In an ideal world, an author would write a book and a publisher would make it available to its audience within a few weeks.

This ideal world exists if you self-publish.

Or, if your book is so topical that it has to be an instant publication – or it won’t be worth publishing at all.

But for most of the time traditional publishing is a slow process.

Here are some of the reasons:

Retailers and especially chain stores and supermarkets need time to plan their seasonal and monthly promotions and they ask publishers for information including cover designs and marketing plans many months in advance of publication.

Publishers are selling to retail buyers as well as end-readers so they have to ensure their formats, prices and cover designs will work for every market if they want to achieve the highest number of pre-orders.  That requires a lot of discussion both internally and externally.

Export markets want to publish simultaneously so time has to be allowed for everyone to have the information they need to circulate to their customers overseas and to have the books shipped to them.

Some books are seasonal and are best published at particular times of the year  e.g. humour books and serious biographies for Christmas gifts and escapist fiction for summer holiday reading

Schedules have to be adjusted for some titles if it looks as if they will have particularly fierce competition from similar books scheduled in the same month or the same season.

Some authors run late with their books or have to do more work after they have delivered their typescripts and may need more time than they have available.

Some editors receive a number of books to be edited all at the same time and each book has to wait their turn.

I could go on but you get the gist.

Traditional publishing is a very personal experience.  It is not something that can be delegated to a machine.  It is very labour-intensive and to publish a book well requires a lot of time, effort and energy to maximise the sales potential of each individual title.

I am sure there will be ways to speed it up in future.

But please remember that publishers also have to keep their retail customers happy.

Although online sales of books and e-books are growing fast, more books are still being bought in retail stores and supermarkets.

Until these outlets speed up their own systems and processes, publishers have no choice but to keep their retail customers happy by accommodating all their wishes.