Have you been in a group where people are introducing themselves, and one person introduced themselves as a publisher? If that has ever happened, you may have been left with a question wondering what publishing is all about and what publishers do.
The root of the word publishing is the Latin word publicare, meaning “to make public, to reveal, divulge, announce.” Publishing is the job of editing, creating and marketing written and recorded material and software.
Publishing is the process through which an author’s manuscript gets into the hands of a reader by materialising it – giving it form as a book. This may be printed or digital (an ebook). Authors don’t write books; they write manuscripts.
To publish a book is to transform a privately penned manuscript, so it’s publicly available and readable. Commercial publishing goes a step further, aiming not just to make and issue books but to sell them to sufficient readers to turn a profit.
For many new authors, the book publishing process can seem opaque. Book publishing is a special and almost magical thing. Reflecting on the process, think of something that was in your thoughts and imagination – whether it’s a new idea, some valuable information, or a whole fantastical world you’ve dreamed up – which gets transferred from your head into many other people’s heads, through some ink on a page or even some pixels on a screen. These are people you may never meet, but their lives may be transformed by what you’ve written.
But what happens in between your head and their heads? What are the key stages, how long does it take, and what will you have to do? There’s no reason you should know any of this – unless you have some experience of working in a publishing house. Here’s how the publishing process works.
The four elements of book publishing are content creation, content curation, content packaging and dissemination. These three elements encompass several key processes that make up the craft of publishing.
Content creation entails moving from an idea in your head to a manuscript. This is the writing and rewriting phase of the process.
Content curation relies on the processes of editorial, design and packaging. Packaging involves the processes of layout and production.
Dissemination relies on the processes of production, distribution and marketing as well as the processes of promotion, rights management and audience engagement.
The reader cares less about who does what in these processes, and what matters to the reader is that the processes are properly done.
Let’s explore each of the steps in the process.