Embracing Every Aspect of Independent Publishing

It’s always nice to get a little bit of perspective. Personally, I quite enjoy finding new ways to look at things, and after attending the 2025 Fantasy/Sci-Fi Author Summit online this year, I had a thought that I hadn’t had in years. 

When I was a kid - particularly when I was in middle school and I took my first financial literacy class - I loved the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. I wanted to be someone who started her own business, and even at that age, I was driven by the idea of doing so. 

Since I was a little girl, I always loved to write; and I’ve mentioned in other posts that I was stapling books together since before I could spell. However, when I was in middle school, this idea left me for a time, and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my career. 

Now, I know that I’ve been taking my writing and publishing very seriously. Over the last year, I went from publishing one book per year, hyping it up a little bit upon release, and leaving it alone until my next book came out, occasionally taking courses when I had the time… to having several books ready to release within the year, actively scheduling and marketing consistently, investing money into my craft, and making time to learn and grow. Taking the craft more seriously has allowed me the opportunity to consistently make sales, host author events, and get my book on the shelves of several bookstores. It truly has been a journey.

After attending this most recent author summit, I realized… I am an entrepreneur. How cool is that?

Anyway! Today, I wanted too share the process I go through from concept to final published work. So, without further ado, here is every part of the process that each of my books goes through. 

Idea Phase

• Conception - This is where I get the initial idea. It’s usually just a glimpse of an idea at first, and how strong a pull that initial idea has on me determines whether or not I think I’ll ever do anything with it.
• Quick jot - If I really like the idea, I’ll take a moment and make a note in my phone about the very quick story concept and any major conflicts that come to mind. 
• Simmering period - Most often, when I get an idea for a story, I’m already working on another project, so most of my ideas have a cool-down period. For me, this is extremely helpful, because when I do come back to the idea, I get to see if I was just excited in the moment, or if there’s something more to this one. 

Drafting Phase

• What If’s and Outlining - During my outlining stage, I write down major aspects to my main characters I want to incorporate, major plot points and conflicts, and I like to write a rough idea of what will happen near the end of the story. I don’t always complete my outline before I start writing. In fact, most often, I actually outline as I work on my first draft, and the two are completed side by side. 
• Drafting - This is the part where I write the first draft of the book. I know a lot of people who really struggle with this part, because they focus too much on what they want their end product to be. I totally get that. It took me five years to write my first book, and it still wasn’t what I wanted it to be by the time I published it. So now, I take my first draft as an opportunity to spit the words out as quickly as possible. Once the story is out of me and on the page, then I can begin refining it.
• Research - As I work on the draft, I may do some research outside of my writing time. Often, however, I try to do my research when I start editing, and I leave myself notes for what I’ll need to research
• Note leaving - As I work on my first draft, I try not to stop if I can help it. I try not to go back and add things in or edit a single thing. My one goal with my first draft is to get the story written. But there are often times where I know something is missing or something needs to be fixed or reworded or removed as I’m drafting. Rather than stopping to do that right now, I make a note that starts with OKAY BREY… leave the suggestion, and come back later. 

Refining Phase

• Quick edit - Once the first draft is complete, I go through my manuscript and quickly address every note I left myself. This is where I add things in, reword things, make whatever changes those notes recommend.
• Developmental editing - At this point in the process, I bring someone else in to read through what I have. This person makes suggestions for how to make the story better, how to improve the flow, fix plot holes, address dialogue issues, etc. With developmental editing often comes - for me - a full developmental rewrite.
• Quick edit - Especially if I’ve done a full rewrite to address developmental edit suggestions, I like to go through the document again and check for glaring errors.
• Copyright submission - At this point, I feel I’ve got my story in pretty decent shape. Before I send it off to more people to get their hands on it, I submit my work for copyright with the Library of Congress.
• ISBN registration - This is also a good time for me to register my book with an ISBN. I haven’t always purchased my own ISBN’s, but I do now, and it’s been a very worthwhile expense.
• Beta reading - Then, I send my book off to more people who will look at the book and tell me what I can do to make the story even better. 
• Beta read implementation - During my beta read implementation, I put in many of the suggestions made by my beta readers to improve the story. 

Design Phase

• Cover design - I mention often that I’m a huge fan of every part of the process, so over the years, I’ve worked to learn how to do every part of the process. This includes designing the cover. I often start this process as soon as I start my drafting phase. I start messing around with cover ideas and sketching things out. Each time my book goes into the hands of someone else (like my beta readers or my developmental editor), I work on my cover or other graphics.
• Graphic design - This is the point in the process that I start designing other graphics. I decide what graphics I want to include within the book, and get working on those. I start designing my chapter headers, any page break designs, and any other design I want for the book. If I want to include a map within the book - like I did for Bound and Severed, I usually start with a quick sketch and work on that as I go, much like I do with the cover design.
• Formatting - At this point, I’m ready to actually format the book. I create front and back matter, choose my fonts and spacing, adjust margins, add page numbers and headers, add graphics, etc. Basically anything that will make the manuscript look like a finished book, I put together in this step.

Polishing Phase

• ProofREADING and Line editing - Once my book is all pretty and formatted, I like to go in and do my final, huge edit. I read through the entire book one sentence at a time. I reword things, add or delete sentences or details, check punctuation, capitalization, spelling, word choice, etc. 
• ProofREADING implementation - Then, I go back through the entire book and put every single edit into the final manuscript. 
• Submission - At this point in the process, I upload my manuscript and finished cover into my chosen publishing platform(s). I work through all the metadata (using keywords and descriptions to show readers what they will be reading - as well as helping readers to find​ the book in the first place). I choose the price, decide what marketplaces I would like to sell in, add my barcode, and submit my stuff.
• Proofing - Once my submission is approved, I order a physical proof copy so that I can look it over and make sure the final product is exactly how I want it to be. Often, I have to make little tweaks here and there, and resubmit, but once it looks good, I approve it for distribution. 

Marketing Phase

• Initial hype - I start marketing my book really early, often when I’m still writing the first draft. I like to let my readers know that I’ve got a story cooking, and update them as I progress through all the stages listed above. 
• Marketing - Once my book is getting closer to launch, I start posting about characters, tropes, share title and cover reveals, and try to engage the community. 
• Book launch - This is the part where I’m actually getting ready for the book to release. I order author copies, run giveaways, contact bookstores, schedule signings, etc. This is a really fun part of the process for me! 
• Upkeep - After the book has launched, I try to keep some of the momentum. Lately, this has been by sharing with people what I’m up to - especially when it comes to events I participate in. 

And that’s about it. As you can see, I’m always working on something, and many of these phases intertwine with each other. I have absolutely adored this journey, and now I’ve got a proven system that allows me to put out more work in shorter amounts of time without sacrificing quality. I hope you enjoyed reading this longer post. As always, reach out if you have any questions, and have a lovely rest of your long weekend!