The Tip of the Iceberg

(image credit: activetimes.com)

Imagine an iceberg: while even what we can see of it is huge and imposing, the bulk of it is below the surface, hidden from view.

The iceberg is a metaphor for so very many things in life. A quick Google search for "iceberg infographic" reveals applications of this metaphor in practically every industry, as well as plenty of general infographics about the iceberg as a metaphor for success: What we, as outside observers, can see is only a tiny piece of all that exists below the surface, all of the hard work and discipline and failure that makes up the majority of a person's journey toward the pinnacle.

The path to publication is no different. When you hold a published novel in your hands and consider the work that went into its creation, you probably think of the obvious -- the author at his or her computer, spending endless hours writing and exponentially more hours revising and editing. 

As it turns out, that process -- the creation and then the refining of the manuscript -- is only a small piece of the puzzle, the "tip of the iceberg." What lies beneath that, below the surface, are a number of steps that most people never see or even think about, but are nonetheless essential to the process of getting a manuscript from the author's brain (or computer) to the bookshelves at Barnes & Noble or your local library.

Here's a brief rundown of the process (at least as I understand it at this point in time) and where I am in that process:

✔️ Write a draft of the novel. Spend many months rereading, revising, editing, and polishing the draft. 

✔️When it reads like a novel and is as close to error-free as possible, share the novel with some beta readers. In my case, beta readers were trusted people who are avid readers. They agreed to read my novel and offer feedback with the understanding that it was still a work-in-progress. At this stage, I was mostly looking for feedback about character development (eg. were there any characters that seemed underdeveloped, or character arcs that felt incomplete?), plot (any plot holes?), lingering questions or things that seemed unlikely or implausible.

        ⭐When I started writing the novel, I had no idea that beta readers were even a thing. They turned out to be a crucial part of the process. For one, their enjoyment of the book gave me the validation I needed to confirm that I was on the right path. But also, the things that they pointed out to me -- questions about character motivation, places where the plot seemed to move too quickly, scenes that needed to be drawn out more -- provided invaluable information to me about how to proceed with improving the manuscript.

✔️ Go "back to the drawing board" and make revisions and additions based on the feedback from beta readers. For me, this mostly meant adding to the book, filling in areas where beta readers said they'd like to see more. I added several new chapters to further develop some of the characters and plot points that my beta readers said were lacking. My manuscript then went back out to several rounds of new beta readers, who were able to provide feedback based on the most recent drafts. To give you an idea, the draft that went out to the first round of beta readers was about 70,000 words. My current draft is closer to 90,000.

✔️ Continue to polish and refine, over and over and over. This has been another important step for me. In my initial drafts, my primary focus was plot and character development. In these later stages, I've been focused on fine-tuning the prose. Since I am planning to market my novel as "upmarket" fiction (the middle ground between commercial and literary fiction), I want to make sure that the quality of the writing (word choice, descriptive language, literary elements) is up to snuff. I've been stuck on this step for awhile, as I discussed here in my post about perfectionism.

▢ When the manuscript is complete, the next step is to send query letters to literary agents. This is what I am preparing to do now. Literary agents are the intermediary between the author and the publishing houses; they represent the author and work on his or her behalf, but also have connections with publishing companies. Many of the larger publishing houses, including "the big five," will not accept manuscripts directly from authors, so obtaining an offer of representation from an agent is usually a key step in the process, and arguably the most difficult step as well. Literary agents receive thousands of query letters each year. From those, they will occasionally reach out to the author to request a full manuscript to read. If they like the manuscript and think the book will sell, they may make an offer of representation. Of the thousands of queries an agent receives each year, only a few will be offered representation from any given agent. 

        ⭐ Most authors have to query hundreds of agents before they receive an offer, and each agent has a different process for query submission -- some want only a query letter (which is simply a 1-page letter about the book with a short bio of the author), some want a query and the first ten, or twenty, or fifty pages of the book. Some want it emailed, some want it uploaded to an online query database, some want a hard copy. Each agent also has their own specialty area, and some have very specific genres that they are or are not looking for. Right now, I'm working on a spreadsheet of contact information and submission guidelines for agents who are seeking manuscripts similar to mine.

▢ Once an offer of representation is received (and again, this is can be a very long process), some agents will make editorial requests to the author to make the book more marketable. The author must then go back and make those changes before he or she can proceed with the agent.

▢ The agent then works on marketing the manuscript to publishing houses. If a publishing house is interested in the novel, the agent will help negotiate the contract on your behalf. 

▢ An editor from the publishing house will then work with the author to continue to make changes to the book as needed -- sometimes these changes are extensive.

Of course, there are many more steps beyond that, from marketing and promoting to cover design and printing, before the book hits the shelves.

This is obviously an over-simplified version of the sequence of events, and I'm sure there are also some exceptions to the rule. But overall, this is a general idea of how the process works and where I currently am in it. 

So the next time you hold a novel in your hands, consider the fact that its mere existence is something of a miracle -- yes, there is skill and talent and hard work involved, but there also need to be patience, persistence, and even a little luck. 🍀