How to Publish a Book

“I have a great idea for a book!” Have you ever thought that to yourself? There’s an old saying: Everyone has a book in them. So how do we get that book out? Well, you could say it starts with writing it down, but how do we get that book into the hands of people around the world? 

Let’s start at the very beginning (thank you, Maria von Trapp). It’s commonly known that a book starts with an idea, and what is an idea? It’s a thought. Every person on the planet thinks about 60-80,000 thoughts in a day. That’s a lot of potential books. So to get that idea covered and bound and into the library we’ll have to take a quick look at the 15th century when Johannes Gutenberg changed the world forever by creating the printing press. This extraordinary machine took man from the dark ages to modern times by making the printed word accessible to the common man (relatively speaking). Thus began the domino effect of literacy, education, and book books and more books.

The printing press gave rise to a literary explosion creating an outlet for ideas big, small, plain, outdated, obscure, romantic, unimaginable, and... beyond! It’s been a while since the printing of the first Gutenberg bible, so why do I bring this up? Mainly to say that it is now possible for every man, woman and child to believe in the development of their ideas, which before the printing press was a luxury reserved for a minuscule percentage of the population. After all, in this very moment you could type out that novel brewing in the back of your mind, press the print button in your very own home, and you’d have a brand new book! Thoroughly modern!

Now how do we get our bright ideas covered, bound and distributed? Well, I had a talk with Divia Kainth over at Sweet Cherry Publishing about that very thing, and she had a lot to say about it:

• How do you transform a manuscript into a printed book?
  The first decision is what format the book will be published in, so paperback, hardback, board book or something with more interactive elements. Once that decision has been made we'll schedule our workflow so that we meet the printer's deadline on time. The manuscript then goes through the various stages of editing while the designers work on a cover that best packages the story and will attract readers. Once the text has been proofread, our editors work with the designers to make sure the text is typeset and the illustrations are perfectly placed on the book's pages. The printer will then print the pages before binding them together with the cover - either with glue or hand-sewn, depending on the format. Our sales team will work with bookshops, stores and online retailers to makes sure the book is on the shelves or available online ready for the big publication day - which is like a book's birthday!
  

• What's the best thing about publishing children's books?
  There are so many benefits to finding a love for reading from a young age and those books that children read will have a great influence on who they'll be in the future and the morals they have now. Children are so creative and their imaginations are endless, so as children's publishers we get to put ourselves in their shoes and while we're in them the opportunities to tell a story are endless. It's also great to know that one of our books can be one of their favourite childhood stories or characters that they take into adulthood and pass on to future generations.
  

• What decisions go into children's book publishing?
  What we publish depends on a lot of things. Firstly, we publish our books in a series to retain children's attention to reading and enjoyment in the story world, so the books we take on will have to have series potential. At Sweet Cherry, our aim is to make reading fun and accessible, so we like to see humorous, lighthearted stories that children from all backgrounds and abilities can enjoy. We also have to consider other things happening in the children's landscape that can influence their reading choices and interests, things like their school curriculum, film releases, popular TV shows, etc. A lot of decision actually go into book publishing, and that's why it's disheartening when we have to turn down a submission.
  

• Children's books possess the means to educate as well as entertain readers. How do Sweet Cherry's books do that?
  Our books teach young readers something while they enjoy a fun fiction story. For example, in our Greek god adventure series, Hopeless Heroes, readers will learn about Ancient Greece and in Danny Dingle's Fantastic Finds, readers will be introduced to some of the laws of physics and maths through Danny's crazy inventions from things he finds around the house. And obviously in Mula and the Fly readers will learn some of the basic yoga poses while they enjoy a fun jungle story!

The team over at Sweet Cherry Publishing have so much more to say about publishing, and you can read all about it HERE.

So now that you have the tools, what are you waiting for? Go write that book!