The Book Production Process
After your manuscript has completed the copyedit and any associated reviews and corrections, it will be transmitted to Production for design and print preparation. On the average, manuscripts of 500 pages or less will complete production and printing within about 16 weeks. Larger and more complex manuscripts will complete production and printing in up to 24 weeks. These turnaround goals are dependent on strict adherence to the following production timeline (variables dependent on size).
Page design: 3 to 5 weeks
Independent proofing and corrections: 2 to 3 weeks
Author's proofing: 10 days
Addition of author's corrections and reproofing: 1 to 2 weeks
Indexing preparation: 1 week
Final review and press preparation: 1 to 2 weeks
Printing and binding: 5 to 8 weeks
The Designer's Job
The book design artist will format your manuscript into book pages by transmitting the electronic file to a Quark page production process and adding design elements and typefaces to create a high-quality technical product. As your pages are taken through review stages, the designer will also incorporate all corrections into the final designed pages.
During this time, the designer also works with the marketing representatives and Managing Editor to create a cover design that will effectively communicate the book's topic to the reader. Your Managing Editor will seek your recommendations concerning appropriate cover themes and artwork. We welcome your input during this process.
Communicating with the Designer
All communication concerning page design and corrections should be conducted through the Managing Editor, unless otherwise arranged. This will insure that all changes are made with the necessary editorial and marketing approval. At times it is necessary for an in-depth conversation between the author and the designer, usually concerning electronic artwork issues. If this need arises, your Managing Editor will make arrangements for the author to communicate directly with the designer.
Proofing Your Designed Pages
During the production stage, your pages will go through three reviews. The first is immediately after the initial page designs, when your pages will go to a professional independent proofer for review. The proofer's corrections will be returned to the designer and added to the page design.
Second is the author proofing. You will receive a copy of the designed pages for a 10-day review. During this period, it is important that, in addition to reviewing text, you check all artwork, tables, equations, and subheads to insure that all elements are correct and in the right location. Your equations and subheads should all be in their original location in the text. However, you may see some artwork or tables that are not positioned exactly in their original locations. This will usually be due to page design limitations, but we make every effort to locate artwork and tables as closely as possible to their text references for reader convenience.
If your book contains equations or chemical symbols, note that occasionally some of these symbols do not translate correctly from Word to the Quark production program. In those instances, you will see that the program will leave a "box" or an alternate symbol (usually something foreign to math or chemistry) in place of the mistranslation. It is our goal that these mistranslations will all be noted and corrected during the initial proofing. However, we ask the author to keep an eye out for them as well, as he or she will know the equations best.
Again, please keep your managing editor notified of your travel schedule during the production process, so that we can make arrangements to keep your page reviews on schedule.
Once the author review is completed, those corrections will also be added to the designed pages. At that point, the final pages will go through a third review by the Managing Editor for any final corrections before the pages are prepared for indexing.
What Can and Cannot Be Corrected in This Stage
Once again, all significant content alterations should be complete at the manuscript stage. Our expectation is that the various proofing stages will reveal any remaining typographical or mistranslation errors. It is also common for the author to see the need for occasional word or phrase alterations, table realignments, or similar small corrections.
However, it is very difficult to make any significant reorganizations or content changes at the design stage. Heavy alterations at this stage could dramatically change everything that comes after the area effected and should only be made with close consultation between the author, the sponsoring editor, and the designer.
We will make every effort to insure that the final product will include all components that the author and editor consider necessary, but it is critical that these changes should be added before the page design stage. Otherwise these changes can be both expensive and time consuming, resulting in potential charges against author royalties should the changes have a major impact on the production budget.
Review and Return Schedules
According to your contract, you will have up to ten days to complete your design review and return any comments or questions. Make sure that you keep your Managing Editor informed in advance of any travel plans or other schedule hindrances during this period. Since the design is tied to a tight production schedule, we might even send your edited manuscript to you during domestic or overseas travel, if necessary.
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