book production 


Planning Your Book Project

Producing a book is a complex process that takes weeks, months, or years to accomplish. Sure, you read about topical books that are written, produced, and printed in just a few weeks. But those books are the exceptions rather than the rule. In addition, those books are put together by teams of people, all of whom know exactly what they are doing.

If this is your first book project, congratulations. As you're getting started, though, we think it's best to take your time and to do things right. You and your book will be together for years to come, so invest some time and effort now to ensure that you'll be happy with your book, proud of it, and anxious to share it with the world.

The Roberts Group helps publishers prepare books for printing. Here are the steps we take from the initial stages of a project until the printed book arrives at your doorstep.

  1. Set the specifications for your book and determine what services you will need. Our quote request form will help you. It asks questions that will encourage you to think about:
    • Specifications -- trim size, margins, number of pages, number of illustrations/artwork/photo scans.
    • Services -- editing, interior design, cover design, proofreading, typesetting, indexing.
  2. Get quotes on book production services. We usually make some suggestions that will help you get the most book for your money. If you're not used to buying book production and printing, you'll find unexpected costs around every corner. We want to help you understand the process and anticipate those costs. After we've learned the details of your project, we'll prepare a preliminary quote for you for our services. We generally provide a menu of services, so you can select which items are important to you. If you want us to edit, proofread, or index your project, we would like to see a few sample pages of your manuscript before giving a firm quote for those services. Typical items in our quotes include:
    • Interior Design
    • Layout & Typesetting
    • Editing
    • Scanning of Graphics or Text
    • Proofreading
    • Indexing
    • Cover Design
    • Locating a Printer
  3. Edit the book. The manuscript should be thoroughly -- and professionally -- edited before it goes to design. Give the editor plenty of time to complete this process. Most editors can't edit for six or eight hours straight. Good editing takes time, experience, and mental alertness. 
  4. Nail down an interior design. When we begin a book production project, the first order of business after receiving the edited manuscript is interior design. During this process, we identify all the individual elements of your book: headers, footers, page numbers, text, photos, captions, illustrations, tables, and notes. We then propose a design treatment -- or style -- for each of these. We fax or e-mail you sample pages of the proposed interior design. We listen to your feedback and fine-tune the design until you approve the design. Once we've agreed on an interior design, we move on to typesetting.
  5. Typeset the book. In the typesetting phase, we convert your book from manuscript form into the form it will take in the final product. We create tables, maps, and charts as well as scan photographs, if necessary. Layout can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on the project. At this point, we also would begin working on cover design.
  6. Select a printer. Get several printing quotes based on the final page count and specifications for your book. Select a printer and inform the designer of your choice. We work closely with printers to make sure the files we provide the printer work properly.
  7. Proofread the typeset pages. Your proof copy of the book will look just as it will appear in the printed version. The proofreader proofs the book, marks changes in red on the proof copy, and returns it to us. We make the corrections and provide another proof copy. We continue providing proof copies until you approve the entire book. What do you look for in the proof? You need to make sure all the content is there, that charts and tables say what they're supposed to say, that headers and footers are accurate, and that all editing changes have been made.
  8. Index the book. The indexer makes index entries based on a hard copy of the book and provides the index in a text file to be imported into the page design program. Or we frequently index in the page layout files themselves so that index markers are embedded in the text and "follow" the text should the text and pages change in the revision process.
  9. Prepare files for printer. Once you have approved the proof, we will provide your printer with electronic files and a laser-print copy of the book. The printer will output film from the electronic files. Printing plates are made from the film. 
  10. Check blueline. You will receive a blueline from the printer. This is a sample of exactly how your book will look on press. This is your last chance for corrections. (Note: Corrections are expensive if done at this point. It is more economical to catch editorial changes during the proofing stage.) The printer will not put your book on press until you have approved the blueline. 
  11. Enjoy your book. Your printed books will be delivered in five to eight weeks from the time the printer receives the electronic files.   

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