Book Proposal

A book proposal is a pitch of your book that you submit to a publishing company to convince them to publish your book. Each publishing company has its own template for proposals, but they often include a summary of your book, sample chapters, a marketing plan, and a section comparing your book to similar works.

Get Published

This step can take a very long time. You will submit and be rejected many times. Kate DiCamillo, who is now worth $10 billion, was rejected 473 times. Eventually you will get accepted. Keep trying!

Sale

How much you make can depend a lot on if you published the traditional way or self-published. Authors that published the traditional way can expect to earn 10% to 12% royalties on their books while self-published authors can earn 40% to 60%. There are pros and cons to each option but either way you’re finally making money. Now it’s time to get started on your next book.

Deliver to Stores

Now the books are packed tightly in boxes and shipped to stores. Like all other mail, books can travel on trucks, planes, and boats to reach their final destination. USPS offers Media Mail, which is a cheap although slower way, to ship books and other physical media.

Print

The pages of the books are printed in sections separate from the cover. The sections are then ordered using barcodes that are cut off after assembly. Finally the cover is attached. You have a printed book! Hurray!

Graphics by Alyssa Wang