Introduction to the Publishing Process

The print age, in hindsight, was an age during which there were limited methods of communicating information. We were limited to books, magazines, journals, and newspapers. If you wanted to publish something, you did it in one of these formats and you either succeeded or failed. In that respect, things were "simpler" back then. (But isn't this what we always say about the past?)

Each of these categories obviously contained numerous subcategories. One could publish an essay independently, or publish a pamphlet, or send out a newsletter. But because of the nature of the print format, distribution was limited; as a result, these subcategories were fairly limited, as well. Later, we will look at self-publishing in more detail, but as an example, let's briefly consider zines (pronounced "zeens"), a subcategory of magazines.

Zines

Zines are self-published magazines that typically have very specific content and a niche audience. For example, a person or group of people in a major metropolitan area might publish a zine covering local nightlife, or gender politics, or alternative culture, or punk-rock music. The genres are endless, but you get the idea—niche market, small but dedicated readership. They are made with images and text (typically using a typewriter, but often also hand-written) cut and pasted together and then photocopied onto the desired paper size.

However, the chances of an individual in Oklahoma becoming aware of a zine published in Calgary, New York, or even a small town like Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is relatively small unless they happen to visit the area, find a copy, and request that a copy be mailed to them each time an issue is published. Obviously books and magazines have a wider distribution, but this distribution, just like that of zines, is fixed. We'll discuss zines a little bit more when we get to self-published materials and e-books.

The digital age has completely stripped away this impediment to wider readership and has made it possible to instantly publish anything, anywhere, at any time. There are, quite literally, no limits. This fact alone makes it extremely difficult to write anything that attempts even remotely to be comprehensive concerning the publishing industry or anything related to the digital world. It's simply too big. After all, we are still in the infancy of the digital age.

The Future of Publishing

In spite of its massive scale, we can already begin to make predictions concerning where the digital age is leading the publishing industry and where writing on the whole will be headed over the next few decades. Our initial discussion of editing in the publishing process will be limited to print. After we thoroughly discuss the basics of editing in the publishing industry, we will spend a little bit of time talking about electronic media, zines, and self-publishing. Hopefully we can avoid undoing all that we established in these initial lessons. We can hope that the digital age doesn't undermine us as we learn about the publishing process and the roles and responsibilities of editors in the field.

The Publishing Process

Whether an author self-publishes or works with a publishing house, the overall process is generally the same. We should probably establish right here and now that "self-publishing" doesn't mean what it might seem to mean. No one expects that they will need to buy a printing press and physically print the books themselves. Self-publishing simply means that an author pays, either directly or through a cut of the royalties, a company to print the book in question. Here we've laid out the overall process for publishing a book. This list of events is generally the same whether the author is self-publishing or working with a publisher from start to finish. The timeline varies greatly, but the industry average is about a year.

1. The author submits a manuscript to a printer or publishing house.

2. If approved, negotiations on rights begin and suggestions for revisions are provided to the author.

3. The manuscript is passed on to production.

4. Cover art (and any other art) is chosen or created.

5. Copyediting begins.

6. The manuscript is given back to the author for approval.

7. Proofs are created.

8. The author reviews the galleys and suggests any changes he/she sees as necessary.

9. Marketing begins.

10. The book is printed based on the number of orders the publishing house receives from booksellers.

11. The book is distributed.

12. The author gets rich. Well, this one may not happen, at least not at first.

Many Different Paths

There are, quite literally, thousands of permutations of this timeline. Depending upon the publishing house or press, there may be more or fewer steps. Some publishing houses do very little editing and require that manuscripts be as close to finished as possible. For some presses, the requirements are different for nonfiction and fiction. Most nonfiction publishers don't want full manuscripts; they often want a proposal and an outline, whereas publishers of fiction often want complete manuscripts with fully developed plots, especially for first-time authors.

Perhaps we should end with this: the requirements vary from publisher to publisher, and the possibilities are limitless. Let's now turn to some of the terminology that you frequently run into in the publishing world. We'll then segue into the editor's role and responsibilities. As we will later be attending to the role of the editor specifically, we’ll be introducing some of those terms at a later time.

Terminology

In the following slides, we'll introduce some terms you need to know if you are going to go into the publishing (or editing) business full time. If your life's calling is to work with words, you need to know these terms.

We've broken them down into the following categories:

1. Typeface terms

2. Binding terms

3. Terms "on the page"

4. Other general publishing terms

Typeface Terms

Let's get to some of the technical stuff first and talk about typefaces. A typeface is a set of fonts of similar style used for printing. Most typefaces that are regularly used in the publishing industry contain glyphs for all Roman alphabetic characters and symbols, as well as numerals (including Arabic numerals) and punctuation. There are several different categories of typeface. The following are some of the most common.

Note: As is implied by the above definition, typefaces are broken up into fonts; therefore, a group of similar fonts is called a typeface.

Binding Terms

There are many different types of binding in the publishing world. Rather than list all the different types of binding, we will list the most common. All types of binding use glue, some type of stitching, or both. Often the differences are in the methods rather than the materials used.

Perfect binding: This is the most common type of binding used in the industry. The pages of the book are trimmed on all four sides. The pages are then glued to either a hard (hardback) or a soft (paperback) cover. For hardcover books, this is often referred to as case binding.

Saddle stitch: This type is commonly used for shorter works (less that 70 or so pages). The pages are simply folded down the middle and then stapled together. Shorter-length magazines are often bound in this fashion.

Smyth sewn: This is a traditional binding. Pages are grouped into smaller booklets (called quires or gatherings) that are saddle stitched (with thread instead of staples). These booklets are then glued together to form the larger text (called a codex). This is also referred to as sewing through the fold.

Spiral binding: Think of cookbooks. This type of binding is used for books that must lie flat and have pages that turn easily. This type of binding uses the punch and bind method. There are several other punch and bind styles. This is the most economical.

On the Page

Ascender: The part of a lower-case letter that extends above the halfway mark on the line. Think of the part above the bubble in the letters b or d.

Bleed: Any element of the manuscript that runs off of the edge of the page.

Descender: The part of a lower-case letter that extends below the line. Think of the letters j, p, or q.

Extent: This refers to the number of pages in a book.

Folio: A sheet of paper folded in half to create two leaves, or four pages.

Gutter: The inner margins of the book make up the gutter.

Kerning: The space between pairs of letters. Certain letter pairs are closer together than others to make them easier to read.

Leading: The space between lines.

Leaf: A sheet of paper.

Octavo: A sheet of paper folded over four times to produce eight leaves, or sixteen pages. The top or bottom of the folded sheet is then cut so that the pages turn freely.

Quarto: A sheet of paper folded over twice to make four leaves, or eight pages. The top or bottom of the folded sheet is then cut so that the pages turn freely.

Recto: The right-hand page of an open book. Rectos are always odd numbered.

Verso: The left-hand page of an open book. Versos are always even numbered.

Note: In modern printing, the terms folio, octavo, and quarto typically refer to the size of the book, rather than the method of folding or printing. Modern printing technology has made it impossible, in some cases, to determine how many folds were initially made in the sheets of paper (if any).

General Publishing Terms

AA/AC: Author's alteration or author's correction

Above the fold: In a printed document, this refers to the text to which the reader is first exposed. Think of the headlines of a newspaper above the fold as it sits on the newsstand.

Abstract: A synopsis of a work that appears before the main body of text.

Acknowledgments: The acknowledgments are often given their own page. Authors typically thank family and friends, as well as people that helped them research or compile information for the book.

Advance: The money that an author is initially paid for a manuscript that is to be published. Once the manuscript is published in book form, the author receives "royalties."

Afterword: A piece of writing at the end of the book that includes information that the author could not fit into the main body of text. Authors often use afterwords to reflect on the text after it has been completed.

Backlist: Books that are more than a year old and are still available for purchase. This term is also used to refer to previous issues or volumes of magazines and journals.

Blurb: Promotional text that appears on the back of the book or the inside covers. Blurbs normally give a general description of the book or additional information about the subject of the book.

Boilerplate: A plot that is reused without making any changes.

CMYK: The four colors typically used by printing presses. They are cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K).

Contact proof: Not to be confused with CONTRACT proof, contact proofs are generally monochrome (one color) and are used to view the layout and design of the manuscript.

Contract proof: These are typically full-color proofs. They are considered to be the final proof of a manuscript before it goes to print and should accurately reflect what the manuscript will look like after it has been printed.

Copy: This term refers to a manuscript that is past the editing stage and is ready to be typeset.

Copyright: Whoever owns the copyright to a work is able to use that work in any way he or she (or it, in the case of a company) sees fit without paying any royalties. Generally speaking, copyrights are respected internationally, although some countries either do not recognize copyrights from other countries or do not enforce them very strictly. These countries generally have a large black market of pirated material.

Costing: Figuring out the cost of bringing a book to print. This includes all costs that are possible to anticipate (the entire editing process, permissions [if applicable], artwork and illustrations, materials, and acquisition of rights).

Drop cap: Book chapters often make use of an ornately designed initial letter larger in size than the rest of the text. Drop caps are used far less frequently now than they were in the past.

Edition/First edition: An edition is simply one printing run of a book. A first edition is the first printing run of a book.

Foreword: A piece of writing before the main text of the book, not written by the author of the book, that serves as a sort of introduction.

Frontlist: This is a list of books recently published.

Galley proof: This term is becoming obsolete, and now publishers most often just use the word "proof." Historically, the galley was the tray into which lines of type were set when type was still set by hand (or by mechanical operation). Computers and modern printers have obviously eradicated the need for this kind of typesetting. Even though the term "galley" is no longer accurate, people in the publishing industry still refer to things going "to the galley." This simply means that the proofs are being made for a manuscript.

Ghostwriting: Writing a book for someone else. Autobiographies often make use of ghostwriters.

Hard copy: This refers to any text on paper.

Imprint: This is the name of the publisher and the date and place of publication.

ISBN: This is an abbreviation for International Standard Book Number, a number given to each book published. It is used for the purposes of cataloguing.

ISSN: This is an abbreviation for International Standard Series Number, a number given to journals and magazines when they are published. This is the equivalent of the ISBN.

Manuscript: The manuscript is the initial text that is submitted to a publisher. This is abbreviated as MS.

NBA: This is an abbreviation for New Book Announcement. An NBA includes all the information essential to the marketing of a book. This is not to be confused with the National Basketball Association.

Orphan: The first line of a paragraph that appears at the bottom of a page and is separated from the rest of the text.

PE: This is an abbreviation for printer's error.

Pass: A read-through of a manuscript is called a pass (e.g., first pass, second pass).

Permissions: Permissions are requested when quoting or including previously copyrighted material in a new publication.

Pica: This is a unit of measure used by a printer.

Point: This unit of measure is used to refer to font sizes.

Preface: A piece of writing preceding the main body of text that normally provides information about how the book came to be written. The preface sometimes contains the acknowledgments.

Prelims: The prelims include the publication information, table of contents, preface, acknowledgments, and anything else that occurs before the main body of text. This is also sometimes referred to as "front matter." Conversely, material at the end of the book, for example, the bibliography or appendix, is often referred to as "back matter."

Proofreading: This term literally means "reading proofs." Proofreading occurs after all major editing has been completed and the manuscript is ostensibly ready for print. Proofreading ensures that the proofs match the final manuscript and that there have been no errors in transcription.

Query: Editor's questions are called queries.

Ream: Five hundred sheets of paper.

Reissue: A reissue is a reprint of a book in which changes are made to the text.

Reprint: Any printing of a book after the first edition.

Royalties: The percentage of the total profit earned by an author for a particular work. This term is used in many different fields.

Style sheet: These sheets are indispensable for editors. Editors make up a style sheet for every document they edit to keep track of editorial decisions specific to that document.

Trade book: These books are meant for general readers. You may be more familiar with the term "trade paperback."

Typo: This term is short for typographical error. This is a misprint and should be distinguished from an actual mistake made by an editor or author.

UC/lc: These terms are abbreviations for uppercase and lowercase, respectively.

Widow: A word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph or appears at the top of a page and is separated from the rest of the text.

Windowing: Staggering the release of different formats of a book. For example, publishers often release hardcover editions and then release paperback editions six months later. The introduction of e-books into the market has made this a controversial subject as of late.

Blogs, Ebooks, and Self-Publishing

It is extremely difficult to cover the entire publishing industry in one lesson, although we've done our best here. We quickly want to point to a few other formats that are becoming increasingly popular and may, in the future, undo all that we have learned thus far.

Blogs

We spent a little bit of time talking about zines at the beginning of this lesson, and we'd like to end on that topic as well. Blogs are essentially the digital version of zines. While the format is very different (people generally don't scan typed images into their blogs), the concept and content are incredibly similar. Blogs (at least personal blogs) are about nuanced topics. They often cater to individuals with very specific tastes, and they don't have to follow any specific format. Anything goes. But what is unique about blogs and all other digital media is that they cost virtually nothing to generate. Zines were cheap, but not this cheap. In addition to costing virtually nothing, blogs have unlimited distribution channels. A blog that is generated for free can be read anywhere in the world at any time.

No longer are there pesky editors telling authors what they can and cannot publish. No longer does it take hours of cutting and pasting images and text onto paper to generate a few pages. Blogs are a victory for the common man!

However (and this is a big however), it won't last long. Already there are millions upon millions of blogs. Just because you don't have to have an editor or proofreader to publish something on the Internet doesn't mean that it isn't a good idea to have an editor or proofreader. In fact, those blogs that make proper use of editing and proofreading tend to draw in a larger number of visitors. After all, nothing is more of a turnoff than something that looks and sounds like it was written in a matter of minutes. Even if this is true, a good blog will hide that fact by spending ample time in post-production, rewording sentences, checking spelling, and verifying formatting.

E-books

With the introduction of the Kindle, the iPad, and other various smaller tablet-style reading devices, the publication of e-books has skyrocketed.

This means that the publishing industry is changing faster than ever before. Consumers are getting used to lower price points, easier storage, and instant gratification in terms of purchasing, and authors are increasingly looking at e-books as a way to bypass the traditional publishing bureaucracy. In other words, traditional publishing houses have rapidly become "the middle man," and in economic revolutions, it's always the middle man that gets cut out of the picture.

What does this mean for editors? There will probably be fewer jobs in terms of roles like developmental or acquisitions editor. Possibly more jobs will open up in copyediting on a freelance basis for individual author clients.

Self-Publishing

For those authors that still prefer to be "in print" in the traditional sense, there's never been a better time to try your hand at publishing. Once derided as "vanity presses," self-publishing companies have transformed into "print on demand" companies that make use of modern technology to do fast, cheap, short print runs of books. For the author, this means less financial risk upfront; for the editor, again, it means fewer jobs at traditional houses, but potentially more work on the freelance side.

The publishing industry is, like many others, a large and complex one, and it is rapidly changing. It requires all those involved to be creative, persistent, and doggedly optimistic. If you have what it takes, you can easily find a home in this industry.

Summary

In this unit, we've covered quite a bit of ground. If you are going to be working in the editing, proofreading, and publishing industry, almost all of this information is important for you to know. The terms you've read through are frequently used in a variety of situations, and they contribute to a larger vocabulary of words that allow editors, proofreaders, and others in the publishing industry to communicate effectively. In the next lesson, we'll talk specifically about the editor's role in the publishing process, and we'll talk about the various kinds of publishing that are out there waiting for you.

Last Updated: 09/29/2022