Steve Trek Publishing Process

Today I thought I would share the publishing process with you.  The Galapagos Islands Steve Trek Adventures is now just 90 days from being for sale to the public.  In fact I will have author copies within 3 weeks.  If you want an early copy email me at steve.trek.diveadventures@gmail.com   How did I get to this point?

Well, once I signed my contract with Tate Publishing the first step was getting in the queue of books being published.  It took about 3 months before actual work began with the publisher.  Once it started work was broken into month segments.  First was initial editing.  My editor read the manuscript and made typical corrections on spelling, grammar, plus gave me new ideas to improve the story and character development.   I found this very helpful and within the final book, Jenny’s character is much more robust than the original story.   I rewrote sections of the manuscript based on the editor feedback, reread the story and made additional changes to enhance the it further.  Next was final editing, again both the editor and I reread the book to capture any remaining spelling, word or grammar errors.  

Now we are 5 months into the process, 3 waiting in the queue, 2 in initial editing.  Now we are moving to cover design.  In this process, I don’t have a lot to do.  Simply talk to the cover designer, share what the book is about, thoughts I may have about the cover and then I just have to be patient and wait for them to get back to me.  Again this process is a month long.  About three weeks later the cover designer sends me three options to consider for the book, I make may choice and its on to the Book Layout.

In Book Layout, the layout editor actually puts the manuscript into font layout, including chapter and page graphics.  This again is a month process and when I get initial layout its a PDF of exactly how the manuscript with look in book form.  Once I approve this layout design initial layout process is complete.  Then final layout begins.  Final layout is when I receive an actual copy of the book.  Cover, dedication, the whole book.  Wow that was really cool to see the near final product.  From here its another read and the absolute last edits are completed.  Now the book is completed roughly a year since the process began and I am headed to the marketing phase.  More to come!