Every new book has a different history. There are outliers like that of Confederacy of Dunces, a brilliant work of comic fiction that turned out to be extremely popular, though its popularity failed to benefit the author; it was published after the author's death due to the sheer tenacity of the author's mother in finding a publisher and the keen eye of the editor who signed the title.

Most stories, however, are a lot more prosaic and involve a full-time writer producing a work under contract with a publisher in exchange for royalty payments. Here is the story of a book that was recently published by a major publishing house that will give some insight into how an emerging author gets published and the terms under which the author and the publishing company agree to work.

The author

Lori Soard had had articles and short stories published in magazines like Woman's World.

The manuscript

Her title Housebreaking A Husband was originally slated to be published as a downloadable book by Time Warner's iPublish program. Warner had edited the book and even created a cover for it when they decided to pull the plug on their entire e-books program. The rights for the book reverted back to the author.

The proposal

Lori had an edited book on her hand's so she simply printed off the first three chapters, wrote a cover letter and synopsis, and sent packages to five different publishers. Within three weeks, she had requests from four of the five for a full manuscript.

The agent

At this point Lori approached an agent she'd worked with on a couple of projects and asked her to represent her. The agent approached five publishers - Thorndike, Silhouette Romance, Avalon, Sierra Raconteur, and Warner Forever - and within two weeks of sending the full manuscripts out, it was sold to Thorndike. Their quick reaction was likely due to the fact that the book was already edited. (Editors normally take 12-20 weeks to review a manuscript they have asked to review.)

The contract

The agreement included a low four-figure advance and royalties of 10% with an increase in royalty payments as sales hit a certain number of books. The contract only covered hardcover rights; the agent felt there was still potential to sell paperback rights in a separate transaction.

The editorial process

The editorial process was also quick since the book had already been edited, rewritten, and professionally copy edited by Time Warner. (The length of editorial process varies greatly based on length, genre, and the publishing house).

The revisions took a week to make and then the copy editors took over and spend three more weeks going over the manuscript, passing it through to the production team to create galleys. The writer carefully went over the galleys and used some trusted readers to help catch small mistakes.

The design/production process

The publisher committed to an initial print run of 2,000-3,000 copies. Soard was allowed to review the cover before the book went to press.

The marketing process

The marketing department sent out advance copies of the book to reviewers and marketed it to libraries via their catalog and sales team. A positive review from Midwest Book Reviews was published in time for it to be included on the book's jacket.

Once published, the publisher worked with the author's publicist to handle other promotional efforts, which included an online book release party; online chat sessions; e-mail postcards sent to a fan list; cooperative promotions with other authors; and book signings and appearances at libraries and retailers.

The sales process

The book was priced at $26.95 and advance sales were so brisk that the author had earned out her advance by the time the book was released. Based on the advance sales, both publisher and author are optimistic the book is a winner.