A few months ago, I wrote a series on this blog about my experience getting my first book published. I was hoping to inspire some other professionals out there who might be thinking about writing a book of their own, and from the emails I received, it looks like it worked!

I submitted my final manuscript for Essentials of Corporate Fraud in September, and so a lot of my work is done until the book is actually out. But here’s what is happening in the meantime, the deadlines associated with it all, and my part in the production process.

  1. The manuscript was evaluated by Wiley personnel and determined that it was ready for production, and off it went to a production manager who assigned a production editor.
  2. A copyeditor was assigned, and she edited the manuscript for a consistent style. She also made sure that everything was understandable.
  3. Manuscript came back to me for a check of edit. I read everything to make sure that none of the edits changed the meaning of the material. I also answered any questions the copyeditor had. Here’s the important point: Once this is finished by me, I can’t add any content to the book. So as I was reading the manuscript, I added a few paragraphs to sections that I felt needed a little more. (It’s amazing the clarity you get when you step away from the book for a while and then come back.) But after this, any additional material costs Wiley big bucks to insert, so it is forbidden.
  4. The Wiley production editor reviews the manuscript and sends it for typesetting.
  5. I create an index of terms and their corresponding typeset page numbers.
  6. The typeset manuscript (also called pageproofs) is sent to me for final review. I am looking for any remaining typos or punctuation errors. At this time, a proofreader is also doing the same thing.
  7. Pageproofs and index are sent back to Wiley’s production editor, who makes the necessary corrections and does one final review of the book.

That’s it! Then the book is sent to the printer and it is published! Really, I’ve done all the hard work already.

Now onto promoting the book. That will take a lot of time, but I don’t mind at all. That’s the stuff I really like doing, and I’ll talk about that process in another post.

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