A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Technical Stuff

 

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic addresses the technical aspects of publishing -- things that experienced authors know but first-time authors do not and, more important, things that publishers expect all authors to know. (This information is also important for authors considering self-publishing.)

• Illustrations
• All illustrations (drawings, photos, charts, tables, graphics) need to be 300 dpi at the size to be used (the smaller the size, the higher the dpi will be).
• Yes, iPhone pictures will work; however, if you crop a picture, you will be essentially making the portion of the picture to be used of a larger size and the dpi will increase; do not let it fall below 300 dpi).
• Generally, tables and graphics should be numbered and sent separately from a manuscript; ask the publisher for a spec sheet for graphics since each publisher has its own requirements.
• Whoever provides the illustration for a cover needs to understand that a pretty picture does not always make a good cover; the cover is not the foreground but the background; there needs to be space for title and author--and title and author need to dominate; sometimes "boring" pictures make great covers because they do not compete with the title but support it.
• Keep in mind that if your illustrations are horizontal in a vertical book, some compensation will need to be made in cropping the picture or fitting it onto just a portion of the page; where possible, match illustration and book orientation; where not possible, consider publishing a collection of photos in the middle of the book or at the end.
• Color vs black & white
• Color is very expensive to print and causes the publisher to set a higher retail price on the book; sometimes, that book is too high for the genre (i.e. people won't pay that much for it); consider carefully whether or not you need color (obviously, a coffee table picture book generally needs to in color, but in many cases, color does not add that much to a quality grey scale picture)
• Color will need to be converted to grey scale; find out if the publisher expects you to do that (then learn how to do it well or hire someone); MSI Press asks for the original color as we prefer to the conversion ourselves, but publishers vary in their preference.
• Paper
• Publishers have a choice of creme, white, wood product, and other shades of paper; the publisher usually has a preference, but if you have a preference, this is something that most publishers will negotiate.
• Paper comes in various weights: 20#, 50#, 70#, silk, and other options; the higher the poundage, the better the paper and the easier color stands out (color generally cannot be printed on 20# paper because it will show through on the back side).
• Length
• Publishers generally are more interested in the number of words than in the number of pages; average trade sizes run 60,000 to 90,000 words; considerably more words will result in higher costs for publication and higher retail prices on books (and therefore often fewer sales, though some publishers specialize in hefty tomes); considerably fewer words can mean not having enough pages to allow for a spine or for words on a spine.
• Sometimes, e.g, a picture book with a small number of words per picture and a picture per page, page count is more important to convey to the publisher than word count.
• Look at the size and types of books published by the publisher to know whether your length will be appropriate. 
• Style
• Very few publishers will allow you to use whatever style you wish; some have in-house style sheets and will let you know.
• The most commonly used style manuals are APA Style Manual and Chicago Manual of Style; it will behoove you to become familiar with them.
• It will be easier for you to select a style manual before you write your book rather than after; even if you have to convert to another style, it will be easier because you have consistency and can make some algorithmic changes.

The bottom line is that these technical requirements should not come as a surprise. They should be something you become proficient at and comfortable with. You will come across as more professional to a publisher if you do. 

Want to read more about preparing a book for publication? Click HERE.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Understand the technical stuff of publication. You will have to deal with it at some point, anyway. Start off by understanding it, and it will make your book preparation easier in the long run.

 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic you would like to see addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 17 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.