Public Relations Blog

Publishing 101: 3 Things I’ve Learned About Book Production

book production cmprOn the heels of my post about selling and the little guy, here is some information about things I’ve learned about the book production process from publishing on my own.  I’ve worked with many independent authors and have tried to help them through various parts of the book production process, including getting an editor, a book designer, jacket designer, etc.  But there is nothing like experiencing a process first hand to find out how things REALLY work.

A few basic things I found about the book production process are:

  1. It doesn’t cost a fortune to hire a decent jacket designer.  You do need to make sure the person you work with can do the kind of jacket you need produced, but my designer has done fiction and non-fiction and I’m happy with his work.
  2. Copyeditors are not that expensive and a must for a professionally produced book.  Twenty-five dollars an hour, folks.  If you have the next version of War and Peace, I’m sure that will rack up the hours quickly.  For my book there are many sections, fact checking items, and other things that took time even though it’s only 175 pages.  Still, not that pricey and very important to do.
  3. It will take at least a month from the time you finish the book to the time you are able to submit your files to your printer/publisher.  This is even a pretty tight time frame and doesn’t allow for vacations, family emergencies, your ability to make the changes the editor sends your way, and anything else you can think of that will hold you up.  I was clear about the direction my book was taking, and in advance of the copyedit, two people I consider members of “the grammar police” read and critiqued it for me.  That saved me time with the professional editing process.

As I continue this journey, I will try to provide things I’ve learned that may be helpful.  If you want to send me questions directly, you can do so at claire@clairemckinneypr.com or on Twitter @McKinneyPR.  Thank you for reading!

P.S. The last Amazon listing I checked in reference to my book said “9 copies left, more on the way.”  I guess that’s a good thing.