I was giving a talk the other night to a local RWA group and realized how much misinformation is out there about what happens when you get 'the call'…and while some of it makes for high hopes, it can also lead to plummeting gutbombs when you realize just how much of a dinosaur the publishing industry still is.  Remember, there are always exceptions to the following, but for the most part, don't count on it. 

1: You may wait up to two years to see your first book in print after they make an offer.  Or more.  A few writers I know have waited longer.  I was lucky—Llewellyn bought Trancing The Witch's Wheel in…I believe it was April 1996, and the book hit the shelves in the summer of 1997.  For my fiction, Berkley bought Ghost of a Chance (and two other books to be written) in August 2002, and Ghost of a Chance hit the shelves in August 2003.  I've also seen the downside—Sexual Ecstasy and the Divine was contracted in 2000, along with Crafting the Body Divine.  CTBD came out in November 2001, just in time to crash and burn along with the Towers—a lot of books that came out around 9/11 died a resounding death.  The book isn't out of print, but the publisher went under thanks to the economic downturn, and by the time they sold to another publisher, the book had been hit by the kiss of death.  SETD didn't hit the shelves till March 2003—almost three years after it was contracted.

2: Expect revisions.  They may be few, they may be many—sometimes as you go along in your career, they get fewer and fewer per book as you learn.  But the bound, printed volume on the shelf is likely to be significantly different than the one you sold the publisher.  Why?  Because new authors, especially, make a lot of mistakes—mistakes in pacing, or in length.  When my agent sold Ghost of a Chance, I was amazed when I talked to the editor about revisions.  She loved the book, but wanted a couple major shifts in the plot and the villain, she wanted extra scenes inserted—things I thought would kill a book's chances at being bought.  So you've got work ahead of you.  Don't play the diva—do NOT argue unless it severely compromises your vision of the work.  If you're cooperative on the smaller stuff, when something really does matter, they're likely to take your protests more seriously.  Now, my revisions seldom take more than an hour or two, but I know people who get extensive revision letters.  I've usually had about a week to finish revisions. 

3: After the book is revised, it goes to the copyeditor, who checks for consistency, for typos, punctuation, all sorts of things.  Most houses send you the copyedits to go through.  If there's something that just doesn't sit right (and sometimes the copyeditors do make mistakes), you write STET in the margin by the change, which tells them to leave it alone and not make the change.  I've had ms where I was using STET over and over again because the copyeditor tried to rewrite the book in her own style (NOT a good thing).  I've also had manuscripts that were a breeze to go through.  This is the last chance to make big changes and I've often inserted a few extra scenes here, or re-written paragraphs.  Most often, turn around time for me has been ten days—meaning it was due back on the editor's desk ten days from the time it showed up on my doorstep.  Meaning I give Fed-Ex a LOT of business.

4: After the copyedits are done, the manuscript goes to what are known as page proofs (sometimes also known as galleys).  The book is printed the way it will look in bound copy, but it's still on single sided sheets of paper.  Most houses send you page proofs—I would dread working with a publishing house that didn't.  Here it's vital you go through the manuscript with a fine tooth comb.  This is the last chance you'll get to make changes—and you can't make many unless the publisher screwed up, because it costs them a lot of money and will come out of your royalties if you're just making changes for the hell of it.  The publisher will also have people proofreading through it—but be aware, there's always going to be some slipup, some typo that you don't catch.  It's like some unwritten rule of the universe—there cannot be a book in print that's typo-free.  And it's like a slap in the face when you see it in the bound copies—sort of that, "oh crap" moment when you realize your eyes jumped right over some stupid, obvious mistake.  Turn around for page proofs differ, of course, but for me it's usually a week or so.

5: The next stage won't happen for all books.  This is when ARCs (advance reader copies) are printed up for reviewers.  If you're lucky, you'll get some.  I get a handful, there are other publishers that give their authors more and some that don't print ARCs at all.  These are sent out to reviewers and that's how come you'll see a review for a book that's not on the shelf yet.  ARCs aren't supposed to be sold—it's usually plastered right on the front—NOT FOR SALE…but a number of reviewers do, anyway.

6:  And lastly—the bound copies of your book come out.  You'll get a certain number (stipulated in your contract).  Usually between 10 and 50.  These are yours to use for promotion, to give to family, whatever you want to do with them.  I usually give a few away in contests, I use them for inclusion in promo baskets and for conference promotion, and I give my sister, my MIL, and my sisters-in-law copies, along with one or two friends who can't easily get hold of my books.  You'll most likely get your author copies shortly before it hits the shelves.  If you're lucky. 

By the way, during all of the above, you'll be busy writing your second book--so you'll have to learn how to drop work on one to make room for the above process.  Get used to multi-tasking. Now.

So now, your book is on the shelves—release date is here and you're holding your breath.  What can you do, promotion-wise, to make it sell better?  And what about advances and royalties?   Tune in next time for part 2.

Yasmine