A Manuscript Has Been Accepted! What's next?

The moment you’ve been dreaming about is suddenly a reality. You’ve scanned the email three times to be certain you read it right. You don’t remember seeing the word “unfortunately”… Your manuscript has been accepted!

What's next?

Obviously, first you should celebrate however way you like. A manuscript acceptance is huge for both author and publisher. No matter what comes next, an editor has chosen your manuscript over all of the others. That is incredible.

Let’s chat about what comes after that acceptance email at Asteria Press.

Your manuscript has been accepted! What's next?

Our acceptance emails are an invitation to join our adventure. We don’t expect a response to say, “say no more, sign me up!” At this point, you probably have a thousand questions and a big decision to make. We give every author an opportunity to meet us and chat through expectations and goals before anything is signed. Publishing is an incredibly personal venture and it is important that you gel well with your editing contact, marketing contact and everything in between contact. For us, this is an informal chat. For you, it is a chance to really put us in the hot seat! After the call, you can take your time to make your decision.

Contracts

You’ve decided to join the team! The next step is to make it official. Contracts aren’t the most glamourous component of publishing. But they are important. They protect everyone involved and are the centre piece for communicating expectations. Our contracts are informed by the Author’s Guild model contract. We encourage authors to read the contract carefully and ask any question they might have.

Let’s get to work!

Once everything is in place, we have a call to get the ball rolling. Here we will discuss expectations for timeframes, marketing angles and editorial considerations. By now, we have the process from the project launch to publication mapped out. This is our chance to let you know our plans for your manuscript. We also love to encourage any passion that authors might have outside of writing. While we do all the work in-house and don’t expect anything from our authors, we equally want to give authors the space to contribute as they feel excited to.

---

We hope you enjoyed the first instalment of our new Guiding Star content series. Whether you're an aspiring author, a new indie publisher, or just curious about the publishing world, come along with us as we share each step of the indie publishing process for our next cosy fantasy title. Packed with our learnings, tips and insights on editorial, design, and marketing, you’ll even have the chance to guide us in our journey as we bring our next publishing project to life.

Sign up to our newsletter below and follow us on social media to receive updates whenever a new post goes live.