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I noticed @DavidDidau and @MaryMyatt both did one of these recently, and I got jealous ... so a thread about my process of writing books.
The first and most important thing is the idea. It has to be something I am interested in and then it goes one of two ways.
If it's something I already know a lot about I sketch out the structure, and if it's something I've been presenting on, that will basically be already done. But if I don't know about the thing I'm gonna write about, I start reading.
With a type 'A' brain dump book, I will then follow the narrative of the training and consolidate anything I've ever written onto a single file. A type 'B' research book, I'll first read the major players/texts.
For a type 'A' book, I'll write up to 3000 words a day. For a type 'B' book, as I am researching, I will translate my thoughts on the key texts into a structure and then record these thoughts in writing. If I read an academic paper, I won;t start reading another one until ...
I've written my thoughts down on the first one. I'll then move onto the next gap in my knowledge by reading three further academic papers about the next area. Type 'B' books are much harder to write than type 'A'.
For a type 'B' book, once I've got a manuscript that holds water, I will then appoint an editor who is cleverer than me, and they will go over it telling me I am wrong about things and pointing me in direction of documents and books I should read.
I don't really bother with second and third drafts as I'm continually going over the manuscript and editing sections all the time I am writing.
Then it goes to the copy editor. I always use the same one because she is clever and funny. She makes haughty comments about my grammar and my poor subject verb agreement and tells me my referencing is shoddy.
Unlike David, I hate referencing and I leave dealing with the issues this throws up till the last possible moment, particularly, as with this latest book if it means reading the boring old turn Matthew Arnold again.
Once the copy editor has cut out three quarters of the swearing, we are good to go. I then moderate things that might upset people or make a decision that I don't mind upsetting them, and it goes to the publisher.
Then it has to be marketed. I hate that shit as it makes me feel as if I am begging.
Consequently, we don't market it. As a result of this it doesn't sell and I then do the same exercise all over again thinking "this time it'll be different."
