Conventional Workflow

• Technical evaluation
• Transmittal meeting
• Copy editing
• Typesetting
• Design
• Page proofs
• Indexing
• Proofreading
• The cover and/or jacket
• Final stages
• Advance copies, publication and publicity

The production of some books still follows a conventional workflow route. The copy editor works directly on the manuscript hardcopy you submitted.

Technical evaluation

When you submit your final manuscript (with files) and it has been approved by your Press editor, your book enters a technical evaluation stage.

Your manuscript is assessed by the Copy Editorial Controller who identifies any stylistic or copy-editorial quality issues.

At the same time your files are sent to the typesetter to identify any problems.

When the technical evaluation is complete, you may be contacted to discuss any issues which have arisen.

We allow approximately 2 weeks for this stage to be completed.

Transmittal meeting

When any issues which have arisen from the technical evaluation have been resolved, your book will be submitted to our transmittal meeting. This is where the strategy for your book is discussed and publication schedule planned. Your book formally passes into the production phase and a Production editor is assigned.

The Production editor will contact you and any co-authors to introduce him/herself and let you know the date we require copy editing to finish.

Deadlines

It is vital that you meet the deadlines which you are given so that we can achieve the publication date agreed at the transmittal meeting. Failure to meet our planned publication date will jeopardise marketing plans, critical selling dates or conferences.

Please ensure you keep your Production editor and copy editor informed of any changes to your contact details throughout production.

The stages which your book passes through in production are designed to maximise quality control of your book. We try to be flexible and accommodate some corrections/changes, however, as your book progresses through production it can become increasingly difficult to accept corrections which jeopardise publication dates or incur costs.

Copy editing

The Copy Editorial Controller allocates a copy editor to your book and sends your manuscript to them to begin the editing.

The copy editor will contact you to introduce themselves and you can discuss the most convenient method for you both to communicate - generally by email or telephone.

It may be 2-3 weeks before the copy editor sends any substantial queries. This is because they require some time to work through the manuscript and gather together their queries for you.

The level of copy editing will vary from book to book, but in general the copy editor makes minimal changes to effect internal consistency of style and usage, to remove ambiguity or contradiction and to ensure references are complete.

You are expected to respond promptly to all copy editorial queries. Please tell your Production editor and copy editor if there will be times when you are not contactable.

Contributory books

The main volume editor is responsible for handling all copy editorial queries, and confers with chapter authors at their discretion. The copy editor does not send queries direct to individual chapter authors. (Note that each first-named chapter author will receive a pdf proof of their chapter at page proofs stage, see Page proofs.)

We allow from 2 to 3 months for the copy editing stage depending on the extent of the manuscript.

Typesetting

Once copy editing is complete, the Production editor sends your copy edited manuscript and files to the typesetter to create the page proofs.

When the Production editor has a date confirmed for these you will be sent an email with a full explanation of what you will receive, what you must return to the Production editor and by what date.

We allow from 4 to 6 weeks for this stage to be completed, depending on whether your book has elements which need to be assessed by a designer before it is sent to the typesetter.

Design

Your Press editor will allocate your book to follow one of our standard or series designs. In exceptional cases we may commission a one-off design for your book but your Press editor will discuss this with you if necessary.

Page proofs

The page proofs show you the results of the copy editorial work and the final layout of your book with all figures incorporated at the correct size and in the final position.

The first-named author (main author) will be sent 2 sets of page proofs and the copy-edited manuscript. One of the sets of page proofs is to be treated as the master which is to be returned (with the copy-edited manuscript) to your Production editor; the other set is a duplicate and you may wish to mark it as a record of your corrections.

Co-authors, if any, are sent one set of page proofs each and must send their comments/corrections to the main author to collate onto the master set which they will return to the Production editor.

If there are still any errors that have been missed, you have the opportunity to pick them up at this stage but please remember that this is not the time to rewrite large parts of your book or make extensive changes. The press reserves the right to refuse to make corrections, either for reasons of cost or because they would affect the timing of publication.

It is essential that you follow your Production editor's instructions and return the master proof and the copy-edited manuscript by the deadline you are given.

The turnaround time for checking proofs is usually a maximum of 28 days but may be less depending on the individual book schedule.

Contributory volumes

All first-named chapter authors will receive a pdf proof of their chapter to check.

The Production editor will send them an email telling them how they will receive their proof - we generally send pdf proofs either directly by email or via a web page.

Only one pdf per chapter will be sent. If the first-named chapter author is not proofing their chapter then one of the other chapter authors can be nominated to check it, but you must have made this arrangement with your Press editor right at the start of production.

Contributors will be asked to check their proofs within 7-10 days of receipt and to return any corrections or comments direct to the main volume editor who then incorporates them onto the master set of proofs.

Note that web proofs are only available for a limited time so it is imperative that contributors download their chapter immediately after receiving notification.

Indexing

If you are indexing your book you must complete this within the time allowed for return of the master proof.

See Indexing downloads

If a freelance indexer is indexing your book you will be sent a proof of the index to check as soon as this is available.

Proofreading

On most books we also employ a separate professional proofreader who will check through the page proofs at the same time as you to catch any missed errors. The freelance proofreader performs a cold reading, ie, they read only the typeset pages, searching for typographical and grammatical errors and inconsistencies (they do not read the proofs against manuscript).

When a book contains a large amount of maths setting or is otherwise too technical for a cold reading, the author is the sole proofreader.

The cover and/or jacket

Cover image

You may be asked to provide an image for the cover of your book. This might be a high resolution electronic file you already have or just some suggestion of what you would like to see on the cover. CUP branding and series design governs the look of the cover, so please consult your Press editor before you begin searching. Please also let us know if you feel you do not have a suitable image for the cover.

We welcome your ideas, but please note that the Design department will have the final say on cover design.

Your Press editor will send you a cover visual for comment.

Once your book is fully in production, your Production editor will email you a pdf proof of the front and back cover of your book. You will be asked to check this carefully and let your Production editor know if there are any problems.

If everything is correct, then simply email your approval to your Production editor. If you need to mark corrections, please print out the pdf and send a marked hardcopy back to your Production editor.

Your Production editor will send the pdf to all co-authors, but the main author will be asked to coordinate the comments so that only one response is provided back.

See images for the jacket or cover

Final stages

After you have returned your page proofs, your work on production is largely complete. All checking after this stage is provided by CUP staff.

Your Production editor forwards the master set of proofs to your copy editor to check the typesetting and anything you have queried (at this stage the copy editor also incorporates the proofreader's comments onto the master).

If the proofreader's work raises any queries that the copy editor cannot resolve, he or she will contact you to discuss these.

The designer will also check the proofs before the Production editor returns them to the typesetter for correction.

The corrected proofs are called revised proofs and these are checked inhouse by CUP staff. If problems/errors persist we may have several proofs to check but you will not be involved in this. Our turnaround times for these stages are very tight and there is no time or requirement for revises to be sent to you to check.

When we have completed all final checks on your proofs your Production editor orders the printing pdfs and your book will go to press. Generally it takes from 2 to 3 months from the time that we receive your page proofs from you to ordering the printing pdfs.

Advance copies, publication and publicity

Stock will come into our warehouse approximately 5 weeks after your book is sent to press. Copies will then be distributed to relevant areas of the world in batches. Your Press editor will send you your advance copies at this time.

The advertised publication date for your book may be up to 6 weeks after we receive copies from our printer. This allows time for stock to reach our warehouses and then be sent on to accounts who have purchased copies so they have stock in advance of the publication date. We need to allow a few weeks from stock date to publication date also so that we are able to cover any contingencies and unexpected delays and be well organised to promote your book on its publication date.

Your Press editor will have notified you about the price of your book and your Production editor will keep you informed of the expected stock date. As the time of your book's projected publication date approaches, you will be sent an outline of the marketing plans for your book by your Marketing Controller.