While M Presents will do the heavy lifting for its clients, it's good for everyone to have a basic understanding of the publishing process to avoid any delay that might come your way. If you're prepared, you can avoid some common things that will slow or might even hinder your ability to release your book at your expected time.
You MIGHT think everything from your book files to your website are ready to go; but even the most prepared authors hit unexpected snags. Sometimes we can prevent them, and sometimes they're out of our control. For example, this website had been working perfectly until about 2 months ago when a hacker attacker the domain hosting service. Nothing was compromised, but I wasn't notified about it and only learned of the security weakness when I tried to visit the website as most potential clients and saw a security warning rather than this website!
I added additional security which will hopefully make this website behave better, but I'll have to wait and see. It could've been worse; my previous website (which is no longer active) was attacked by a spam bot and clicking on the website launched hundreds of porn ads on your computer!
In short: be prepared for the delays. You shouldn't travel without some sort of time buffer, and you shouldn't risk running into problems.
Step One: Your publication date
Many websites allow you to offer pre-sales up to 1 year in advance; which you should take advantage of. Schedule your book at least a week later than anticipated in the event that problems occur. Because they most likely will (especially the ones out of your control; I've been waiting almost a year after publication for 'Madness By Firelight' to be available via all retailers but one is so backed up that they still list it as "pending", even though all of the other retailers have approved it and are listing it.
Everything else revolves around your planned publication date; so it's best to know this date first to give yourself a sort of deadline. Remember, it's not unusual these days for a digital copy to be released one week or earlier than print and audio, so don't feel too stressed if you miss some of these deadlines. Remember, they're suggestions. Still, I don't know about you, but I work better with deadlines.
Step Two: Timeline
This timeline lists when deadlines should be COMPLETED.
One day prior to publication date
- Prepare an online post/video to be released the same day as your publication.
Two weeks prior to publication date (your absolute busiest day!)
- Audiobook file(s) uploaded and finalized (if you intend to release an audio book at the same time as the print book)
- Finalize Print Book cover (this can only really be done once you've approved the print file. Professional cover artists can take days, if not weeks, to create so be sure to take that into account or be prepared to pay additional "rush" fees to the artist)
- Finalize Print file (some retailers allow you to finalize a digital proof; but I recommend getting a physical proof when you can. At this point, however, you'd only have time to approve a digital proof)
- Upload ebook files for quality checks (this can, in itself, take a few days to complete. Make sure to do this, and that all of the files are approved; if the upload encounters a problem, you've allowed yourself enough time to make necessary changes)
Five weeks prior to publication
- Order your physical proof. Expect it to take 10-15 days for a physical proof to be printed and shipped to you for your approval. Quickly read it and check for mistakes. Depending on how long this takes, you may not have enough time to finalize a second physical proof so make sure the quality is up to your standards and make all necessary changes.
Six weeks prior to publication
- Audio files are completed. Not everyone wants to release an audio book at the same time as print, but if you do, you should have all the files completed by the audio producer.
