FROM MANUSCRIPT TO BOOK

The World of Publishing.

Publishing a book has never been easy. While I can't comment on the intricacies of printing non-fiction or text books, I know that novel publishing is an excruciating process. 

1. You write a book or have an idea of a book.

2. You sell it to an agent. (JK Rowling took 3 years to sell Harry to an agent.) 

3. Your agent sells it to a publisher. (Rowling's agent took 2 years to sell Harry to Bloomsbury.)

4. The publisher likes it with a caveat (always a caveat).

5. You work with an editor (thats part of the caveat) who'll want to warp-drive perfectly lovely scenes onto another planet.

6. Once you've scratched out the final manuscript, there's several more rounds of editing, then type-setting, more editing, cover design, and more editing.

7. Only after you've become an insomniac with an eyesight problem and severe anaemia (because really where in hell do you find time to eat?) you will finally hold your book in your hands.

Of course, with the advent of digital books and self-publishing portals, this process is getting easier, faster and more in the hands of the author than ever before. But make no mistake, with the exception of 2 and 3, you still pretty much march through the same regime. It is still a difficult PROCESS. And then you're stuck with marketing your slashed-up masterpiece.

For me, the writing of the novel itself is the easiest part of this whole deal, where all I'm relying on is my laptop and my head. 

Me write. You publish. That's how I want this process to work for me. Thus far at least. 

Advice for aspiring writers: decide what kind of an author you want to be. That is, traditionally published or self. You will pay with your sweat and blood in both processes, I promise you. Decide the kind of author you want to be and then stick to your guns. Take up meditation, Yoga, Zumba or go climb Mt. Everest in the hurdle-filled interim between manuscript and launch.

And then, start it all over again. Fun huh?