How Long Does It Take To "Make a Book?"



I got a phone call the other day from a potential client who called to ask me that. My answer was as follows:



Getting a manuscript ready for the printer takes roughly 3 to 4 weeks on average, here's why:



The first step is to get all the details such as page trim size, type and amount of graphics, type of binding and for me to review sample manuscript to make sure it's prepared correctly (I will cover this topic on another post.)



Once I review manuscript I can present a quote for approval and set out payment terms.



I then go to work on presenting Sample Page Designs for the client's review. Here's where the book "comes alive" and out of the Word Document and into a professional layout program such as Quark Xpress and InDeisgn.



I design the book by doing the following: choosing which fonts to use, how to handle Parts and Chapter treatment, picture placement, sizing and caption treatment, front matter and any back matter. I choose size, leading, margins. I create a book to be both functional AND attractive.

I usually ask for 3 to 5 business days to present Sample Page Designs.



The next few days are usually spent tweaking the design and getting all the elements' attributes determined long before the book is actually typeset so we don't run into any snags during or after I lay out the book.



Once the design is approved, i ask for 7 to 10 business days to format the book from title page to index, if one is provided. (I will cover Indexes in a later post as well)
Laying out the book comprises of my writing paragraph and character specs and applying them to the manuscript once I "pour" it into Quark or Indesign. I make one pass to format the text; another pass to tweak my formatting, looking for any bad line or page breaks; another pass to manually put in the running headers as they correspond to a chapter name; yes another pass to set up the table of contents and then finally a last past to give it the "once over" to look for any styling I may have missed or pictures that may have moved or any other "glitches" in the layout.


That brings us up to about 15 to 18 working days which is roughly 3 weeks time.



I then present First Proof PDF for the client's review and from that point on it's a matter of how much "clean up" edits there are and how fast the client can get those back to me - I usually offer 48 hour or less time to do that part.



Once the client signs off on the final PDF proof, I create a HI RES PDF file for the pinter using their specifications.



And there you have it -- in a nutshell.
When I got done explaining this to my potential client, he said "well whatdaya know? That's exactly what this books says it takes to do I book and i thought to myself, NO WAY could it take 3 to 4 weeks. I am going to call JustYourType.biz and ask them how long it takes."
---Sue
---Sue