A Guide for New Authors
I’ve worked with a lot of first-time authors, and they all have one thing in common: they write their stories before doing any research into how to get them published. It’s understandable. You get an idea and it takes spark. With that proverbial fire in your belly, you write. You develop your story. It inhabits your dreams and never strays far from your thoughts.
The story consumes your imagination. It’s good. You know it’s good. But is it good enough to publish?
As an author myself, there’s always that kernel of doubt: Will readers like my story? Imposter syndrome kicks in. The story you were once sure was terrific now seems terrible.
The whiplash of confidence and doubt is perfectly normal. Don’t fret over that. Instead, understand the process. Knowing which steps to take builds confidence; navigating those steps builds skill.
Step 1: Write the Story
This may seem obvious, but many authors of genre fiction get bogged down in world-building. They develop complex societies, intricate religions, fascinating magic systems. They create expansive character sheets specifying every aspect of major and minor characters from species to appearance to personal backgrounds to motivations.
That’s all good information to have, but none of that is the story. All of that information informs the story.
If you do a bit of research, you’ll learn that there are a limited number of archetypal plots. Some say there are as few as six; others opine as few as 32. The number really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you understand your overarching plot isn’t unique, but how you treat it and what you do with it is. It’s unique because it’s your story.
So, write the story. Get it out of your head, because nothing happens until you’ve got that rough draft.
Step 2: Edit and Revise the Story
Once you’ve drafted your story, it is not ready to publish. Trust me on this. In fact, if this is your first attempt at writing anything longer than a social media post, then you can be assured that rough draft is not worthy of public consumption.
That does not mean you don’t have a good story. It does mean that your story needs work to whip it into shape so it is worthy of public consumption. Thus begins the editing and revision process.
Here’s what I recommend for novice authors:
- Set the manuscript aside and do other things. Focus on other interests while the story “marinates” in your subconscious. This “resting” period may last a few days or even a few months.
- When you can go back to the manuscript with fresh eyes, open the file. Have pen and paper ready.
- From the first word of the document, begin reading. Correct the small issues as you encounter them. Jot down the major issues that will require substantial or substantive revision or rewriting to correct.
- When you reach the end of the manuscript, go back to the beginning and, referring to those notes you jotted down on paper, fix those major issues. Now you have a second draft.
- When you reach the end of the manuscript, set it aside and let it rest until you can return to it with fresh eyes. While it’s resting this time, you may wish to enlist the assistance of beta readers and/or use editing software to provide you with feedback and guide further revisions. Then you’ll have a third draft.
- Lather, rinse, repeat until the story is as good as you can get it—or until madness sets in. Keep track of your drafts.
When your manuscript has reached that “it’s as good as I can get it” stage, it’s ready for professional editing.
Even with repeated rounds of rigorous self-editing and the feedback from volunteers like beta readers, the author remains too close to the story to see what’s there that shouldn’t be and what’s missing that should be there. It’s like living in a locker room: you become “nose blind” to the stench of sweaty socks. A professional editor brings a fresh perspective, a reader’s objectivity, and a critical eye to your manuscript to help you fix the remaining issues and make your story worthy of public consumption.
Step 3: Design the Book
There’s more to designing a book than filling the pages with words. Presentation of your story directly affects the reader’s interaction with it, so it behooves the author to make that interaction as effortless as possible for the reader. Elements of book design include:
- Trim size. This refers to the page dimensions. The most popular dimensions for self-published books are 5×8 and 6×9 inches.
- Font choices. Some fonts are much easier to read than others. Some are more legible on-screen than on the page. The fonts you choose should be complementary and help the reader’s eye move through the content.
- White space. This refers to margin width, gutters, leading, kerning, tracking, and the boundary space separating images from content. Skilled manipulation of white space prevents content being trapped in the binding, unsightly rivers running through text, and dangling lines of text interrupting the flow.
- Graphic elements. Whether the design incorporates pictures, graphs, or other decorative elements, how and where to place them affects the overall appearance of the content.
It’s also important to use the right tool for the job. Many authors will use whatever word processing program in which they wrote their books to design their books, too. That’s a mistake. The publishing industry has standards for professionalism—standards that readers expect, demand, and deserve. Using the right tool(s) ensures your book will meet those standards. Currently, the industry standard for software when it comes to page design is Adobe InDesign.
Step 4: Write the Back Cover Copy
Many authors, myself included, find this difficult because the back cover copy is not “telling the story.” Telling the story is content writing. The back cover copy has a singular purpose: to sell the book. That means it’s copy writing.
Good back cover copy piques a potential reader’s interest with a tantalizing lure. That lure needs to be strong enough to convert the potential reader into a paying customer. To do that, it must be polished. The back cover copy is not where you want misspelled words, punctuation errors, and sloppy grammar to signal carelessness, so make sure you get that professionally edited, too.
Step 5: Design the Cover
The cover is a book’s most important marketing piece, so it’s important to get it right. That means, especially for genre fiction, the cover should align with genre expectations while also remaining distinct from the book’s competition. That’s no easy feat.
An effective cover does the following:
- It attracts a potential reader’s attention.
- It informs the potential reader of the book’s genre.
- It alludes to the author’s professionalism.
The cover of your book is not the place where you want to skimp on cost and do it yourself if you’re not a skilled graphic artist. It’s also not the place where you want to create your cover using generative artificial intelligence (AI). The blatant use of generative AI comes with ethical concerns and foments readers’ suspicions that the author not only used it to create the cover, but to write the story as well.
Step 6: Proofread the Book
Before you release your book into the wild, make sure it’s as good as it can be. Proofreading gives your book—the cover and the interior pages—that last polish before publication.
Truly, you’ll be surprised at the errors revealed during page design! A competent proofreader will not only keep a sharp lookout for typos, punctuation errors, and grammar errors, but will also detect inconsistencies in design and paragraph-level formatting.
Your book designer and your cover designer will implement the corrections as identified by the proofreader.
Step 7: Publish the Book
When you’re ready to publish your book, you should have received the following files:
- A press-ready PDF of the interior pages for print. (If you have different sizes for paperback, hardcover, and/or large print, then you’ll have a separate PDF for each version.)
- A press-ready PDF of the full cover (front cover, spine, back cover) for print. (Again, if you have different formats of your book—paperback, hardcover, large print—then you’ll have a separate PDF file for each.)
- A high-resolution JPEG of the front cover for the e-book version of your book.
- An EPUB or DOCX file (which the publishing platform can convert to an EPUB) for the e-book version of your book.
The platform you use will guide you through the publishing process step by step. It will prompt you for meta data such as keywords and categories to help potential readers find your book. The platform will also require identifying information for you and your book.
The publishing platform you choose is largely a matter of personal preference. Do your research to understand which platform is most suitable for your needs and ambitions.
Are You Ready?
If you’re struggling to develop your story, refine your manuscript, or design your book, Hen House Publishing can help with professional ghostwriting, editing, page design, and proofreading services. Contact us to take your story from story premise to physical book.
