The path a book takes through the publishing and printing process can be long and winding. Many people don’t understand how the latest mystery novels and other types of books go from an author’s mind to printed page.

We’ve outlined the basic path that most traditional books take through this world.

From Author to Editor

After an author is finished writing their book, they typically find a good editor to help them create a finished product and find a publisher to take it one. Editors do much more than just make sure grammar and spelling are all squared away. They help make sure the story flows, that characters are well developed, and that the whole thing makes sense among other nebulous tasks.

Once the editor has polished the authors work, they are often the person with the connections to get the author’s book in front of a publishing house (if they aren’t working for one already).

Publishing the book

Many people confuse printers and publishers. They are two distinctly different entities with different roles in the process of bringing a book to market. Publishers work on promotion for a title including book tours, trailers, marketing, and distribution of printed books.

A good publisher will be able to arrange for printing services, create a marketing plan for the title, build relationships with distributors and book stores and get the title out into the world.

Getting Your book printed

Once a publisher finds a printer, the files of the title get sent to the book manufacturer and they start printing the book. This is where pages, covers, and other materials get printed on paper. Sometimes there are only a few hundred copies printed and other times printers may make several thousand books.

Once the book gets printed, it gets sent through distribution networks to book stores, online retailers, fulfillment houses, and other entities that help sell the books to end users.

In this entire ecosystem, there are many players along the way that help play a part in getting a book from the author’s computer all the way to book shelves all around the country. Sometimes parts of the process may get skipped depending on demand for the book or resources of the author. For example authors may elect to only sell their title in a digital format in which printing may not be necessary. Other times authors may do much of the marketing and promotion of their book on their own. Social media and the internet have broken down many of the barriers that authors face in getting a book to market.