From the outside, publishing looks simple. A book appears. A cover is revealed. An announcement goes out.
Behind the scenes, it’s a different story.
At Stories Rule Press, a large part of what we do never shows up on a product page. It happens in drafts, revisions, production schedules, layout passes, and quiet hours spent refining text so the reading experience feels seamless.
Books move forward in stages. There’s the creative stage, where stories are built. There’s the editorial stage, where clarity and structure are strengthened. There’s production, where formatting, design, and technical details come together. Each stage is essential. None of them are flashy.
But they’re what turn a manuscript into a book readers can hold, download, or open on a screen.
Some weeks are heavy on that behind-the-scenes work. It may not look dramatic from the outside, but it’s where quality is protected and projects stay on track.
Publishing isn’t just about launch days. It’s about the steady, careful work in between — the part that ensures when a book finally reaches readers, it’s the best version it can be.
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Mark Posey
SRP Author and thriller writer.
Mark writes thrillers for readers who don’t mind a little dirt under the nails — stories with emotional weight, lean prose, and characters who rarely do the right thing for the right reason. His work lives somewhere between noir, revenge fantasy, and literary grit, though he avoids calling it any of those because that sounds like marketing.
When he’s not writing fiction, Mark also works as a professional editor and story consultant. His editing blog offers straight talk for indie and traditionally published authors alike — especially the ones who are tired of being told to “find their voice” by people who can’t define what voice is.
He believes in clarity over cleverness, clean narrative over trend-chasing, and that semicolons are fine, but you probably don’t need as many as you think.
He lives in Canada, which explains the politeness, but not the sarcasm.
You can find him online at MarkPoseyAuthor.com, where he blogs about writing, editing, story structure, and whatever else is on fire this week. His books are published through Stories Rule Press, an independent publisher of genre fiction with strong characters and sharp writing.
