newspapers, and also television and radio. The publishing department try to exploit every possible aspect of what is, essentially, free publicity, because it's very difficult to have enough money to spend on advertising. That's the marketing which is getting the book into the shops, trying to get it into the deals - the 3 for 2 deals, posters and advertising, if you've got the budget for that. Those are just some of the stages of publishing. There are a lot of them.
