How a Book Gets Published

From pitch to publication

Photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash

Last month, I realized I was writing the very same email for the fourth time. It’s an email I’ve written what must be countless times before in answer to some variation on the question, “how do I publish a book?” I’m asked this question even more than “how do I write a book?” which may say a whole lot about the priorities of today’s aspiring authors. But I’ll cover that question next month.

Now there are lots of ways to publish a book. You can just create a document, post it on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and you’re done. Or you can find an online print shop like Lulu.com and they will offer you ways to self-publish an ebook or print, distribute, and publicize physical copies.

What I’m going to share here is a super crash course on the more mysterious process through a person gets an idea for a book to a traditional publisher and into the market. Here goes:

First, you write a pitch. Ideally, it’s a whole proposal. What’s in a book proposal? Basically, it’s the introduction to your book in five or ten pages; then a list of chapters with a couple of paragraphs on each one; then a page or two on why you’re the best person to write this book; then a page or two on how you’re going to market the book (who is your audience, what magazines have you written for, how many people…