As a lover of books, have you ever wondered about the ins and outs of publishing? There's a lot of behind-the-scenes work just to publish one book as an Indie Press. Here’s a look at some of the stages a manuscript goes through to become a book: Project Evaluation, Contract, Book Development, Distribution, Marketing and Sales, and finally Post Publications. Each stage is crucial to ensure the book reaches the hands of children worldwide.

1. Project Evaluation

During this stage, authors submit their work to publishing companies. At Cardinal Rule Press there are two submission periods for authors to submit. Yearly we get over 500 submissions, and it increases every year! In this submission period, all the books get read, that’s right ALL OF THEM! 

How do we narrow down this selection? Well, CPR as a company focuses on books that fit into the genre of realistic fiction. Apart from the genre, the company also focuses on books with diversity. There are various rounds to narrow down the options and sometimes authors will receive an R&R which is short for “Revise and Resubmit”. Sometimes there is a lot of potential in a book, however, various edits need to be made so an R&R is sent to let authors know we’ll reconsider the book if certain edits are made. With the manuscript chosen the next steps are contracts!

2. Contract

Woo Hoo! The manuscript is being published, so now we focus on contracts.  As a traditional press, authors do not pay anything to companies for publishing their books. Authors receive their payment as a combination of an advance and royalties. When an author signs with a company an advance is given to them, and they will receive royalties for their books once it is released. On average in the book publishing industry royalties are between 8-12%, however, at CRP we give a higher royalty amount between 12-15%. Apart from authors, the publishing companies start contracting other people like illustrators. Typically illustrators are given a flat fee for their work. With contracts set in place, developing the book is next!

3. Book Development

The most fun part of this whole process, creating the book itself! Illustrators start to create characters, settings, and layouts for the book itself. For the most part, illustrators are given creative freedom on how to design the book. CPR will give suggestions on what we would like to see as well as authors. Apart from the book illustrations, we make sure the text is legible for younger children and check grammar. Various people work together to create the books you love! After editing is done and the book has finally finished production now it is time to send them out!

Here at Cardinal Rule Press, we are happy to help you with resources for your bookstore or library. Get this FREE Downloadable Guide!

4. Distribution

As a traditional company, CPR has a distributor that helps with the book distribution. CPR distributor has a team of salespeople that sell to various places like bookstores, libraries, online retailers, etc. They also have warehouses where months and months of supplies of books are stored awaiting to be distributed.  Apart from the distributor, CPR books’ are sold on our website: cardinalrulepress.com.

5. Marketing and Sales

With a new book release, marketing and sales are essential for the book to sell well. There are various marketing tactics companies will use. The primary three are social media, marketing, and old-school marketing. Promotional Materials are made for the various marketing tactics like the ones listed above. Examples are email headers, posters, posts images for the various social media formats, etc. The purpose is to expose the book more!

While the marketing team works on the creative aspect of the campaign the sales team focuses on the analytical side. The sales team is constantly checking the costs of the marketing campaign with set goals in mind. These two teams work together to create hype for the new book release.

6. Post Publication

The promotional period of the book is finished, which means we’re done right? Nope, we still do things after the publication of the book.  In the book publishing industry book launches and virtual reading are very popular ways to engage with the audience. Author events, book reviews, and new campaigns are some of the few things done for the new book. 

So, the next time you are reading remember the process that book went through to reach you!

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Yatziry Linares-Lozano is a senior at Eastern Michigan University studying Graphic Design. She loves designing and traveling. You’ll see her watching movies/series or playing volleyball in her free time.