So I am getting ready to submit the manuscript for The Seer of Grace and Fire to the publisher. We have been working hard in the last four months with the beta reader on this dark fantasy story, the first volume of a trilogy. I have not had a beta reader before so this process was new to me. We are half way through the final read through and I am getting ready to submit. I wanted to take a moment and talk a little about my process for this work.

Submitting Materials

So, the first step is to submit the materials to the publisher. There are different methods of getting a publisher interested and I will not go into query letters, agents and the like but once you have a publisher identified you need to submit your materials to them. This I usually do through email but this book has a lot of images so I will most likely need to use an FTP site so that I can send large files. At the moment I did turn some images in but we are having issues finding the emails since the files are large.

Editing

This is the first time that I am going to go through the editing process with the publisher. The editor is assigned and the goes through the manuscript over a period of a few weeks and makes their edits. I can either accept or reject these changes. I have never gone through this process before so it will be new. I got the beta reader for this volume as well so hopefully the editor will make good recommendations that don’t detract from the prose. I usually do this process prior to submitting the manuscript myself but wanted to do the full cycle for The Seer of Grace and Fire as this is my entry into the Fantasy genre and I wanted to make it done right.

The Production Process

Once the publisher accepts the materials, it is onto the galley process. I provide all my own original cover art that is used in making the book so that needs to be taken into account for the cover creation. The internal galley is also formatted based on my instructions. Once all the materials are turned in the production team is the one that creates the galleys and then once done they are emailed back to me in low resolution proof format for my review.

Corrections

Usually there are rounds of corrections that occur with each galley. There is a correction round for the interior and for the cover. This can lead into more than one round at the proofreading stage. At this point the galley is created and sent to the author. I usually create a separate file and log all my corrections by line/word/sentence and mark what the changes should be by page. This takes a few days. I usually go through the book 4 or 5 times with the corrections checking everything before I submit the corrections to be made. Usually I do about two rounds on average with my books that go through this process.

Approving the Galleys

Once all the corrections are in, I go through the book another time to ensure it is finalized. If all goes well then we will approve the galleys. It goes through content evaluation and then it is onto the printer for the proof copies. Once the proofs are received, I give the go ahead with the publisher’s approval to have the books printed and made available at various retailers. There is also the process of getting copies of the books in book stores. I have had grydscaen: beginnings and grydscaen: tribute in stores so far and I like the process of being able to do that.

Getting Your Work Out There

Once the book is available it is time to hustle. I am good at writing books but my ability to market them which can be costly is also something I am still working on. Once the book is also available online I can advertise on social media and do guest posts on blogs. I have done a blog tour setup by the publisher in the past thought I don’t know how successful that was. I think I like having used a publicist in the past and that has bee rewarding. I use the publicist to help with exposure and she is very good at what she does.

Personally, I use Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram, as well as YouTube for the anime and book trailers to get the word out there. Since my works are literary as well as visual it works out fine and gives me the ability to showcase my art as well as my words. I am still working out the marketing angle and I know I have a long way to go. I want to take advantage of getting more reviews as well but I am still working on that. I do have some resources that I can rely on and hopefully they will help me in the future. I have a long way to go on social media.

Find what works best for you and pursue it with a passion. Your work needs to be seen. Cherish your words.

Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram are copyright their respective owners.