Clicking back to last week’s post, I’ve decided to pursue independent publishing, and am intending to publish my book in May of 2027. The grand plan is to build a level of momentum to publish two books a year, but a lot of these processes require infrastructure, of which I currently do not have. With all of that said, here is a rough timeline of everything I am gearing up for in writing and publishing my book:
July 2026, 10 months out: Hire a developmental editor to work through some of the rougher patches. Followers of Mehek Writes will know that I have been trying to write and re-write this manuscript for the better part of 7 years(has it really been that long?). While each draft has gotten *better*, by no means am I an expert, and at this point, I am too close to the story to see anything wrong with it. So, my hope in hiring a developmental editor is to work out some of the things that need help. For example, because I am publishing young adult, I would want the manuscript to be at least 60k words, and it is currently 48k. I also come from a profession that values brevity in its writing, and I have gotten accustomed to writing the least amount to convey a point. Great for my profession, not great for writing a book.
August 2026, 9 months out: Finalize some key elements of publishing. Right now, I have a couple of decisions to make. Do I publish via e-pub, where the book is available through all e-readers as a downloadable file, or do I publish via kindle unlimited, where there is a level of exclusivity needed for the title, but the potential to make more overall due to user base? I don’t know the right answer to this question, but I am hoping to figure that out.
September-October 2026, 7-8 months out: Work through the developmental edits that were provided to me, incorporate feedback, and ensure that I am happy and satisfied with the story. Followers of my social are also aware that I am writing a second book(because I apparently have no desire for sleep or free time).
November 2026, 6 months out: Finalize budget, and all necessary purchases to support the publishing of the book. While I don’t need to have everything purchased by this point, I do need to make sure I know how much everything is before publishing. At this point, I also need to commission a cover and art to be used for this project. At this point, I need to send the book back out for beta reads as a final walk through of whether it needs anything else added or fixed.
December 2026, 5 months out: Develop a marketing plan. Because I am doing this all on my own, I need to market like I am on fire to get the word out. Part of the previous months work is also going to be deciding whether I have the bandwidth to hire an arc management team, and some support on content pulling, and maybe content creation? We’ll see whether I have the budget. At this point, I also need to do a line edit, because I would hate to start content pulling and then have to change things.
January 2027, 4 months out: Happy New Year, time to market, and market, and market some more. An official pub date, title reveal, cover reveal, character reveal, and so much more(someone remind me to put the book up on Goodreads and Storygraph, I will forget). I have some exciting ideas for marketing, but that also means having the time, energy, and bandwidth to do all of this, hence deciding whether I hire some of this out.
February 2027, 3 months out: Start driving pre-orders, adds to goodreads and storygraph, and figuring out what’s working with book marketing and keep doing it.
March 2027, 2 months out: Finalize all of the book formatting for e-pub, prints, etc. I am hoping to do some form of physical pre order campaign with merch, so ordering that at this point will be important as well. Really, keeping all of this organized is going to be at least half of the fun. I should also start planning a pub release day party at this point? I should have one of those.
April 2027, 1 month out: Final marketing push for adding, hype, pre-orders, everything. I will be uploading the book at this point to whatever digital platform it needs to go out through, and make sure all those pre-orders(wishful thinking here) are packed and ready to go.
And then in May, my book will be out. This timeline, this list, and everything about this is nonexhaustive. I am sure people on the internet have made videos and written many blog posts on this topic. But for me, I wanted to write this out to keep some accountability, and also to calm my nerves. This is exciting! But it’s also a little scary. And a little scary is okay, but sometimes, having a plan helps.
Discover more from Mehek Writes
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
