Throughout the years writers have approached me for publishing advice and how best to find a literary agent and/or traditional publisher. I’ve even taught workshops in elementary and middle schools about the paths to publishing so students know what it takes to publish a book. I’ve been in this business for 18 years now and have acquired a bit of insider publishing knowledge through trial and error, so I thought I’d include them all in one post. Here’s my advice about traditional publishing for what it’s worth!
Congratulations on completing your manuscript or your book proposal or enough chapters to go into a book proposal. You have a great idea for a book and have worked hard to write it, which is no easy feat. Even putting together a book proposal is a reason to celebrate!
So now what? The good news is that there are several ways to publish your book. I’m going to talk about traditional publishing, but there are also self-publishing and hybrid publishing options. I self-published two editions of All of the Tea in Chicago, but that was 18-20 years ago and things have changed since then so I’m not the best person to ask for advice about that now.
I thought I’d break down the amount of time it took me to research and write a book, find an agent and a book deal for each of the books I’ve published traditionally, and the time it took to publish a book once I signed a contract. I really wish there were shortcuts in traditional publishing; I certainly thought I could defy the odds and luck out, always to no avail. As I’ve told so many writers, I truly believe traditional publishing is designed as a way to ensure that writers are in it for the long haul. So here we go!
Writing the book — 5 years (concurrently with looking for an agent; I do not recommend this!)
Finding an agent — 4 years
Time from signing with an agent to signing a book contract — 13 months
Time from signing a contract to seeing the book in print — 16 months
Total time from start to finish — 6 years
Time from agent pitch to book contract — 6 months
Time from signing the contract to acquiring all stories from anthology contributors — 5 months
Time from book contract to seeing the book in print — 17 months
Time from start to finish — 22 months
Time from idea to finishing the manuscript — 2.5 years
Time on submission with first agent — 8 months
Time changing agents — 4 hours
Time from signing with new agent to getting a book deal — 3.5 months
Time from signing book contract to seeing the book in print — 15 months
Time from start to finish — 4 years 11 months
Time from idea to finishing book proposal — 2 years
Time pitching university presses on my own to signing with a press — 3 months
Time to complete manuscript — 10 months
Time from completed manuscript to seeing book in print — 11 months
Time from start to finish — 4 years
Golda’s American Dream
Time from idea to completing book proposal — 2 years
Time from pitching university presses on my own to signing advanced contract with a press — 4 months
Time to complete manuscript — 9.5 months
The rest TBD
As you can see, it takes years! Hong Kong Noir took the least amount of time because I had 14 amazing anthology contributors who were only responsible for their own short stories and were wonderful about making the deadline. If I had to write a book that length on my own, the total time would have at least doubled.
I’d love to answer any questions you have about publishing. With each of my books, there have been glitches along the way. I’ve changed agents a couple of times and am now un-agented. This is all normal!
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