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timing your book design

One of the components of publishing that many first-time authors do not allot enough time in their overall schedule for is the book design and layout process. Knowing what is involved in this important step can increase your chances of more accurately predicting when your book will be ready to go to print. This in turn allows you to plan your marketing and sales around a more accurate shipment date.

The design and layout timeline varies slightly depending on the type of book you are producing - 200 page black & white trade book vs. 800 page full-colour educational textbook - but the main steps taken by the designer are basically the same. We will follow a timeline for a tradition trade book (black & white with colour cover).

1. Cover Design

1. Most designers (D) will initially produce 3 different cover comps for you to choose your final design from.
2. The author (A) chooses a cover from the comps submitted. Usually, there are changes to the comp, such as colour and font, and the cover is tweaked by the designer and resubmitted for approval.
3. (A) - approves the cover. This will now be used as a basis for the interior design as elements such as fonts and images will be used in areas such as chapter openers.

2. Interior Design and Layout

Once the cover has been approved, the designer can move on to the interior of the book. At this point, they should have the entire edited final manuscript from the author.

1. (D) - will produce an interior page design that matches the cover using complementary fonts and images. The final edited manuscript is used to layout the pages.
2. (A) - is sent a draft layout in PDF form to edit. This is the most crucial edit and they need to read the entire book to check for spelling errors, grammatical errors, and layout issues. Corrections are sent to the designer.
3. (D) - corrects the pages and sends a revised PDF (Edit1) to the author for review. At this time there should less errors to catch, mostly in new text additions. Designer and author go through this process again (Edit 2).
4. (D) - Final changes are made to the pages and a final clean PDF (Edit 3) is sent to the author for final review. The author signs off on this copy if it is clean. Once the cover is complete, the files will go to the printer.

*Add 2-3 days if you require the creation of charts/graphs or any photoediting. Add an 1-2 days if large portions of text or full sections are rewritten after Edit 2, which requires repagination.

3. Back Cover Completed & Off to Press

Although the book cover has been designed, the back cover is usually left until the end to put together as the author will need to figure out price, back cover copy, and get their ISBN and barcode. As well, the spine width cannot be determined by the printer until the final page count is known, usually not until the second or third edit when there are no more major edits.

1. (A) - supplies the designer with all back cover elements - copy, author photo (if needed), price, and ISBN (barcode if they have it). The spine width will be provided by the printer.
2. (D) - puts together entire cover - continuing the front cover design elements onto the spine and back cover. A proof is supplied to the author in PDF format.
3. (A) - proofs the cover and marks any changes.
4. (D) - makes any changes requested and submits a final PDF for approval.
5. (D) - preps the final files and sends them to the printer.

Once your files are at the printer, you will also need to budget in another 2 weeks before proofs will be sent to you for approval, some time for you and your designer to go over them in detail (3 days each), and then time to ship them back to the printer (depends on location). Once that is over, the printing begins and in a couple of weeks your finished book will be in your hands.

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