Tor's book publication process in detail

NervousEnergy wrote:http://www.tor.com/2016/01/13/winds-of-winter-book-publishing-process/

Some of y'all may have already read this, but if not it's a GREAT article on exactly what goes into that typical year of work at Tor between when an author turns in his completed draft and when the book hits the shelves, and how that process can (and has) been shortened and what kind of work that process compression entails.

This entire article was written to explain a blog post that GRRM made about his upcoming 'Winds of Winter' SoIaF book that his publishers could get the book out in 3 months. Not all of this is applicable to the MWW as his writing and editing style is different, but most of the discreet process steps stay the same, with the same time requirements.

It's a timely thing to bring up, with Himself stating that he 'has about a week of work left' on the next Safehold book. Note that while David sells well, he doesn't sell on the GRRM level, so it's doubtful Tor would execute all of those process-shortening contingency plans for AtSoT, but even if they can shave just a few months off we may still be looking at a February 2017 date.

Lunan wrote:That article is very interesting. and yes i could see tor also rushing a DW book. I'd love to see a reaction to this from say Toni as baen has historically been alot faster then many other publishers on turn around from turn in to paper product available in stores

NervousEnergy wrote:http://www.tor.com/2016/01/13/winds-of-winter-book-publishing-process/

Some of y'all may have already read this, but if not it's a GREAT article on exactly what goes into that typical year of work at Tor between when an author turns in his completed draft and when the book hits the shelves, and how that process can (and has) been shortened and what kind of work that process compression entails.

This entire article was written to explain a blog post that GRRM made about his upcoming 'Winds of Winter' SoIaF book that his publishers could get the book out in 3 months. Not all of this is applicable to the MWW as his writing and editing style is different, but most of the discreet process steps stay the same, with the same time requirements.

It's a timely thing to bring up, with Himself stating that he 'has about a week of work left' on the next Safehold book. Note that while David sells well, he doesn't sell on the GRRM level, so it's doubtful Tor would execute all of those process-shortening contingency plans for AtSoT, but even if they can shave just a few months off we may still be looking at a February 2017 date.

Louis R wrote:Baen is faster largely because they're smaller. They're doing fewer new books per month, which makes it easier to give each one the attention it needs at the sign-off level. They also tend to start many of the long-lead items well before turn-in, so when a manuscript is turned in six months prior to publication the cover art and design may well be finished and marketing and sales already under way.

Lunan wrote:That article is very interesting. and yes i could see tor also rushing a DW book. I'd love to see a reaction to this from say Toni as baen has historically been alot faster then many other publishers on turn around from turn in to paper product available in stores


[snip]

Peter2 wrote:I've always appreciated Baen's website, and one of my occasional pleasures when I've got half an hour or so to spare is to go through their catalogue and publishing schedule (and eARC list!). I've tried doing that to the TOR website on number of occasions, but I've found it much less rewarding.
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Louis R wrote:The ironic thing is that 15-20 years ago, Tor's site was arguably the best in the business. They even had links to all the other SFF publishers' pages - that's how I found Baen's Bar - and they posted sample chapters before Jim did it consistently. Unfortunately, that site was a side-effort of one employee, and when he left it collapsed.

Peter2 wrote:I've always appreciated Baen's website, and one of my occasional pleasures when I've got half an hour or so to spare is to go through their catalogue and publishing schedule (and eARC list!). I've tried doing that to the TOR website on number of occasions, but I've found it much less rewarding.
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Louis R wrote:Baen is faster largely because they're smaller. They're doing fewer new books per month, which makes it easier to give each one the attention it needs at the sign-off level. They also tend to start many of the long-lead items well before turn-in, so when a manuscript is turned in six months prior to publication the cover art and design may well be finished and marketing and sales already under way.

quote="Lunan" That article is very interesting. and yes i could see tor also rushing a DW book. I'd love to see a reaction to this from say Toni as baen has historically been alot faster then many other publishers on turn around from turn in to paper product available in stores

NervousEnergy wrote:http://www.tor.com/2016/01/13/winds-of-winter-book-publishing-process/

Some of y'all may have already read this, but if not it's a GREAT article on exactly what goes into that typical year of work at Tor between when an author turns in his completed draft and when the book hits the shelves, and how that process can (and has) been shortened and what kind of work that process compression entails.

This entire article was written to explain a blog post that GRRM made about his upcoming 'Winds of Winter' SoIaF book that his publishers could get the book out in 3 months. Not all of this is applicable to the MWW as his writing and editing style is different, but most of the discreet process steps stay the same, with the same time requirements.

It's a timely thing to bring up, with Himself stating that he 'has about a week of work left' on the next Safehold book. Note that while David sells well, he doesn't sell on the GRRM level, so it's doubtful Tor would execute all of those process-shortening contingency plans for AtSoT, but even if they can shave just a few months off we may still be looking at a February 2017 date./quote

Louis R wrote:Baen is faster largely because they're smaller. They're doing fewer new books per month, which makes it easier to give each one the attention it needs at the sign-off level. They also tend to start many of the long-lead items well before turn-in, so when a manuscript is turned in six months prior to publication the cover art and design may well be finished and marketing and sales already under way.

Thrandir wrote:Nice little article to pass the time with but honestly I would only use GRRM's GoT series to heighten the blaze in my log heater. Which is blasphemous for me to do this to a book.
I know GRRM work is selling but IMHO RFC is a far better writer than GRRM. I again think it is more the TV series that is fuelling his sales more than his writing.