Usually when you get your book deal, your publisher will tell you the season in which you will be published, which will be approximately 18 to 24 months from the time of your deal. Yeah, publishing is SLOW. There are situations where your book will be "crashed" or "accelerated," which means from deal to pub date is much shorter--14 months or less. In that case, you'll experience all the same waypoints as a "normal" deal, just faster.
Note that the exact timing for each step may vary widely by publishing house and editor, but these are the general steps and order of things.
1-6 months from your deal: your agent will negotiate the contract and you will (finally) sign it. You'll announce your deal, either once the contract is signed (depends on publisher/agent), or once the offer is final. This can be the same week as your deal, or as much as a year later (ouch).
1 year to 1.5 years before pub date: you will get your edit letter from your editor for developmental edits. You'll usually have 3-4 months to revise your book, if the editor got you the letter early, but you may have as little as 4 weeks.
After developmental edits, which could be one round or several, you will do line edits. Your editor will go through your book with fixes for sentence level prose--word count, flow, specific choices, etc.
Then come copy edits, which should occur somewhere in the ballpark of 9 months to 1 year before your pub date. There are separate copy editors at your publisher whose area of expertise is grammar, usage and style. You may receive a style guide from the copy editor to keep track of names, places and things in your book. Copy edits are usually done digitally, and you will need to go through every note and either accept or "stet" (reject) the change, with reasoning provided for any rejection.
1 year before pub date: Around this time, you'll likely hear from the sales & marketing/publicity department(s) and will have to fill out an author questionnaire. This will be many many pages and may take you hours to fill out. Basically the S&M department wants to know who you are, who you know, where you've been, what you're interested in, more about your book... this sounds and is daunting, but the more information you provide the better, as the team will use your answers to help them promote you.
9 months to 1 year before pub date: You should hear from your publisher about your cover. They might ask you for your input/ideas/preferences, they may not. They'll usually share your cover comp with you, but the level of control that you, the author, will have over it will vary. Sometimes it is shared as an FYI. Sometimes it is shared and you'll give feedback which will be taken on board and your cover will change. The "average" experience is that you'll be able to give minor input that will impact the cover--thoughts on colors or a font. Usually your publisher won't scrap an entire concept because you don't like it (but sometimes they will). Once your cover is final, you will do a cover reveal. Sometimes publicity does this for you, sometimes you have to arrange for it yourself.
Your editor will ask you about blurbs, which are quotes about your book from established authors in your genre. You'll brainstorm a list between you, your editor and your agent. Your editor or agent will often be the ones to reach out to authors to blurb you, but sometimes it will fall on your shoulders. Those authors who agree to blurb will receive a bound galley to read. If your editor wants blurbs for your ARCs, this will happen sooner rather than later. If it's for the final pubbed copy, it may happen later/authors reading will have more time.
6-9 months before pub date: Your publisher will print ARCs, often before your copy edits are done. ARCs are "Advanced Reader Copies" which are distributed to reviewers, bloggers, librarians, book sellers, etc. They help generate buzz and sales.
3-9 months before pub date (varies widely!): You'll receive your first pass pages, which is a printed version of your manuscript that will be physically mailed to you. It will have the almost-final type and page setting so you can see what the book will really look like! This is your last chance to make changes, and generally they should be minor.
After this, your book will become a book! In the final months leading up to publication, your publisher is doing ALL THE THINGS to print/distribute your book to book stores, etc.
There's a lot more that happens, but the above is a broad overview of the things you'll be dealing with and approximately when they'll happen, re: your publisher and your book. There will be a whole separate timeline/chapters about personal marketing and what you should do during your launch week.
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#HowToAuthor: Book Deals & Marketing
Non-FictionAdvice for writing book-shaped things and getting them traditionally published. This series will cover everything from querying to agent fit, to building a platform and marketing yourself.
