Pre-Publishing Services

Copy Editing

This service consists of a reading of your manuscript with an eye for spelling, grammar, punctuation, proper abbreviations, numbers and lists, proper word usage, and a check of your table of contents.

Copy editing makes sure that the author’s raw text is corrected in aspects of spelling and grammar. Copy editing also involves, among other things, ensuring that the text flows properly, that nothing is missing or redundant, that sentences and paragraphs are uncomplicated and of adequate length and that the consistency of characters and plots is maintained. A copy editor also ensures that illustrations support the text and have appropriate captions.

SUBSTANTIVE EDITING:

In substantive editing (or developmental editing, or comprehensive editing), the editor considers a document’s concept and intended use, its content, organization, design, and style. The purpose of this kind of editing is to make the document functional for its intended readership, not just to make it correct and consistent.

With the intended use of the document in mind, the editor will examine the content of the manuscript, its organization, design and style. The editor will make the manuscript functional for the reader, not just concentrate on applying the rules of grammar.

PROOFREADING

This service consists of one reading to uncover basic errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation and is available only for edited manuscripts. Generally conducted after the manuscript has been edited (and sometimes the sole editing process employed for poetry books) during this process, the proof reader will examine the manuscript to ensure that no errors remain, thus checking for residual spelling errors, punctuation errors such as incorrect capitalization or the wrong use of punctuation marks, typographical errors, or typos, or incorrect use of the English (i.e. American or British) in use.

INTERIOR PAGE DESIGN (PAGE LAYOUT):

This is where we design each page and make your book print ready. Careful execution at this stage implies that the book is laid out in a manner appropriate for your “type” of book. That means your fonts, their sizes, page margins, table of contents, copyright information and other features of the book are all properly laid out as per appropriate style and convention.

In some books page design involves ensuring a harmonious balance between the text and graphic elements in a book so that information is effectively displayed. Bad layout can render an informative book completely ineffective and therefore interior page design is one of the more important stages in the development of the book.

COVER DESIGN

The cover of the book is considered a primary marketing tool, especially since it often forms the first impression the book conveys. Our designers will provide you with a cover that accurately reflects the mood and substance of the book. During this process, we offer you the ability to choose between original layouts, custom designs, and commissioned illustrations, for use on the cover. If the book is published by us, the cover comes with a barcode identifying the ISBN for your book.

We also provide illustrations for use within your book. These could be use to illustrate a point you are making within your book or to develop illustration-heavy graphic books (as in the case for books for children).

ISBN BARCODE

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a controlled, 13-digit identification number that allows publishers, libraries, and book dealers to locate books. Having an ISBN means that your book will appear in bibliographic databases that are often referred to by booksellers when they are looking for a particular book. We provide an ISBN barcode for your book if it is published by us.

For your book, you may use an ISBN obtained by you or one issued by us. We issue an ISBN for books that are published by us. The decision to publish a book lies solely at our discretion, only after we are satisfied with the editorial quality of the book and its presentation. For more information about ISBNs, visit our blog.

SCANNING AND DIGITIZATION:

We provide end-to-end scanning, digitization and archival services to help you digitize valuable material such as books and manuscripts and save them for posterity. If you are associated with a private or public library and have documents, books, microfilms or photographs that are fast deteriorating and need to be digitized and archived, we can help. Our clients include research centres, libraries, and private collectors of books and manuscripts, and our staff has earned their respect for handling their material carefully.

In addition, many publishers have engaged our services to re-develop books that were earlier produced using negative films for printing. In many cases, these films are no longer available thus making it impossible to reprint these books. We have worked with these publishers to adapt these books for computer-to-plate printing.