Saturday, September 25, 2010

Publishing News

The Review Process

The review process is one of the most important parts to getting your book published . It is also complicated. For starters, one has to identify at least three people who could be potentially good reviewers for a particular manuscript. After shortlisting the names, the commissioning editor needs to call and convince reviewers to take on the job. Most decline because of (a.) paucity of time and (b.) The  pay is peanuts. So, commissioning editors play the prestige card to get the reviewers onboard. After all if the book does well eventually - the reviewer can put the role he played in the success in his CV!!

The process is blind - which means that the potential reviewer is not told in the beginning who the author is. So , the manuscript is reviewed purely on merit. Typically , the book takes 3-6 months to review. The reviewer studies the manuscript and writes his comments down.

Once the commissoning editor receives the review, she examines it. A very positive or a totally negative review will always lead the editor to seek a second opinion from another subject specialist.

Once satisfied of the publishing potential of the manuscript , the publishing house formally accepts to publish the book and issues a contract to that effect.

So , what are the factors that determine the publishing potential of any manuscript?

We'll talk about it next week. Watch this space!!!



P.S. Editors looking for help in the review process can contact us at publishbyreview@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment