Novel Rocket

Join us today as we take a look behind the scenes of book publication! Ashley Casteel, Managing Editorial Assistant for Barbour Publishing, Inc., has generously shared her photos of various books during the editorial and printing process.

1) This is my personal proofreading schedule that I work off of when I have new projects to send. Right now it’s pretty empty and there’s not much going out because we’re at a wrap-up point in our editorial schedule. After the new year, it will be jam-packed with out-going projects again.

2) This is what an electronic proof (e-proof) looks like. The corrections are made using the track changes and commenting features in MS Word, and I scroll through the file to determine if each proofreading query and change is necessary and justifiable. (BTW—this is the e-proof version of Polly Dent Loses Grip, releasing February 2009)

3) This is a chart of traditional proofreading marks for hard copy proofs (taken from The Chicago Manual of Style). It’s basically a specialized shorthand that makes marking and interpreting manuscript corrections much more efficient.

4) This is an editorial job envelope. Each book we produce gets its own envelope that documents who handled it and when, as well as other important information like trim size, printer, page count, and ISBN.

5) This is what a paper galley looks like. It’s usually printed as a two-page spread and is produced in a PDF file according to the e-proof text.

6) This is how a cover appears in PDF format. Some covers, like this one, will have embossed or foiled overlay details on particular areas of the cover. Those details are expressed in the overlay cover (see pic #7).

7) Overlay cover

8) This is an electronic blueline from the printer. It arrives as an enhanced PDF file and appears exactly on the screen as it will in print.

9) These are manual proofreading marks on a paper galley. If there’s not marks on every page, pages with marks are indicated with little sticky flags to make the typesetting process more efficient.

10) This is a typesetting correction. As you can see from the marked page to the unmarked page, the stack of identical letters at the end of each line has been remedied.

11) Last of all, this is my heap of job envelopes. The ones in the rack are all those that are currently at proof or being reviewed by an author. The upright envelope contains a paper galley that needs sent to proof, and the stack on my desk are projects that are ready for a final review by a sponsoring editor, ready to send to send to the printer, or are typesetting corrections that I have yet to review.