Book Editing and Design Process

Set up project
  • Get reference files and manuscript text.
  • Fill out a book information sheet with publication information for each resource used.
  • Set up new folder for project.
  • Set up a backup folder for keeping updated copies of the editing progress.
  • Add copies of any reference files to the primary project folder.
  • Add the project to the current projects list and editing checklist.
Set up stylesheet
  • Create a stylesheet file for this project in the Stylesheet reference folder
  • Add information about the project:
    • Overall design specifications (as you determine them)
      • List the parts of the books, for this project
      • Trim size
      • Margins
      • Estimated page number at trim size
      • Illustrations needed
      • Cover illustration ideas
    • Analysis of book and (if applicable) series
      • List the book or titles in the book series, including copyright dates
      • List of chapter titles for book(s)
      • List original book parts - one overall list if it is a series
      • Make notes on text styles, text parts, style designs needed
      • Any other style notes
    • Brief summary of commercial and editorial notes
      • Intended audience and formats (print, ebooks, etc)
      • Distribution notes
      • Editorial notes about book characters, themes, ideas for images
    • Add style notes on choices made as the book is copy edited - words changed, etc.
Illustrations
  • Types of illustrations that may need to be designed:
    • Cover Design elements
    • Chapter narrative illustrations
    • Frontispiece illustrations, whole page or a set of smaller illustrations.
    • Part page designs
    • Title page illustrations
    • End of chapter ornaments
    • Text break ornaments
  • Begin gathering illustration resources as the text is prepared:
    • Sketches and finished drawings, paintings
    • Open-copyright images downloaded from public domain resources
    • Scanned and prepared images from public domain resources
  • Determine the size of illustration needed for cover or interior illustration
  • Edit illustrations to meet requirements
  • Color correct illustrations to fit printing requirements, such as greyscale or color space specs
  • Merge text and illustrations in print document if required
Set up InDesign
  • Choose an InDesign template for the initial edit.
  • Place/import text:
    • Flow text to all pages.
    • Delete normal text style and replace with text
  • Arrange front matter onto appropriate pages, but leave styling until later.
    • Delete any table of contents, but leave blank pages for Table of Contents
  • Add standard copyright text and update the information.
  • Make sure a grid is present. If not, set up the grid.
  • If footnotes are needed, set up footnotes.
  • Check to be sure that all the text has no character style assigned - choose all and select "None" for character style
  • Choose whether the text is English-US or English-UK. The paragraph styles will need to reflect this style - change if necessary.
Prepare text for copy editing
  • Follow the copy and replace workflow to fix the text and prepare for copy edit.
  • Add styles to the main parts of the text, add styles or adjust styles as necessary
    • See InDesign Guide
Copy editing
  • Edit the text to match the reference file. Note any particular changes (other than what matches the general stylesheet) on the stylesheet for that project.
  • Things to check for:
    • Misspellings
    • Grammar and punctuation that doesn’t match
    • Poetry layout
    • Italicized words (use character style)
    • Any unique fonts used in source text, such as blackletter like in Scott
    • Proper hyphenation - see styles wordlist
    • Styling for document parts (chapter numbers and titles, text and non-indent text sections, bullets, numbered list, poetry, letters, etc.)
    • Footnotes – add in as you go (create styles and footnotes layout options if not already created)
    • Paragraph breaks
    • As you go, note the spellings of names and places.
    • Reference the stylesheet words for compound word rules, ligatures, etc. Note items specific to the project on the stylesheet. - see styles wordlist
  • Preferably add these style types as you edit:
    • text
    • text-noIndent
    • text-spaceafter
    • chapterNumber
    • chapterTitle
    • poetry styles
    • letter styles
Clean up editing
  • Before preparing document for first printing or pdf for second editing, use the editing checklist to clean up any additional errors
  • Visually check the text for problems or where improvements can be made.
  • Save a backup copy of the fully copy edited document.
  • Save the file as a Kindle PDF file, adjusting to the proper layout in the new document, and send to kindle for second editing.
First interior layout for first print (for editing and design check)
  • Some additional steps for finalizing the print layout in InDesign:
    • Save editing file as a new document for the print design layout.
    • Check again for footnotes, from original text or as needed for this composition, and add in.
    • If illustrations are ready, add them to the composition.
    • After all final edits, etc., set up the table of contents.
    • After everything, set in an index if needed.
    • Toward the end of the design, set up and apply master pages (see Indesign Guide).
  • For the page layout design, use the page layout worksheet to get exact numbers for the layout design of the body text pages.
  • Design decisions for the final layout:
    • Text body font, letter spacing, width, etc. (page makeup)
    • Special text parts: poetry, letters, insets, etc.
    • Chapter first letter or word drop caps
    • Chapter headings
    • Part styles
    • Front Matter
    • Back Matter
  • See the text design guide for more information
First print cover design
  • When using Lulu, you will edit the cover design after uploading manuscript to Lulu project page.
  • This can be a nearly final design, a test design using colors or patterns you might use in the final design, or a temp cover.
Print edit
  • Before preparing document for printing, do final edits to catch stray mistakes. (See pre-print edits list)
Final Interior Layout
  • Once final edits are in place, make sure you have archived copies of the first print document for a backup, then begin the final layout design in a new copy of edited copy.
    • Start the page makeup process over, if you did any in the print edit (widows, orphans, spacing, etc.)
  • Illustrations
    • Make sure you follow specifications for the printer for interior greyscale images
Final Cover Design
  • If possible, use tested colors.