I have spent most of the week revising my book, which publishes in June. Yes, it is late in the game to be revising a book publishing in June. By now the text should be set, the interior designed, and advanced copies distributed. But since I am the one who sets the deadlines, I am can break them as well. Let’s be honest, folks: I thought this would be easier than it has proven to be. But this is always the case with writing books. They are difficult beasts.

For a sense of what I’ve been staring at all week, here’s a screen shot of the copy-edits I received on my section on copyediting…

In case anyone ever forgets: a book is a highly collaborative effort. Now that I have completed a second draft of the manuscript, with the help of an editor, another editor and a designer will start to put it into production, typesetting it, and creating the graphs and sidebars this book contains. Then it needs to be proofed, back cover copy written, printed. Four people, in addition to me, will be working on it for the next few weeks. Our goal is to get it to the printer April 1 (we are also currently working through these same stages for our August and September releases to give you a sense of how behind we are on this book, thanks to me! ), but so it goes.

However, it is almost there!! Here is the current Table of Contents:

1. Intro

2. The Lay of the Publishing Landscape

   1. The Opacity of Publishers

   2. The Conglomeration of American Publishing

   3. Glossary Part 1—Talk Like A Publisher

3. “I Have a Good Idea for a Book!”

   1. Intro

   2. Proposals

   3. The Query

      1. Sample Query as a Sidebar

   4. Comparative and Competing Titles

   5. Finding an Agent

   6. Writing the Book

   7. Glossary Part 2—Talk Like An Author

4. How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Book?

   1. Intro and P&Ls

   2. The Backlist

   3. Glossary Part 3—Money Talk

5. Editing

   1. Intro

   2. The different levels of editing

      1. Sidebar—developmental letter

      2. Sidebar—proofreading

      3. Sidebar—copy-editing

   3. Fact-checking

   4. Glossary Part 4—Impress Your Editor

6. The Production Process

   1. Intro

   2. Sidebar—Cover Design

   3. Printing

   4. Where Will It be Shelved? Metadata

   5. Sidebar—Interior Design

   6. Glossary Part 5—Talk To Your Designer

7. Middlemen

   1. Distributors

   2. Returns

   3. Amazon

   4. Direct Sales

8. Selling Books

   1. Your Platform

   2. Media Coverage

   3. Galleys

   4. Author Events

   5. Making Money from Books

   6. Glossary Part 7—Impress The Bookseller

9. Conclusion

As you will see in Chapter 7 part 4, direct sales are very important to book publishing, at least to Belt Publishing. Also, I discuss the importance of pre-orders (hmm…need to add that to the Table of Contents). So let me get to the shilling: please pre-order! If you pre-order a copy of this book now from the Belt store, I will sign your copy. Plus get free shipping and 15% off if you enter BELT15 at checkout. Direct pre-orders are the single key element to Belt Publishing’s success. Thanks ;) And to the many subscribers to this newsletter who already have pre-ordered this book: thank you. I see you ;)

What I’m Reading: The draft of my book, duh.

Shout Out: Pacskis!