The Self-Publishing Timeline – My Personal Experience 

Writing, for me, is a great joy filled with some pain. Creating stories with characters that develop more and more as I write about them is extremely satisfying. Getting a chance to finally see those characters in print is even more gratifying. The road to self-publishing my book had a few slow moments, though. There were no real deadlines because most requirements were up to me. Not understanding the timeline and how I could have better prepared might have caused me a lot of frustration and miscommunication, but because I had a superb editor and consultant I was able to meet those deadlines with relative ease. 

There are things writers could learn from my experience. First, nothing happens until you have completed your manuscript, so keep writing and finish your masterpiece! 

Once I completed the story, I took a week off. I celebrated my major accomplishment and rested my brain because the next step was going to be the most important step before my story went to the printer. Once I was ready to take a critical look at my work I had to carefully edit it; I needed to ensure that the manuscript was free of grammatical errors, that there were no plotline conflicts or contradictions, and that the story flowed. This took me about two weeks (I felt like I was going too slow), but it’s an important step. The more solid the story, the less it will cost you to have a copy editor clean up the manuscript and the less time it will take to make it ready to go to the printer. I was lucky that my detailed revision was thorough enough that it saved me money and time working with the publisher. The major lesson I learned was that the more polished your work is before you submit it to the publisher the more time it will save you (and the more money)! 

Then I submitted the manuscript to the publisher that best matched my sales objectives. Once we came to a conclusion on the publishing package cost, they offered me additional services including market analysis, editorial analysis, copy editing, proofreading, and advance cover design options. This initial analysis period took ten days. 

I strongly urge all new writers to use a copy editor. The cost of doing this will vary based on the amount of work they anticipate having to do to make your book ready for publication but it’s worth it. Even if I had proofread my book several times (which I did) I can’t imagine it coming back as polished if I had skipped this part. This part of the process took the editor less than three weeks. 

While the editing process was continuing, the publisher also worked closely with me to design a cover that matched the theme of the book. There was no real delay because of cover design but it could have added an additional couple of weeks to the project if I had wanted something difficult designed or rejected their drafts. 

After the copy edit was complete, I had to proofread the final draft version of the book. This came to me in an adobe format and looked just like it would in print. It was recommended that I get a professional to do this for me, but I felt confident that I could do this on my own. I submitted specific pages where I identified errors that still needed correction and they were changed within a few days. This took me one week to complete. 

I signed a final agreement that stated I was satisfied with the product (after the proofreading was finished) and then the manuscript was submitted to the printer. It took only another three weeks before the book was ready for sale. 

In all, the time it took for the manuscript to go from submission to print and availability  at online bookstores was under four months! 

The next author blog in this series will cover the use of the Hero’s Journey Concept for story construction.