The End of the Manuscript

So, you finished your book. What are you working on lately?

The book. Yes, the same book I’ve been working on for the last year, If The Ocean Has A Soul… Let me explain.

Before beginning the first draft, I had very little understanding of what it takes to publish things. I knew some about self-publishing versus traditional publishing (as we discussed in a previous newsletter), but I knew nothing of timelines. I did not know what length or shape the road of traditional publishing would take. The book deal seems like the finale, the thing you’ve worked towards, the completion of the project. The End. But it’s not.

So, if you’re curious about what it takes to move from a traditional book deal to an actual physical copy of your book on a shelf… this is for you.

My manuscript was on its fourth draft when it was deemed “done,” at which point my agent and I went on submission: turning the manuscript in to publishers to potentially buy. My book deal with Tyndale was offered in March. My publisher and I signed a contract in April. We had several meetings throughout May. And now that it’s June, I have a summer of developmental edits ahead: the big, chunky, chapter-rearranging, paragraph-rewriting, epilogue-adding changes that I didn’t know needed to be made until someone much smarter than me made the brilliant suggestion. (That smarter someone is my amazing editor.) It is at this stage in the game that I have no intention of tracking my number of manuscript drafts… Safe to say, things will be changing significantly, but always for the better.

If all goes well, developmental edits will be finished my mid-August. Then comes a month of copy edits: the tiny, comma-level edits that require keen eyes to identify and fix. (If you read my book someday and find a typo, it’ll be because of a miniscule mistake being passed over in some part of this process. And please don’t tell me if you find a typo in my future-published book. It’s a surefire way of driving my perfectionistic brain nutty!) After September, I’ll be pulled into more marketing-based conversations: talking with my publisher about things like upcoming events and the cover design…

All these things require different teams of people. Did I mention that I know of at least 3 editors who are working on my book with me? (Acquisition, developmental, and copy editors.) Expand that list of people to cover other departments like typesetting, design, marketing, etc… and there’s the reason for why my book won’t be appearing on shelves until next summer in 2025.

All that to say, while the book is “done” in the sense that it secured a book deal (being as good as I could make it on my own), it is not yet “done” in the sense that it is ready to move to publication and printing (being as good as I and a team of publishing experts can make it, together).

I am still working on the book. And it is very exciting stuff. But my goodness, it’s going to be a busy summer to reach The End.