If a manuscript is like a pile of papers, it isn’t yet a book. It might be a fine draft, but it won’t become a book without choices being made about structure, content, layout, design, format, metadata, printing, price, distribution, and more. Each step in the process influences the finished book that goes out into the world.
The first set of decisions is purely editorial. A book reader looks at the manuscript, tries to understand what it’s all about, who the audience is, and where a reader might get confused or frustrated. The text may need restructuring, chapters shuffled around or combined or split, missing chapters requested, weak or confusing points clarified or expanded, repetition removed, and the manuscript polished so that it flows more naturally. The text should make sense at this point. It is too early to consider the cover copy, the title page, or page numbers; the main focus at this stage is on the text itself. The sooner this is completed, the easier it is to deal with the manuscript at this level before it gets expensive to change it.
Once the content is solid, we can move to the next steps, closer to the surface of the book. This is when you might get professional copyediting. The manuscript is checked for consistency and spelling and grammar errors. The writer and editor agree about how names and titles are written, how numbers are treated, and any other stylistic decisions such as which terms will get italics. A style sheet is usually created that will guide copyediting and proofreading. Copyediting is usually followed up with proofreading after the manuscript has been typeset. This ensures a fresh set of eyes can look at the final proof for any missed errors or typos and any inconsistencies. This distinction means novice or aspiring authors won’t make the mistake of polishing a sentence that might later get moved or shortened or deleted.
The manuscript is now ready for production, the design and formatting that give the book its final shape. The manuscript is given a trim size and the page margins are adjusted, the gutter (space between facing pages) adjusted for binding, the paper and type are chosen, the pages are laid out, the front and back matter are added, and the text is typeset. At this stage, we can see if the manuscript is going to be a little long, or if it’s more or less the intended length, and whether we need to make additional adjustments in the future. An extra image or two might change the final count, for example. If we are doing a digital book, the file needs to be cleaned up and formatted.
At this stage, we also need to prepare our information and metadata. This means choosing the main title and subtitle, the author’s name or pseudonym, edition (if applicable), formats (if more than one is intended), ISBNs, subject categories, keywords, and publication date. A short or medium-length book will usually get its ISBN as the final step in the production process. We also need to prepare a clear book description to make the content more understandable to the reader or reviewer. This may sound less dramatic than the cover design, and less important than the copyediting, but it is essential for the book to be properly understood and reviewed by retailers, library or cataloguers, and readers. If the cover design is misleading or the book description isn’t clear, it will be harder for readers to find the book.
As a quick exercise, you might take a single title you have in mind and draft a quick one-page summary of how you would publish the book, including the reader, the content needs, the design and format, the metadata, price, and potential channels. The purpose is not perfection; you don’t need to have every detail ready. The idea is to get an overview of how you might want to publish it, how each decision influences another, and where your focus will be. If you think you will get more sales from a shorter practical title, you may be tempted to do print-on-demand rather than an offset print run, for example. If it’s going to have a number of images, the format and paper choices need to be more tightly coordinated earlier.
Finally, it’s time for a final read before release. You need to review the book to look for pagination errors, check your front and back matter, review the headings, check if your photos are in the right place, make sure your keywords and categories are up to date, and any other errors or mistakes left over from the earlier copyediting and proofreading steps. Once that is done, you are ready to publish. Your price will have already been set, your discount will be clear, your distribution strategy will be ready for a review, your book catalogue entry will be made, and you will be ready for a final read of your direct sales pages.
Each of these steps is a decision that influences the finished book. It is easy to miss something along the way when the process is too long and too involved. The more we can make the path from manuscript to published book shorter, the easier it will be to catch the things we need to catch before it’s too late to publish a really good book.