etting your story to market through the traditional route—not by beating on a bowl, that is, but with the support of a publishing house—can take years of strenuous effort followed by rejection after rejection. Most writers are agonizingly aware of the miserable odds of getting their work accepted by a traditional book publisher; even the biggest publishing houses may only accept a dozen or so manuscripts a year for publication. And that's out of thousands of submissions, most of which get sent directly to the slush pile without even having been opened or read. It’s all sadly true.

If you've read this far, then you're likely familiar with those frustrating odds. And even if your manuscript is accepted, a traditional book publisher's schedule for a straightforward, well-written manuscript with no tables or artwork ranges from six to nine months or much more.

But there is an alternative! What you may have heard is that self-publishing is a much better route to getting published than the traditional publishing route. Through self-publishing you have total control of the quality of your final book, including control of the editing, proofreading, title, cover design, interior page design, marketing and, ultimately, of your book's entire publication schedule. (Do note, however, that all self-publishing costs are incurred by you, since you are the publisher.)

If you decide to self-publish, you will avoid the lengthy proposal, submission, review and acquisition processes required by mainstream book publishers, whose artistic, economic and even political considerations will always affect the acceptance or rejection of your manuscript. Once you've selected your own book editor and designer, your book could be ready for press (by a printer selected by you) within six weeks! But perhaps the most rewarding aspect of self-publishing will be your complete artistic control over your book.

Following are the basic editorial and production steps in the self-publishing process. Some or all of these steps may or may not apply to you, depending on the nature of your work:

• Your book manuscript is completed to your satisfaction, and you've chosen a book editor and book designer.

• You work with your editor to determine the type of editing required: structural, stylistic, copy editing or perhaps simply a proofread. Copy editing is most often requested in the spectrum of different types of manuscript editing. Click here for complete definitions of these editorial tasks.

• Manuscript editing is completed by the editor. A single editing pass will usually take two to four weeks, depending on complexity, the type of editing required and the length of the manuscript. You, the author, are enlisted for regular consultation. (Additional time will be needed for mailed-in, non-electronic submissions. Editing in this way is rare these days, but I will be happy do it if that’s what you prefer.)

• At the same time, you work with a book designer to create an appealing cover design and interior page and layout design, as well as to determine the viability of other aesthetic elements such as a press logo and promotional materials. A good designer will also help you acquire an ISBN number and take care of the details on the copyright page (CIP page).

• The edited manuscript is returned to you with tracked changes showing. (To learn how to use MS Word’s Track Changes reviewing/editing feature, click here to see instructions in one of my blog entries.)

• You approve and incorporate changes and corrections, and together you and your editor determine if a second editing pass will be a good idea. If so, the editor completes the second editing pass, returning it to you again for reviewing, approving and incorporating the changes.

• If the corrections have been made manually, either you or your editor will need to type them into the electronic document. I don’t fully recommend this process, as my experience shows that the chances of additional errors being introduced and incorporated into the final manuscript are high. However, you may have personal reasons for choosing this option.

• The MS Word manuscript file is sent to your book designer, who prepares the layout and does the typesetting. The result of this work is the page proofs.

• Your original book editor or another editor or proofreader (a fresh set of eyes doesn’t hurt!) proofreads the page proofs, and checks for any remaining errors, inconsistencies and layout problems.

• The proofread proofs are reviewed and approved by you.

• Your book designer inputs the changes to the proofs, then sends you a mock-up of your book for your final approval.

• Your manuscript editing is complete, and your clearly written and professionally designed book is ready to go to print!

Click here to read more about the advantages of self-publishing.