Basic Requirements for Book Publishing (continued)

Turning to the points I made in my previous post before we can think of publishing, we need a decent enough book that we want to publish. By which I mean, we must accepted that a published book moves away from our sphere of influence and ends up as semi-public property.

My first book, Trapped is the story of my life with cerebral palsy, and, as such, publishing it was a huge leap of faith into the unknown. Would it be savaged by the critics? Would I die beneath a barrage of criticism and coruscating comment? The answers, as it turned out, were no, thankfully. But fears such as these need to be considered, then quietly put to one side as we prepare to launch our book on the unsuspecting public.

A good editor – or whizz editing skills – is as essential to a good book as a good story. And if we decide that publication is our eventual aim, it might take ten years to reach that goal. So there is, really, not a lot of hurry when we are setting out to publish our work. It helps if our intentions grow more and more solid, as we take the time to look around for a good editor: someone who understands us, agrees with our motivation and helps us to reach our goals. That said, at all times we have to retain ownership of the writing and editing of our work.

Once a book has been written, polished, edited, re-written and proofed, it will eventually be ready to be typeset (the word we use when referring to a print book) and formatted (the process of producing a book in an e-file, such as mobi files). So ask your contacts if they can recommend a good typesetter. Perhaps your reading research will have given you a few ideas, a few contacts you might email and obtain quotes from. As in any other creative endeavour, follow your hunches, and double check everything.

Thanks for reading.

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