How we work. We have a process. We like it. It works.
Step one: The initial reading stage.
You: After we talk, you’ll email your manuscript to us in Word or Open Office. Do not include any formatting, like pagination, except to indicate chapter starts. We want to see what you consider to be your best effort, a manuscript as close to what you feel is your finished book as possible.
The submission should include an illustration list, organized by chapter, with a proposed caption.
We: We charge an $800 reading fee for manuscripts of up to 90,000 words. The reading will assess where we feel you are in the process. If we feel the manuscript needs more work, we’ll provide you with an overview of where those need-work places are. We will provide you with a style guide, identifying punctuation and grammar rules that you need to be aware of, because part of our goal is that you will be a better, more knowledgeable author when you walk out the door as you were when you arrived.
The purpose of the reading fee is to
- a) figure out whether or not we are a good fit for you, and, if so,
- b) to prepare a proposal to publish your manuscript.
The proposal will include fees for the services you’ll need, like working with your illustrations, creating a dynamic book cover, suggestions (if any) about the title, etc. The good news is that if we choose to move forward with you and your manuscript, that reading fee is taken right off the top.
How much does it cost to publish with us? Hard to say, but typically it’s in the $2500 to $6000 range.
If you decide to move forward, based on the publication proposal, we move to Step two: Pre-publication.
Step two: Pre-publication
At Orange Blossom Publishing we are firm believers in paper, so all our manuscripts are printed out and put in 3-ring binders. Illustrations are placed in the book at appropriate places. We do three edits of each manuscript: two paper edits and a third, final edit of the proof copy. These edits hammer out issues, identify loose ends, ensure that details are fact-checked, and so on. This is a collaborative process, with regularly scheduled conferences, and, at the same time, you are working through the various to-do checklists we will provide.
The pieces of the book come together like a puzzle.
After much discussion, we present you with two to three potential book cover designs for you to choose from.
While this is all happening, domain names are secured, a website is built, accounts are created, bios are written, and you are getting an updated head shot (no photos of you in high school!).
Once the proof copy has been edited and the final manuscript and cover are uploaded, we move into Step three: Marketing.
Step three: Marketing.
In this step, we identify all the potential audiences for your book, and we begin to market to those people. At Orange Blossom Publishing, we are big fans of meeting our readers, going eyeball-to-eyeball and toe-to-toe with them, whether through podcasts, video, or, our favorite—live book tour events.
Other options.
A second option. There is a second option, which encompasses a thorough edit only. This is the option people take if they are hell-bent on being published by a big-name publisher. The premise here is that the more complete and properly prepared your manuscript is when you submit it, the more chance that a) it’ll be accepted, and b) there’ll be fewer changes down the road. While everything is going to be correct when we’re finished, we do not bother with that final edit, since another publisher might have its own style, priorities, etc., and, besides, the other publisher needs to do something! Pre-publication editing is a good investment, but it’s the submitting process that’s the real bear.
Submitting to a large publisher is a time-sucking challenge, and we will put together an action plan that involves quite a bit of research to identify the publishers and their agents most likely to be interested in your work. For our clients who choose this option, we generally have a goal of 10-15 submissions.
There’s also a third option.
Rarely, but it happens, an author will submit a manuscript to us that really is more appropriate for another publisher. A recent example was a very interesting book for a certain collecting category, with a definite but very narrow audience. The book needed to be hardbound, the 100s of illustrations mostly needed to be full color—a coffee table kind of book. I knew exactly where that book should go: to a publisher that publishes books for niche collectors!
At the time, though, the manuscript was in such rough shape that the author did need a massive amount of help getting it ready to submit to this particular publisher. Whew.