According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, publishing is “the business or profession of the commercial production and issuance of literature, information, musical scores or sometimes recordings, or art.”
Book Publishing Definition
Book publishing therefore specializes in the commercial production and distribution of books and book-related products like audio books, eBooks and the like. A narrower definition should include the fact that the money required for the production is expensed by the publisher and recovered only later through book sales.
One of the main distinctions between book publishing and any other business is the amount of calculation and risk involved. A shoe manufacturer for example would produce more of a certain type of shoe if the demand requires it; publishers operate the other way around: they first publish a certain number of copies of a book at their own expense based on an expected demand and then hope that the demand will be sufficient to cover or exceed their expenses.
Areas of Book Publishing
Every book project has to go through various stages from conception or manuscript through editing and production to marketing, sales and distribution of the final product.
Below are the stages any book project has to follow, in this order:
- acquisition
- budgeting
- editing
- development including graphic design
- production including printing
- marketing
- sales
- distribution including online
Conception: Book Acquisition and Budgeting
Unlike popular belief, very few book projects are actually based on ready-made manuscripts. More likely is that either the publisher approaches an author or various authors to write about a certain topic that seems commercially viable or a proposal submitted through a literary agent is accepted and the manuscript then finished by the author according to the publisher’s suggestions or guidelines.
Budgeting happens at any stage during the book publishing process but is most important before or during the acquisitions process to determine if a book project makes financial sense. If a manuscript reaches the editing or production process and needs to be dropped, a lot of time and expenses have already gone into it.
Realization: Editing, Development and Production
This phase is where the book project takes shape physically: the manuscript is turned into a professional looking book product that provides value to the end consumer. This stage includes copyediting, developmental editing, graphic design, pre-press production and printing.
Note that many stages are not actually done at the publishing house but by freelancers or related businesses like copy editors, graphic designers, typesetters and printers. The production phase is therefore as much about precision and details as it is about coordination of the different sub-stages and contractors.
Product Promotion: Marketing, Sales and Book Distribution
The last stage of the book publishing cycle actually starts at the beginning with marketing and sales staff advising about sales and marketing trends and the commercial viability of a book project. The responsibility of marketing is to create as much buzz about a forthcoming book as possible. This requires finding strengths of book projects and turning them into sales hooks.
The sales department works closely together with distribution channels like sales reps, bookstores, wholesalers and informs them about upcoming book projects. Book fairs and other book events play a crucial role in reaching the target group. Online channels have become more and more important as an affordable and direct sales and marketing tool.
What looks very orderly on paper or on the screen is not a linear process in real life: A book project does not go through the different stages above one after the other but often at the same time. For example, while production is putting together the first chapters of a book, sales and marketing will produce advance advertising material from this information and brief their clients and sales representatives with it.
Good sources for more detailed information about the book publishing process are the following articles: What Publishers Do, The Book Production Process and The University Press as a Publishing Model.
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
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