Fiction Friday: How a Manuscript Becomes a Book

Now that I have a finished manuscript, I get asked this question a lot: when is your book going to be published?

This is a simplified version of the publication process. It doesn't include:

• The agent asking you to revise and resubmit (sometimes multiple times)
• The editor selling the rest of the publishing house on why they should buy this particular book 
• and it glosses over the entire production process

It should give you a good idea of how things work, though. I threw in a few statistics I've picked up along the way to give you a sense of the likelihood of success at any given point and some of the factors to consider in choosing whether to go with traditional publication or to self-publish.

I am currently on the second box on this chart: "show to trusted readers." I hope to be at "query an agent" by the end of May.