From the moment the author wrote the work, until the book meets the reader, dozens of people take part in its "life". These are secretaries, editors, designers, proofreaders, layout designers, PR-managers. They all work on the individual stages of the publishing process required to produce a book.
The process of publishing a book begins with the transfer of the author's manuscript to the publishing house. The original is provided in the form specified by the publisher. The fact of the transfer is registered, and the author receives a receipt for acceptance. So that the book does not get lost during its long journey, a so-called movement card is drawn up for it, where the movements from one department of the publishing house to another are recorded.
To understand whether the book will be published, the editor-in-chief evaluates it. Then the manuscript is reviewed by an editor dealing with this topic. If a decision is made to refuse, it is accompanied by an explanation of the reasons.
After that, employees need to decide in what form the book will be published. A leading editor is assigned to it, who will deal with it until the release of the circulation. The editor must read the book in full, and state his impressions and expert assessment in the review. If the book is highly specialized, an external review may also be required - from a specialist in this field. As a result, a decision is made to print the manuscript in the original or with corrections. The book is included in the publishing training plan, and in the event that the same publishing house is engaged in distribution, the corresponding department begins to gradually develop an advertising campaign plan.
One of the most important stages of preparing a publication is editing. This is the job of the lead editor. He, if necessary, changes the structure of the book, corrects the style and grammatical flaws. The editor may decide that the book should be accompanied by an annotation or preface, and some passages of text - with notes. All these edits are made in order to make the work complete and harmonious, as convenient as possible for readers to perceive.
Errors and misprints in the manuscript are also corrected by a proofreader. All editorial and significant proofreading changes must be coordinated with the author.
For a book to acquire a face, an art editor or designer is working on it. Together with the lead editor, he determines how the cover and endpapers should look, what illustrations are needed. If necessary, several specialists are involved (to create illustrations, graphs, diagrams, etc.). In parallel, the process of technical editing is underway - the format of the book is determined, the principles of placing text and illustrations on the pages, the typeface and size of the font, and methods of highlighting the text are selected.
All edits are brought together. In accordance with them, the complete and final layout of the book is made up. It, sometimes with a technical specification, is passed on to the printing house. The first copy of the book is called a signal copy - it must be reviewed by an editor and proofreader to make sure that there are no errors and that the entire circulation can be printed.
