Apparently there is more stuff that goes on after you sell your thinly-veiled account of your sex scandal than just waiting for the royalties to come rolling in. There is , like, editing and stuff. Elizabeth Spiers explores what exactly it takes to be a perfect author:

"Most publications do not change the lives of the people involved," adds another editor. "Sometimes when an author does well or about what you had expected, but Oprah did not appear and change everyone's fortunes, no beachfront property was purchased, and an author looks for someone to blame for the bad review in the New York Times. And [blaming the editor] tends not to be productive way to go."

And many authors simply don't understand what actually happens after their book is sold. "I think a lot of authors are surprised by how long the editing and production process usually takes and by how many people come on board in the publication of the book," says Muchnick. "Up until the book is acquired by a publisher, it has often only been read by a handful of people. Once the book is under contract, a whole host of people the author has never met are suddenly reading the book. For many authors, it's the first experience of letting go of their work and it can be both invigorating and terrifying."

"As far as the production process is concerned, there's usually some time that passes between when the contract is signed and when the author delivers his manuscript," Muchnick explains. "If a book was acquired as a partial manuscript or proposal, that time lapse is significant. Then, the editor edits it and sends it back for revision; this can go on for several rounds until the manuscript is deemed 'final' by the editor. From that point, the production cycle takes about nine months until the finished book is ready. Many authors are already on to their next project by the time the book in question is published; they have psychologically already left it behind, but now they have to gear up to do the publicity and promotion—to answer questions about the book, their characters, what inspired them to write it in a way that is fresh and interesting."