Explaining the Production Process
The Production phase of your project covers the process of developing your book from manuscript submission to print, whether that’s an internal offset print run or set up on PoD (print on demand) platforms. This includes cover design, interior layout, and e-book production along with copyediting and proofreading. We’ll cover the process for copyediting in more detail in a separate document.
Once production of your book is complete, Otterpine will also help you set up an internal digital or offset print run (if needed), and we’ll set up your book on PoD platforms like Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll help you make decisions about the need for an internal print run and help you define your sales platforms.
In our definition, manuscript production assumes that your book is ready for copyedit. If your book requires developmental editing, it’s still in pre-production.
While this is generally a helpful way to think of production, it can be a little misleading, as parts of the production phase sometimes start while your book is in developmental editing. And while we recommend copyediting and proofreading for every project, we don’t always do both on every project.
As with editorial, your production manager will be your main point of contact throughout this stage.
Cover Design
While your book is still in editorial (usually around the beginning of copyedit), we will start art direction for your cover. This includes sending you a brief Design Checklist form to get your input on the cover, including what you’d like to see on the back (e.g., book description, author bio and photo, blurbs, etc.).
This is also when we will want to finalize the book’s title, subtitle (if applicable), and trim size. Trim size refers to the dimensions of the book. Different book genres often have certain conventions in trim sizes. Some standard trim sizes are 6” x 9,” 5.5” x 8.5,” 5” x 7,” and 5” x 8,” though we have options for non-standard trim sizes as well.
We will often start the cover design process by asking you to do a cover assessment in a collaborative design software called Figma, during which we provide you with many examples of covers from previously published books and ask you to put them in categories of Like, Dislike, and Neutral, along with providing feedback on aspects such as font choice, color, image selection, composition, etc. This will help our designer get a sense of your aesthetic preferences so they can keep that in mind while creating options for your cover. Authors are also welcome to send us photos or links to additional book covers they like.
Our creative director and your production manager will then work with the designer to create several cover mock ups. These will be shared with you in Figma, where you will be asked to assess them much like you did with the sample covers earlier. Based on your feedback on the first round of cover designs, the designer will then create a second round. Most covers require 2–3 rounds before they arrive at the perfect cover. We find that this process is often about defining what you don’t like as that makes it easier to define what you do like.
It’s important to understand that effective book cover design is not just about what you “like” aesthetically; it is a marketing tool that considers many different factors beyond aesthetics, such as what the design communicates to the audience, how it fits within genre conventions while also standing out, and how it will render as a thumbnail on online platforms. Sometimes the design we like the best isn’t always the best choice for the cover. For instance, if you have written a business book, you probably don’t want a cover that looks like a romance novel, even if you think it’s beautiful. If you’ll be primarily selling your book on online platforms, you probably don’t want a cover with small fonts and lots of tiny detail. These are things we will take into consideration and discuss with you as we get closer to finalizing your final cover.
After your front cover is finalized, we will move on to the full-spread cover design, which includes the back cover and spine. This is when we will finalize any back cover copy, including the book description and author bio, author photo, company branding, or anything else you want to include on the back cover.
Interior Layout and Design (also known as Typesetting)
The layout process usually starts as soon as the front cover design is close to being finalized, though that may not be the case for all projects. For some complex layout projects, we prefer to start with the layout first. However, it is essential that the book’s trim size is settled before layout, as that greatly affects the designer’s approach to the interior design.
Much like with the cover assessment, we may send you a Figma board with sample pages from other books to get your feedback about what you like and don’t like. You may also send us examples of interior layouts you like (by scanning or taking pictures of interior spreads). This step is not always necessary, but it can be helpful when authors have strong aesthetic preferences or when the interior will be highly designed.
Usually sometime before the manuscript is finalized (before copyedit is complete) our designer will create 2 to 3 font tests for your book. These are short design samples using the latest draft of the manuscript. The designer will create multiple design treatments for the various features of your book, including things like type/font, line spacing, headers and footers, table of contents, chapter openers, epigraphs, pull-quotes, tables, exercises, etc. You will be invited to provide comments on these .pdfs about the treatment of any and all of these features.
Most often, we end up combining elements from the font tests to land on the final treatment. But sometimes, we end up going back to the drawing board with more rounds of font tests if these aren’t hitting the mark. Knowing what you don’t like still helps the design process.
Some authors are very involved in making decisions about the details of their interior design, while others take a more hands off approach and want us to make these decisions. It’s really up to you, and we are always happy to accommodate your needs.
Once the interior design direction is clear, and once the copyedit is complete and the manuscript has been finalized by the project manager, the full interior design and layout will begin. This can take anywhere from 1–4 weeks. When the layout is complete, it is time for proofreading.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the final stage of editing and the last line of defense for the content of your book; in fact, it is considered by many to be a part of the production and design stage of publishing rather than editorial. Proofreaders look at the final designed pages of a book and do one last review before it goes to print, looking for things like typos, misplaced punctuation, layout errors, capitalization errors, bad breaks in pages or lines, etc. The proofreaders work to fix and correct any errors they may see that the copyeditor or designer missed. They are specialized editors who work to find any mechanical errors and make sure that the words look on the pages as they should.
Simultaneous with our proofread, you will also have an opportunity to review the layout. We will send you the .pdf along with instructions on how to mark up the document. (It’s important to note that this is not the time to make any major changes to the content or design of your book; those issues should have already been resolved by this point.) Your project manager will then combine your feedback with the proofreader’s to send corrections to the designer. After those corrections are made, the layout is complete and your book is ready for print!
Ideally, this coincides with the completion of your book cover. We will send you a final .pdf document including the cover and interior that you may use for promotional purposes.
Indexing
Some authors will want an index created for their book. We contract with professional indexers who have specialized skills in this area. An index is created only after the proofread is complete and the layout is finalized, as the index is dependent on the book’s final page numbers.
E-book Production
Once we have the final .pdf of the book’s interior, we will start production on the e-book. Your .epub e-book is a coded file that we’ll design to stay as true to your interior layout design as possible. It’s not a layout per se, as .epub files are designed so that the reader can adapt the layout based on their preferences for font, size, justification, and more. We’ll design it to be adaptable across the wide array of .epub readers and layout changes.
Otterpine will do thorough quality control of your ebook across multiple apps and devices, such as iBook and Kindle for both PC and Mac, in both regular and dark mode. When our review is complete, we will send you the .epub file to review if you’d like.
When reviewing your .epub e-book, you’re mainly looking for design and layout issues. The .epub e-book experience is user-designed, which means that every reader can change the layout style based on their preference. Also, every e-book software renders the .epub file a little bit differently, so it can help to test out different apps/devices, different fonts, backgrounds, settings, page sizes, etc. This review is more on functionality of the .epub file, not for proofreading or typos. However, if you notice any typos or proofreading issues, please let us know.
Audiobook Production
Some authors want to release an audiobook at the same time as their print and e-book, others wait until later, while others choose not to record an audiobook at all. Some book formats and genres lend themselves better to audiobooks than others. We will work with you to decide if and when producing an audiobook might be right for you.
We are proud to partner with an Asheville-based indie audiobook production company. If you choose to make an audiobook, there are a few different paths you can take. One is to have your book narrated by a professional voice actor, where we would take care of all aspects of the production and recording aspects of the project. You may also choose to narrate the book yourself, in which case you can either record in our Asheville studio, a recording studio in your area, or at home.
If you want to record at home, our audio engineers will work closely with you to ensure your recording set up is ideal. It’s not as complicated as it seems! All it takes is a decent mic, a pop filter, some basic recording software, and a quiet room. You will have experts to consult and guide you every step of the way. When the recording is complete, all editing and post-production will be taken care of on our end, and we will review the finished product in partnership with you to decide if any additional recording is necessary.
