The Production Process

Once you have submitted your typescript as described above, and once it has been approved by the Press and any referee the Press may want to consult (you will have been informed of the need for any such final refereeing process at the time of contract), production can begin. What follows is a greatly simplified sketch of the stages of the production process, to give you an idea of the likely timetable. In practice each book has its own special demands, and the schedules indicated below should be taken as a rough guide.

Planning meeting

First your typescript and all accompanying material will be presented to a planning meeting, where representatives of copy-editorial, production, design and marketing departments will meet with your editor to discuss the production and marketing strategy for your book. If any queries arise from this meeting (e.g. concerning the title of the book or the jacket illustration), your editor will contact you.

Copy-editing

A copy-editor will then be assigned to the work and she or he will look through the typescript to check that such things as notes, tables, figures, appendixes, bibliographical material etc. are all complete and clearly presented. If, at this stage, material is found still to be missing or the typescript falls short of the standards outlined in this document, with ensuing complications for the production process, we may have to return the typescript, or part of it, to you for amendment.

Once this initial planning stage has been completed, the copy-editor will send you an introductory letter and will then work through the typescript, carefully reading it for sense and consistency in presentation and argument. You will be asked to answer any queries arising, which might cover anything from points of grammar to the logic of your argument and requests for fuller bibliographical data. It would be helpful if you could confirm, when you submit your final typescript, that you will be available to answer queries within the following three months or so. We expect you to keep an identical copy of the typescript that you submit. Nothing of substance will be changed on your typescript without your knowledge.

Design

After the copy-editing has been completed your editor will approve the typescript before passing it to our production and design team. If a designer has not already been working on your typescript, he or she will now finalize such things as the typeface and typesize, layout and general appearance of the printed book, and will organize the preparation of designs for the jacket. The script will then be ready for the typesetter.

Proof issue and correction

The typescript will be sent to the typesetter and the production department will write to you with details of the proofing schedule and index arrangements (in the event that you have not already made your index). Within, on average, one month of the completion of copy-editing and design, a page proof will be sent to you. You will be asked to return the corrected proofs to the Press by a certain date. Apart from marking up your own proof reading corrections, you are also responsible for completing cross-references; inserting page numbers on the contents page, in illustrations lists, and in the pageheads of the endnote section; and substituting page numbers for typescript numbers in the index.

Owing to the high costs of proof correction we must make sure that the typescript presented to the typesetter is absolutely final, and that you have done all the fine-tuning necessary by the time the typescript leaves the copy-editor's hands. This makes proof correction a much quicker and more straightforward process (since you will be mainly looking out for typographical errors made by the typesetter rather than errors of fact or infelicities of expression committed by yourself); and of course a much cheaper one.

When you correct the proofs we shall ask you to colour-code your corrections, using a red pen for errors made by the typesetter, a black pen for inserting cross-references, and a blue pen for corrections or additions of your own. With your proofs you will be sent a sheet of instructions about colour coding and showing proof-correction symbols. Some contracts allow the author a certain amount of free blue ink (e.g. stating that you are liable for the cost of all blue corrections exceeding 5% of the total composition cost. If, for example, the total cost of typesetting your book is £2,000, we will then allow you up to £100 worth of free author's corrections and invoice you on publication for anything in excess of £100 charged by the typesetter for corrections or additions made in blue ink). Please check your contract and note the terms. It is our practice to charge authors for corrections made in excess of their allowance. You can avoid incurring more than your correction allowance by making a point of checking all material (including style, references, quotations etc.) before the end of the copy-editing stage, rather than leaving this to proof stage.

A professional proofreader is usually employed simultaneously to read the proofs and his or her corrections will be checked with yours. If there are any discrepancies or if the proofreader raises queries on the text, your copy-editor will contact you. Corrections will be made by the typesetter and a revised set of proofs issued (except in cases where the first set has been very lightly marked). Depending on the level of corrections, we will either check this revised proof in-house or ask you to do so. Please let your editor know if you particularly want to see the revised proof; but note that a proof posted to you at this stage is liable to delay publication, so it may be more efficient for a lightly corrected proof to be checked in-house.

The final stages

Once any outstanding corrections have been made by the typesetter, your book will be prepared for printing. Your editor will then receive an advance copy and will immediately send it to you. This usually occurs within six to nine months of the beginning of the production process; it may, however, happen later if delays have occurred in production. Common causes of delay are slow author responses to copy-editorial queries; slow typesetting owing to complicated or untidy typescript copy or artwork; missed deadlines on correction and return of proofs (a proof sent back even a day or two late can miss its 'slot' in the typesetter's schedule with a resultant delay of several weeks); author's checking of revised proofs; problems with the index.

Publication of the book and publicity

You will be informed of the price of your book and the expected stock date. Usually publication will be approximately one month after bulk stock has arrived in our warehouse, when review and other promotional copies have been sent out. This gives time for copies to be circulated to book shops and agents in this country and overseas. Similarly, the publication of your book in the UK and North America will be about one month after stock reaches our Cambridge and American warehouses.

The marketing controller for your book will write to you to inform you of the actual Australian publication date (once the retail price is official) and he or she will outline our marketing plans for the Australasian market. Publicity in the UK and North America is handled by the respective offices and the marketing departments there will also let you know plans for that area. Your comments on marketing plans will be welcomed.