chipperStep One: The Idea.
Tragically, this step isn't reliably the fastest part of the process, although it's usually right up there. The idea for Newsflesh took well over a year to come together coherently enough for me to start writing. The idea for Upon A Star, on the other hand, came together in less than five minutes. It can be argued that Newsflesh is a much more complicated idea, and thus needed the extra baking time, but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes, the 'flash of inspiration' takes long enough to make everyone you know start going 'sure, I believe you're planning to write that book.'
Step Two: The First Draft.
This is going to vary depending on how fast you write. If you're Stephen King, it takes about three months ('the span of a season') when it's going well. If you're not, it can take anywhere from thirty days to thirty years. Luckily, unless you're already incredibly famous, or working on the sequel to something, people are unlikely to prod at you during these steps. For values of 'people' that don't include 'your agent,' who gets to prod at you whenever.
Step Three: Revisions.
Again, variable, and not always in the ways you'd think. That six-hundred-page monster may only need one major revision, and be done inside of six weeks, while your fluffy little bit of two-hundred-page nothing may have a major logic problem on page seventy-five and take you three months to fix. Again, this step is often conducted in private.
Step Four: Sale.
Once you've sold a book, you can sometimes manage this step before step three, or even before step one, although that strikes me as potentially bad for your blood pressure. Before you've sold a book, this step can take anywhere from a week to a decade. During this step, the odds are good that your family will be pestering you, but nobody else will. Be glad.
Step Five: Editorial.
So you've managed to write and sell a book. Hooray! Now you get something new. Now you get an editor. Your editor will review your manuscript and get back to you with anything that needs to be changed. It may be practically nothing. It may be practically everything. A good editor will do their best not to steer you wrong. I love my editor.
Step Six: Waiting.
Step six actually contains about seven billion steps on the part of your publishing house, because this is where they find your cover artist, send your manuscript to the copy-editing department, talk to their marketing folks about how they can best position you in the market, and generally works to make sure that your book will to totally awesome. You'll spend a lot of this time waiting and fielding questions about when your book is going to come out. This step can take anywhere from eight months to two and a half years. Find something distracting. Like knitting, or watching every horror movie released during the 1980s.
Step Seven: REALLY Waiting.
Eventually, you'll get an official publication date. This is awesome, because it means you can tell everyone to buy your book on a specific day. This also means that you've just started that giant 'when do we drop the ball on Times Square?' countdown clock inside your head. I hope you have a lot of knitting to do.
Step Eight: Advance Copies.
The fabled ARCs! These are bound copies of your book sent to reviewers and bookstores and your mom six months or so before your release date. They are the final proof of your book's existence. Feel free to cry. Do not feel free to send a personally inscribed copy to that guy who beat you up in high school and is now totally harassing you on Facebook. It's not worth it.
Step Nine: BOOK.
So here we are, anywhere from one to four years from sale, with nobody-really-knows how much time actually elapsed since step one. And now, gloriously, amazingly, your baby is on the bookshelf.
Step Ten: The Question.
"When's the sequel coming out?" Time between book being released to first person asking you: five minutes. Try not to kill.
Have fun!
December 8 2008, 19:30:25 UTC 8 years ago
...at least six months after we sell x many copies of this one. How many can I put you down for?
December 9 2008, 01:54:41 UTC 8 years ago