Planning is the most important stage of the publishing process as without sufficent planning and understanding of each stage of the process the whole thing can unravel into a stressful mess very, very quickly.

Writing a book doesn't have to be a difficult process, infact it can quite easily be done in less than 7 days. What you need to decide though is not how easy it is but who is going to do it. Do you want training to ensure your book is written in less than 7 Days or do you want a Ghost Writer to do it for you.

Editing is the second stage of the publishing process and has 2 key elements. The first is editing which can involve rewriting something you have already written to make your book flow more smoothly. The second is proofreading which is purely correcting anything incorrect from a spelling or grammatical point of view.

Illustration is an essential stage for every publishing project. It is not just for children's books nor is a traditional hand drawn illustration the only option. What visual elements do you want to use to break your text up? Photos, Charts, Diagrams, Pull Quotes, Checklists... the options are endless. There is nothing more boring then reading page after page of plain text.

Design is the one of the most exciting stages of the publishing process as it is when all previous stages (your edited text and your illustration elements) come together to show you for the first time exactly how your book is going to look. There are 2 stages in book design, the first is book cover design and the second book content design and both need to be handled very differently from both a design and marketing point of view.

Registration is the legal stage of the publishing process. This step is essential to make your book both legal and saleable. Better yet it instantly gives your book credibility as when someone turns you book over and sees a barcode they recognise that your book is in fact a book and not just a printed publication.

Production, printing (or publishing as it is most commonly known) is the stage of the publishing process that people are most farmiliar with. Why because it is literally when you book is published or produced in book format. But what is book format? and how do you want your book to look? Printed book, ebook, Audio book, eaudio, Video Book, evideo... there are so many options to choose from but how do you decide which option (or combination of options) is best for you and your book.

DISTRIBUTION

There are 3 diferent methods of distributing a book and many different ways of doing each. The first is self distribution, the second online distribution and the third bookstore distribution.

	Self Distribution is active (meaning it requires your time to sell your book) but is also free to set up, low risk and has high returns.
	Online Distribution is passive (meaning you can make a sale without needing to be there at the time) has some set up costs involved cost but is also low risk and has high returns.
	Bookstore Distribution is a combination of the two (meaning you don't need to be there to make a sale but when you are involved eg. printed or broadcasted media attention) you sell more. It has some set up costs involved but is high risk and has low returns.

Depending on why you decided to publish a book in the first place will determine which distribution method or combination of methods is right for you.

Coaching is the second most important stage of the publishing process as just like planning was essential to ensure smooth sailing of your book up to this point in time, coaching is essential to ensure smooth sailing well into the future.

Your book has been successfully published and distributed but how can you make sure it stays that way? Do you want to repeat the process and bring out a second book or the same book in a second format? What are you going to do to keep your target market interested and get them to purchase from and recommend you time and time again?