Now that I’ve had two books accepted by traditional publishers (one published already and the other in process), perhaps the question most often asked of me is (in various wordings), “How do you go about getting a book published?”
Although most non-writing people seem to expect a short, succinct response to that burning question, it’s really not an easy question to answer. A lot is involved in getting a book published. Besides, each book is in some way or another different. I will, however, try to answer that question as succinctly as I can in a series of blog posts, of which this is the first. I hope you’ll follow the series and see what things you can learn from my experiences (including my mistakes, which I readily admit, because we all continue learn). And I welcome any comments, thoughts for improvement, or other suggestions you might have.
In this initial installment, I want simply to reveal the individual steps I took in the publication of my books. (Bear in mind that I am addressing only nonfiction works, although fiction submissions will often involve similar steps.) Then, in subsequent installments, I hope to deal with each step separately. Those steps are as follow:
Getting the idea
Doing the research
Outlining the manuscript
Writing the first draft
Editing and revising and revising and. . . . (You get the picture?)
Researching the markets
Pitching the book (to publishers, not the trash can!)
Marketing the published book
Getting on with other projects
That’s where we’ll be going with this series. As we go through the steps, I hope you’ll share your insights, especially if you’ve had a book of your own published, using the comments section. I look forward to hearing from you!