Fantasy Book Publishing - My First Meeting With the Publisher

(and what I learned)

Today I had a pleasure (and a panic attack) to experience my first call with the publisher. We already have a contract signed and agreed on the Pub Date (Halloween 2025).

If you are interested in what to look out for in publishing contracts - I already made a post about that.

I won’t lie - I didn’t know what to expect out of the call. I was nervous, because this is my first novel, and I don’t really know the process. But this call was made exactly for that reason. So, if you want to know everything about the book publishing process… Here’s my experience with the first call:

Introduction

I already discussed some details with the publisher beforehand. My person is called John and he is HILARIOUS. At the beginning of the call he explained to me that this particular call is to inform me about the processes behind my book publishing. It is also a good moment to ask all the questions. I was also informed that during the second call we will be discussing Marketing… so stay tuned for that one.

So… During the first call John has shown me the overview of the books they are publishing this year. I got to know that most of the publishing houses are “theoretically 2 months ahead at work”, so at this point (31st January) they have everything ready for the books that are supposed to be published by 31st of March. They are now working on April ones (or… finishing the work on those).

My book is scheduled to be published on (oh, so glorious date of) 31st of October 2025. This means that I will be contacted by my editor somewhere in June, and we’ll spend 2 months working hard not only on grammar, typos, etc. But also developmental stuff and plot holes.

Somewhere in late June/early July a designer will contact me regarding the cover design. Later I will work with another designer to set up my “page layout” and interior design of the book. My brother works hard on small graphics that will be included as well. He got a deadline of “by the end of March”.

All of which should be ready by 31st of July, when we are supposed to start the pre-orders. I will also get my digital ARC (Author’s Review Copy), as well as some printed copies that I will be able to distribute to people I want to get endorsements and reviews from.

After this we may still find some errors, and therefore I will have time until September 23rd to make the final changes (and add those endorsements to the cover and inside of the book!).

After 23rd of September - it is over. No more changes. Books get printed, sent to the interested bookstores, etc. Ready for a pub date.

My current goal? Sell 2.000 books during pre-sale.

What will I do until editor messages me though? June is far away!

So, during the next months I will be working on setting up all the social media platforms, Substack, website, etc. to fit the topic of my book. I like to keep things clean so I will separate my social media from the book-only things.

I will work on bookstagram/booktok content, create a ton of pictures, videos, and sneak peaks… There will be a separate playlist on Spotify, Pinterest for mood boards, extra chapters for those, who sign up for a newsletter, etc.

I’m generally planning on using all of my social media and marketing knowledge to make this book a HIT.

I will also keep working on the part 2 of the series. I am about halfway there. Why? Because the moment I sell 2.000 copies - my publisher wants to start working on book 2. To get it out faster than the first one. Which will probably make my readers happy considering how my beta-readers look at me awaiting the next chapters.

What’s next?

Next I am going to have the marketing call during which we will be discussing the best practices and brainstorm what I am planning on doing. While I made myself *checks notes* 3 pages of to-do list followed by *checks again* 4 pages of my marketing plan…

This starts to look overwhelming…

Where was I? Ah, yes. Marketing call.

We will discuss what makes the most sense for me, my existing (and new) audience as well as the next steps on our journey. This will be happening next week, just to make things clear.

I will probably make a more detailed to-do list after that call and share all of the things I have done (as well as how I have set them up, and why like that) here on Substack :)

I’m excited to see you follow along.

If you have any questions, comments, or just wanna say hi - please leave a comment! They are much appreciated!

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