So You’ve Written a Book. What the Hell Do You Do Now?

You’ve written a book.

Or half a book. Or 47,000 words, three notebooks, six random scenes on your phone and something called FINAL_VERSION_7_REALLY_FINAL.docx.

Now what?

These are some of the questions people ask us about getting a book from whatever state it is currently in to something a reader can actually buy.

The short answer: a finished or unfinished manuscript can still need editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design, sales information and technical preparation before it becomes a published book. Mills & Burch helps accepted authors work through those stages—including the peculiar little obstacle course known as Amazon KDP.

Do I Need to Finish My Manuscript Before I Contact a Publisher?

Not necessarily.

Some people come to us with a completely finished manuscript. Others arrive with a good story buried underneath something that needs quite a bit of work.

And some basically arrive carrying a literary box of Lego.

That’s okay. What matters is whether there’s a book in there worth building.

What Happens After I’ve Finished Writing My Book?

This is the bit nobody thinks about while they’re happily writing Chapter Four.

Finishing the story isn’t the same as finishing the book. It may still need editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design, descriptions, publishing information and preparation for sale.

Then somebody has to deal with Amazon.

Which brings us neatly to…

Is Amazon KDP Easy to Use?

HAHAHAHA.

Amazon KDP is brilliant because it allows independent publishers and authors to make books available around the world.

It can also be an absolute arse to deal with.

Margins. Bleed. Trim sizes. Cover dimensions. File errors. Mysterious warnings. Something being rejected because apparently one microscopic thing somewhere has offended Amazon.

Then you fix it. Amazon finds another thing.

This is why Mills & Burch has a KDP master. Authors don’t need to spend an evening shouting at a PDF because Amazon has decided page 173 is three molecules too close to something.

We deal with it.

Can Someone Turn My Notes Into a Proper Book?

Potentially, yes.

A book doesn’t always begin as a beautiful manuscript. It might begin as memories, notes, diary entries, an unfinished story or an idea someone has been carrying around for years.

Part of publishing can be identifying what is actually there, finding the structure and helping turn it into something people will want to read.

You don’t have to understand publishing before you approach a publisher. That’s rather the point of having one.

How Much Does It Cost to Publish With Mills & Burch?

For manuscripts we accept, there is a one-off £100 commitment fee.

We’re selective about what we take on because producing a book properly takes real time and work. The commitment fee helps cover part of that work while keeping the initial cost far below many assisted-publishing packages.

If the book becomes a bestseller under the terms of our Bestseller Refund agreement, that commitment fee is refunded.

You can read more about the process on our publishing services page.

Can You Help Publish a Children’s Book?

Yes.

Children’s books bring their own collection of headaches. Illustrations need to work with the text. Page sizes matter. Spreads matter. Text placement matters.

And then Amazon gets involved again.

Everybody wave at Amazon.

We handle children’s books as well as adult fiction and non-fiction, and the process is adapted to suit the individual book.

Do I Have to Promote My Own Book?

Yes.

We’ll promote our books too, but authors need to be involved.

Publishing a book and then putting one copy on your shelf while waiting for the population of Britain to somehow sense its existence isn’t a particularly effective marketing strategy.

Tell people about it. Share it. Talk about why you wrote it.

Be proud of the bloody thing.

We can make the book available. Readers still need a reason to discover it.

What If I Don’t Know Whether My Book Is Good Enough?

Send it.

Seriously.

You don’t need to decide whether we’ll accept it before you let us see it. That’s our job.

We would much rather look at an interesting, imperfect manuscript than have someone sit on a potentially brilliant idea for another ten years because they thought publishers expected perfection.

We don’t. We expect stories.

The polishing comes afterwards.

So How Do I Publish My Book?

Start by letting somebody read it.

If you’ve got a finished manuscript, an unfinished manuscript, a children’s story, a memoir, a strange idea or a collection of notes that you’re convinced might be a book if somebody clever could sort the bloody thing out, that’s enough to start a conversation.

You write the story. We’ll help work out what comes next.

And when Amazon KDP decides it doesn’t like something…

we’ll send in the KDP master.