How My Manuscript Becomes a Book

I get a lot of questions about how my manuscripts turn into books. They sound a lot like this:

“Why isn’t A Time to Rise coming out until FALL?! Don’t you know about your readers’ anguish?” Oh man, don’t I.

“I mean, you finished the first draft so…why isn’t it in stores now?” Okay, so I don’t really get questions like this. Y’all are smarter than that. 😉

So, per popular demand, I’ve decided to reveal the process from idea to published novel.

1. In Which I Have a Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant Idea

This is one of my favorite moments. When I’m sure my idea is THE BEST IN THE WORLD and I’m not sure if I should write it myself or sell it for a gazillion packages of Oreos. Overall, I feel extremely powerful in this moment of ideation.

via GIPHY

Sadly, the moment lasts for about one day and it’s swiftly followed by much Oreo-eating and despondency the next day when I’m thinking, “That was the worst idea ever!” BUT….moving on.

2. Write. Write. Write.

Also known as the “I-hate-writing-and-words-but-love-them-and-chocolate” phase. Let’s not spend too much time here. I might get depressed. 😉 JUST KIDDING, GUYS. I like writing books. I’m a novelist. People don’t become novelists for any other reason. (Okay, they do, but their other reasons don’t make sense. :P)

How long does it take me to write a book? I get this question a lot. But do you mean first draft? First to final draft? Here it is broken down:

• A Time to Die: First draft: 3 years (because I was in graduate school, I had no idea what I was doing, and I had no deadlines.)
• A Time to Speak: 8 months (because I had deadlines, but at least I’d plotted it in my head, and I’m a slow writer.)
• A Time to Rise: 8 months (BECAUSE OF MORE DEADLINES and now I have no hair because it wasn’t plotted and now it’s done. O.o)
• Future novels: I’m hoping to take secret ninja training and learn how to write a first draft in 3 months so I can spend the rest of the year perfecting it. 😛 Don’t tell anyone!

Okay, so first draft is done, which leads to…

3. Editing. Editing. Editing.

This doesn’t mean just reading back through the book once. Why? BECAUSE THE FIRST DRAFT IS A HORRIBLE UGLY SKELETON THAT WAS DUG UP FROM AN UNMARKED GRAVE. That’s why. This means going through it a million times and hating it and loving it and wanting to burn it. And if you want to know my personal process of editing, I wrote up a blog post all about self-editing.

I’m usually freaking out by this point because the book isn’t pretty and my deadline is rushing at me like a charging bull and all I want to do is eat Oreos. But…somehow…I survive. So then I…

4. I turn it in to my publisher for the Content Edit.

The moment I press send, I’ll suddenly magically think of every single plot hole and how to fix it and, the moment I scream to my publisher, “Wait! Give me ONE MORE WEEK!” he graciously gives it back and I can’t remember any of the plotholes anymore. My face when this happens –> -.-

So then I return it. Publisher says, “Good job, slave.” (just kidding.) and then sends it to the publishing house’s editor.

I bite my nails to stubs. And wait. And refresh my e-mail inbox to see when the editor will send me back the shredded manuscript even though I don’t want to touch it ever again.

Then the day comes….

5. My manuscript is returned.

I cry. I blubber to hubby that I’m the worst author ever. He buys me chocolate, gives pep talks, and then I edit my poor little paper child.

via GIPHY

And somehow I survive. (Seriously, this whole process is about SURVIVAL SKILLS. Who needs writing craft books?) So this editor digs into the content of the book, tackles plot points, informs me of character weaknesses, etc. Once I fix all of that stuff, guess what happens next? Yup, I…

6. Return it to the editor for the Line Edit

Are you seeing a pattern here? It looks a lot like write-edit-cry-edit-cry . . .

Aaaanyway, the Line Edit isn’t so bad. It cleans up sentences, fixes my misuse of em dashes and ellipses, puts commas where I neglect them. All that wonderful stuff. I don’t get nervous over this edit because no one is stabbing my baby with a red pen.

Let’s skip some bullet points and just sum them up here:

• I finish the Line Edit and give it the final read through for plot holes.
• I send it back to the editor.
• Editor completes Line Edit and sends the book to a Copyeditor.
• The copyeditedor applies a copyedit (which is even more minimal than the Line Edit.

7. Final & last-possible-chance-to-catch-typos Read Through

This is the version of the book that I get after the copyedit. In fact, the book goes straight from copyedit to the formatted copy. This is where it looks all pretty and the font is snazzy and I drool over the cool numbers the formatter uses for my chapter titles. I like to read this version aloud and print it out to read it almost like a book.

This, of course, is when I’ll realize I forgot to kill a character or something drastic like that AND THERE’S NOTHING I CAN DO TO FIX IT. Other than much crying.

8. Cover Design!

After I’ve wept tears of grief over sending my baby out to the world and not being able to fix it, then comes the sick-to-my-stomach nervous moment that’s way too exciting to be allowed. That is…seeing the cover design. Thankfully I get to give my input and work with my publisher and cover designer on ideas. Besides, my designer, Kirk DouPonce of DogEared Design is THE BOMB.

9. I approve pretty much EVERYTHING

The final copy. The cover. The release date (though I have no say in that.) I give my gigantic “OKAY” and off it goes to the magical world of words-turned-paperback. Then somehow it ends up in a box on my doorstep and I dance for joy. 😉 Okay, there’s actually way more waiting and updating Goodreads and all that, but now you know.

THIS is how my books become books.

Any questions, class? 😛

Which of these points was the most interesting (or boring) to you?