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Publishing in the 21st CenturyThe book publishing business has changed considerably. Gone are the days when an exclusive few are permitted to have their books published and distributed. With Print-on-Demand (PoD) and other publishing innovations, a book can be an idea in week one and in print in a matter of a few weeks. List your book on Amazon.com and you automatically have worldwide distribution. Print-on-Demand technology allows individual books to be printed as they are ordered, and shipped directly to the purchaser. PoD technology has developed to the point that the quality of a PoD book is equal to the quality of a traditional offset printed book. And, PoD publishing is cheap. You usually pay a small set-up fee, and then have no other expenses until the book actually sells when you only pay for the printing. While PoD and other publishing innovations offer authors new opportunities for getting their message out to the world, another world of Publishing Pretenders has arisen to take advantage of these new markets. They generate their business by over-selling their products and services, while under-delivering when it comes to publicity, marketing and sales. Have you decided to self-publish your book?If so, you will need a printer-ready book layout and design. Up to this point, your “book” hasn’t really been a book at all. It has been a manuscript. The next step is to convert your manuscript into a printable form, the baseline for what will actually become a physical book. We can help! We offer a full range of typesetting, book formatting, and layout and design services, as well as book production management and book publishing services. We have been in the book publishing business since 1984. We provide cutting-edge services, using a combination of experienced editors and designers, coupled with state-of-the art computer hardware and software designed to make your book the very best it can be. Book Layout and DesignBook InteriorCompleting a manuscript is only one step on the long road to publishing success. After you decide to self-publish, the next step is to turn your manuscript into a book that will attract the attention, initially of the media who will help you sell your book, and eventually of consumers who will buy your book. With this in mind, we provide self-publishers with our expert book typesetting, layout and design services. For all of our layout and design, we use the industry standards: Adobe PageMaker® and Adobe InDesign®. If you are an author who plans to self-publish your book, we can create a printer-ready book layout from your Microsoft Word® document. We will create a complete interior text layout of your book, including the title page, copyright page, and table of contents. We also include page numbers and running heads at the top of each page, and drop caps for the first paragraph of each chapter, if desired. Our designer will work with you to select fonts and create a basic book design that will complement your subject matter. Prior to flowing the text into the document, your Microsoft Word® or text file will be cleaned to remove all extra spaces, tabs and breaks. Styles will be created to ensure consistency of font type and size for all titles, subtitles, text, etc. Next, your document will be placed into the layout document and the designer will check each page for readability, removing any gaps, bad breaks, or other typographic errors that can ruin your book’s appearance. The file will be sent to you as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. Our price includes one round of corrections (up to two dozen corrections). We will send you a final file for approval, and will create a high-resolution file for your printing company. If you wish, we will e-mail or upload the file directly to your chosen printing company. Book CoverIf you already have the artwork or photograph you want to use, we can help you design your book cover. This includes placing and sizing the artwork and creating the typography. It also includes scanning, sizing and placing an author photo as needed, generating and placing the barcode, and preparing the files to the specifications of your printer or book manufacturer. For our cover design, we use Adobe Photoshop®, the best picture management program on the market. If you do not have the artwork or photography you wish to use for your book cover, we will refer you to one of the many book cover designers we collaborate with. There is no referral fee. You will work directly with them and pay them directly for their book design services. Book Production ManagementIf you want to go a step further, we can manage your book production for you. This entails working with a printer of your choice or our own printer to get your book into print. We will prepare your manuscript according to their specifications that generally include PDF postscript files for your book and your cover. Our production management services will ensure that your book is up to high industry standards. ProofreadingWhether or not your manuscript was edited by Renaissance Literary Services or your chosen publisher before it goes to the printer, after your proofs are prepared by the printer, you will need the printer’s page proofs reviewed to make sure that there are no errors before going to press. First of all, do not confuse a proofread with a copy edit. A proofread is essentially a reading of typeset material (or reading of the printer’s page proofs (hence the name “proofread”), in comparison to the final pre-typeset manuscript, to ensure textual and formatting correctness. If your manuscript has already been edited, typeset and sent to a printer, then the next step is the proofread. For most of us in high school and college, proofreading means to check for misspellings and basic grammatical problems. In the publishing industry, however, proofreading takes on a larger meaning. It is done after the editing is complete, to ensure the accuracy of typeset pages and/or printer’s proof pages that have been converted from an author - and editor-approved manuscript. In addition to double-checking for spelling and gross grammatical errors, a proofreader will also verify that the final proofs meet all of the following requirements:
In the traditional publishing world, page proofs are typically proofread multiple times: initially by a professional proofreader, then by the author, and finally by the production editor. For your work to stand up against the many others on the market, a proofread is highly recommended. Choosing a PrinterIf you have not chosen a printer to work with, we can help. Over the years, we have worked with many different traditional offset printers. In more recent years, we have worked with a number of Print-on-Demand (PoD) printers. There are pros and cons to both types of printing methods and we can discuss those with you, so that you can make the best decision for your book. Whatever your choice, we can work with you to get your book into print and on your doorstep. Book FulfillmentWe have a professional relationship with companies that can also do your book warehousing and book fulfillment if you decide to have your books offset printed and stored somewhere. If you go the PoD route and have your books printed as they are purchased, we can set you up to have the books sent directly to you or to the bookstore that ordered them. Whichever way you decide to go, we can steer you in the right direction. Whatever you need, we can either do it for you or refer you to professionals who can. Book PublishingIf we have edited your book, and you want us to go to the next level and publish your book, we can do that too. We will make sure that your book is professionally edited, beautifully designed, typeset, carefully proofread, printed, bound to library standards, and available for sale through bookstores nationwide in as little as two to four months. We can help you achieve your goals. ProofreadingWe will provide the final proofing of your printer’s page proofs before your book is ready to be printed. This is the final once-over to make sure everything is correct. ISBNWe can provide you with the necessary International Standard Book Number (ISBN) under our company imprint Renaissance Publishing. The ISBN is needed to identify your book worldwide. This way, your book will have the standard barcode that is used by bookstores to order your book. Copyright RegistrationWe will also register your book with the Library of Congress to ensure it has proper copyright. The Library of Congress charges a fee for this and requires two of your published books. Available to Bookstores NationwideHow can we promise to make your book available for sale through bookstores nationwide? We can make arrangements for your book to be listed in the Ingram Book Group Distributor’s Database. This is the largest database from which bookstores nationwide order when someone asks for your book. We do not promise that your book will sell and we do not do your marketing for you or create a demand for your book. We simply get it into the Ingram database, and the rest is up to you.
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