Actually, the real thanks here is to Veronica Roth, author of the YA bestseller Divergent, whose blog was tweeted by someone I follow. Yesterday, Roth posted a great piece on her website, “A Peek Behind the Publishing Curtain,” which outlines the various milestones in the publishing process from acquisition to publication. It’s one of the most clear, readable dissections I’ve seen on how a book gets made, and it does a great job of answering the question every exasperated writer asks at some point—why the *$%#? is this taking so long?!?!

(One caveat: Roth writes from the perspective of a highly successful author whose next book is already under contract. So, for the first-timer, I would replace Step 1 with the submission process, which likewise can anywhere from a few months to over a year. And then, once the book finds a home, an editor will basically treat the manuscript like a rough draft, so the rest of the schedule holds up.)

In particular, I love how Roth focuses on the physical aspects of bookmaking. I always think it’s important for authors to keep in mind that regardless of content, in Econ 101 terms a book is a manufactured product, and so it’s great how Roth shows that production issues like paper weight and shipping necessarily contribute to the time lag. I also like how she sums up the interplay between sales and manufacturing, and that there actually is some method for arriving at the number of copies that are printed.

So, if you ever find yourself at that point of screaming in frustration that your book still hasn’t seen the light of day, reread Roth’s piece and see where you are in the process. It will probably explain things more clearly that the fumbling apologies of your editor (or agent)!

As Michael mentioned, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ve heard repeatedly about the oncoming death of publishing. Audio books were declared dead. Fiction was declared dead. And the printed word in general? That’s died and come back more times than I can count. Publishers shuffled and reshuffled their imprints. Hundreds of people were laid off. Many of them abandoned publishing as it was going to pot. They were replaced by younger versions of themselves, some of whom are already abandoning ship to get into a more secure industry. Others will stick around forever. Erotica was going to be the next big thing for about half a second. Vampires were declared “over” before Twilight even hit the shelves. Chick-lit was all anyone was buying until no one would touch it. Several books that went to auction for six-figures were called “the last of a dying breed.” The plight of the midlist author was talked about endlessly by any midlist author whose books weren’t succeeding. And in this exact moment, ebooks are changing everything about everything. Except that they aren’t. The publishing industry has always existed to get work from authors to readers in its best and most profitable form. The heart of the industry was never in printing costs and paper stock—it was in the distribution of words and ideas. And listen, while I trust the internet for a lot of things, I don’t think crowdsourcing slush piles will be an effective way of deciding what books break out and what gets lost to the ether.

Long story short, I work in an industry that looks and feels different than it did ten years ago, but the essentials remain the same. I’ll keep looking for great books and working with authors to build the most creatively and financially successful careers that they can have.

Now, what does this have to do with books? Well, I found this awesome video on The Huffington Post this morning from 1947 that shows how books were made nearly 65 years ago. True, the narration is a little hokey, and it’s groan-inducing to see which roles are assigned to men and which go to the “girls.” But check out all the moving parts! Sheets of molten copper! In particular, I love the trimming device that shaves the edges off the pages—so ingenious. I just wish they told us what the finished book was!

On a more practical level, I hope that in this age of ebooks this video provides just a little more ammunition/inspiration for print lovers not to give up the fight just yet. During my editorial career, I was lucky to visit the printer/binder a few times, and each trip was a great reminder of how much work, care, and physical manipulation goes into making each and every book you hold in your hands. True, there are far fewer print-shop workers today than in 1947, and the typesetting is mostly done by computers. But the printers still have the big rollers, the sewing machines, the glue bindery, and lots of other heavy equipment, all housed in cavernous, noisy factory spaces like they were way back when.

So check out the video, or if you can, take a tour of a printer near you—better yet, take along your kids. Not only will it reaffirm the wonder and value of the printed page, but it’s a great opportunity to see some really cool machines in action!

A recent post over at MobileRead led me to this amazing graphic about how books are made–not the editorial stuff, but rather how a physical book is taken from digital file to printed copies. It’s quite educational, and very, very geeky. When I shared the link with Lauren, her reaction was the same as mine: it looks like a Richard Scarry book! And like Mr. Scarry’s A Day at the Airport would keep me occupied for hours, I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time with this!