What we do

We aim to produce a professional outcome quickly and at reasonably low cost to you. To achieve this, we need you to have properly prepared your manuscript up front, and to be responsive to changes and additions that we require you to make. While it varies depending on the book and your needs, here is an example of what we might do for a typical technical textbook:

• Evaluate the book for suitability for publishing
• Design the book layout
• Typeset the book
• Do one proof-reading pass
• Do a basic cover design
• Organize ISBN, barcode, and cataloging-in-publication data
• Prepare and submit files to printers
• Send out copies for legal deposit and evaluation purposes
  

We require that the manuscript be in publishable form prior to commencing work. If our initial evaluation shows that the book contains errors, poor writing, or careless fact-checking, we will send it back to you and request that it be fixed first. Alternatively, you can arrange writing and editing services with us on a per-hour basis.

What you do

The cheapest way for you to get a good result is to provide the book to us in the highest-quality form possible. To do this, you will need to provide:

• The book content, well-written, and in well-organized chapters
• A dedications page
• A preface, with acknowledgments
• A foreword (optional)
• A bibliography
• A short biography
• Any photographs or artwork to be incorporated into the cover design

At some time during the book preparation process, you will need to index the book. You will also be sent two proofs, one our internal proof, which is your opportunity to find any last-minute errors, and one the final printing proof, which you approve as authorization for us to go ahead and spend your money getting it printed. You will need to check and approve both proofs in a timely fashion.

Book and file formats

We accept text content in Microsoft Word, Quark Express, and LaTeX. Microsoft Word documents will be imported into Quark Express for type-setting and publishing. Figures can be provided in a variety of formats; please contact us with specific details.

Our standard publishing format is perfect-bound in black-and-white, with a full-colour gloss cover. The book should be in a size that can be trimmed from A4-sized stock, or printing costs go up. We recommend against using a full A4-sized layout, as smaller sizes are more easily handled and have higher readability. Different bindings, internal color pages, and so on, can be handled, but there is usually additional preparation time and the printing and binding costs are higher.