Michelle MacKinnon has recently published a novel in New Zealand. The following is a brief overview of the publishing process.
The Process of Book Publishing
v The publisher receives a manuscript or proposal from the agent or the author.
v It gets passed to the Commissioning Editor who decides if the m/s has any marketability or merit. If unsuitable, a reject letter is sent with the returned m/s.
v If the Editor thinks it has merit the m/s will be sent to the following for appraisal reports:
- Sales and marketing for an assessment of salability
- Finance department for costing estimates
- Market research
- Readers report and manuscript assessment (some publishers prefer the author to have had a manuscript assessment done before submitting the m/s).
v A contract is negotiated between the author and the publisher if the previous reports are favourable.
v The m/s is passed to a graphic designer or art editor who will design the cover and page layout, binding, book size etc. It is also passed to an editor for any structural editing at this stage the author may be involved in checking or revising the m/s. The author may not have a lot of choice over the cover design, however they will be consulted.
v A copy editor will go through the m/s to check details of punctuation; spelling, etc and the author will be involved.
v Once past this stage the m/s is transferred to the typesetter.
v Proofs are made and the author checks the proof copy for any mistakes.
v A lawyer may need to be involved at this point, or earlier, if there is any possibility of libel or defamation as a result of the book content. They may have been involved earlier during the initial appraisal or even during the editing.
v A proofreader also checks the proof for errors.
v If the book has an index, it will spend some time being indexed at this point.
v Finally the book goes to print.
v The publisher arranges a book launch and promotion and involves the author.
v The publisher organises distributors to market the book to the booksellers.
v The publisher also markets the book at international book fairs and promotes the book internationally if the contract has given them international rights.
v Subsidiary rights are exercised.
http://www.michellemackinnon.com 
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