Please read & follow these guidelines carefully to avoid potential aggravation, delays, budget problems, & disappointment later on. If you follow these guidelines, you stand to gain publisher appreciation, timely publication, and a high-quality book at a reasonable price. Just for following a few guidelines . . .
Please read sections I & II no matter what, III & IV only if applicable.
1. Please have all art, captions, art calls, & permissions together and numbered consecutively when you submit the final manuscript to the publisher. This will save a lot of time, money, & trouble later. If for some unavoidable reason there is a permission or figure to come, please make sure that the art call and caption are both in place, with an informative note such as: <permission for fig 3 to come Sept. 2001> or <photo 3 to come Sept. 2001>. If you must send anything late, please make sure that it is very clearly labeled! Please see additional document “Permissions: An Author’s Guide.”
We cannot commence typesetting until ALL art is in hand & permissions are cleared.
2. Please keep very clear records of every piece of art and the corresponding captions. Numbering consecutively (1, 2, 3, . . . in the order in which you wish your art to appear in the final book) is the simplest way to ensure that staff unfamiliar with the art/subject matter will place the art correctly.
3. Please provide your captions together in one disk file, not scattered throughout the text of the book. Print the caption manuscript. All caption numbers should match up with art numbers. If you need to make additional notations within the captions, e.g. <Crop as shown> or <Permission to come>, include them in brackets, bold, etc.
4. Do you want your art to appear in “art-only” insert sections (it’s possible to have one or more of these) or to be incorporated with the text? Either way, this must be clearly stated in a very prominent manner. Keep in mind that art inserts (on paper or in colors different from the main text) cannot fall “just anywhere.” They must fall between printing signatures, which can mean every 16, 32, or 64 pages, depending on the printing press, and towards the middle of the book for binding strength.
5. If your art is to fall with the text, the manuscript needs to have art calls to show about where your art should be placed, in the form of:
<fig 1 about here>
Art calls should be placed between paragraphs, not in the middle of a sentence. Keep in mind that the typesetter may not be able to place the art exactly where you want it, but will work to keep the image as close to your art call as possible.
Please place a photocopy of the artwork in your manuscript, right after its art call.
6. Because art placement cannot be exact, do not use phrases in your text such as “shown in figure 3 below”—figure 3 could fall above your reference. Instead just say “shown in figure 3.”
7. Make sure your editor & typesetter know if you want to keep the numbers with the captions in the printed book. If the art is not referenced in the text, it is ok to drop the number from the typeset caption, though it should most definitely appear in your caption manuscript (this allows the typesetter to match up the caption and art). Circle the caption number on your manuscript or leave a note in the caption file:
<caption numbers do not set> if you want to omit them in the book.
8. Think carefully about the sizing of the art. If you want to see each photo sized before it is matched up with text in first page proof, your art/production coordinator must know well in advance (we don’t normally show art sizes until first page proof). If you wish certain pictures to be larger or more prominent, this must also be communicated early in the project by marking it on caption copy, in bold & brackets <fig 2 large>. If your book has lots of headshots, you’ll need to label each one as A, B, C, etc. based on importance (the designer will come up with standard sizes).
9. Make sure you have the appropriate permissions to use any photos, illustrations, or maps. Simply crediting the owner/creator of a work is not enough; you must actually receive written or verbal permission to use the piece (complete guidelines about permissions & copyright laws available upon request). Once you have received permission, then you must make sure to include the source in the caption copy. Please include copies of all permissions letters with your artwork (all permissions together, not interspersed with the photos or manuscript). If any permissions are not available when you submit the manuscript, list them for the publisher & include the note <permission to come> in the caption. Your production coordinator can give you a date by which all permissions must be final, or else the image will have to be cut from the book. See additional document “Permissions: An Author’s Guide”.
10. Do note that images normally cannot be returned until the book is actually being printed & bound. Depending on the length of your editorial & production process, this could be a year or more. Please make sure any contributors are aware of the length of time they’ll have to be without the artwork—if they insist that you can only have a copy, please make sure that it’s a high-quality one. Also, you will be responsible for returning artwork to contributors. Keep careful records of return addresses, preferably separate from the artwork itself. It’s easy for a slip of paper with an address to get separated from the original.
1. If your final output is to be black and white, black-and-white originals will give the best results. Also note that any dot-based output (newspaper, magazine, computer art printed at a low DPI) will not reproduce well.
2. Originals will always reproduce better than copies. If you do have irreplaceable originals & want to make copies of the photos, keep the copies for yourself & send the originals to the publisher, with a note about the delicate & irreplaceable & emotional nature of the originals.
3. When you number the artwork, please be careful not to harm your originals. Do not write on the backs of a pile of photos in felt-tipped marker, then stack photos on each other—the ink will smear onto the next photo & won’t come off. Also, do not use paperclips—these can cause permanent dents & scratches which will have to be retouched later, at some expense. It’s ok to add sticker labels or post-its with information to the back of the photos. You can also write gently on the back with ball point pen, being careful not to dent the photo with the pressure of the pen.
4. Do not mark cropping with grease pencil on the fronts of photos. If certain images should be cropped, the easiest way is to photocopy the image & mark cropping on the copy. Please include the instruction <CROP as shown> in your caption for that image, to make sure your cropping isn’t missed. Mark any retouching required similarly, and bring it to your publisher’s attention. Retouching can be expensive, though a small amount of “dirt cleanup” is usually included for free by scanner operators.
5. If you want special printing options for your photos (generally reserved for coffee-table books), please discuss them with your publisher early. The publisher’s budget for a book is set very early on. The publisher may be able to accommodate a coated art paper, for example, but may need you to limit the number of photos to cut scanning costs.
6. Pack images very carefully, being sure to include cardboard so that they’re not bent. It’s best to ship them by FedEx, or some other method where you can track the package & insure it if necessary. It’s also best if you let the art recipient know when to expect your package. Your publisher and scanner will take the same precautions when shipping the artwork later on.
1. Scanning for offset printing requires technical knowledge and artistic judgment. You’ll probably get the best quality reproduction by providing photo prints for a professional to make the scans (instead of making scans yourself). This is especially true if the original is previously printed (newsprint, magazine), or combines text/line art with grayscale elements.
2. If you’re going to provide scans, please carefully follow these guidelines, and realize that you are taking a big responsibility on your shoulders.
3. Resolution is extraordinarily important! Your photographs must be scanned at a minimum of 300 DPI (dots per inch), at the reproduction size. Your 300 DPI scan cannot be enlarged more than about 10% without noticeable “bit-mapping.”
Line art should be scanned at a minimum of 1000 DPI, preferably 1200 DPI. Keep it in “bitmap” mode in Photoshop. Do NOT convert it to “grayscale” mode, or you’ll lose the detail. For art combining gray & line elements, it’s best to send in the original for an expert to scan.
4. Format: Do not compress your scans! If you save as jpeg or gif format, you are compressing the scan, and some detail will be lost. Save instead as TIFF format (PC format preferably) or EPS format.
5. If your original is in color, scan in color, & leave the conversion to gray to an expert.
6. Please name & number your scans appropriately. Your publisher & production coordinator will often refer to your book project by your last name, and use that name in scans. So a good name would be “08 Smith.tif”. You can include descriptive information if you like, but the number is most important, so please list it first. For numbers 1 through 9, please place a zero first, as 01, 02, 03, so that those numbers will sort in correct order.
7. Please provide numbered printouts of all scans! Mark the printouts similar to:
<Author scan “08 Smith.tif”> If any retouching is required, mark it here & on the caption copy, set off with brackets so it’s not overlooked.
8. Please send your scans on 100 mb zip disk, CD, or high density floppy disk (ask before sending any other media). Do not try to email them unless you’ve discussed it in advance with your production coordinator. If you do email scans, it is especially important that they are labeled with your name or the project name. “photo 1” isn’t enough.
1. In a compilation, it is best if the general editor handles the artwork for the volume. If the general editor has all the drawings done by the same artist, the final volume will not have figures of varying style and type sizes, and will look better.
2. If the book has many figures to be created, it is most advisable to submit a sample of one finished drawing to the publisher before all the drawings are made (this would be during the manuscript approval process).
3. The illustrations will be printed in one color in the book: black. No second color or multicolors can be accommodated without the publisher’s agreement.
4. The artwork for figures should be prepared with sharp, well-defined lines of black ink or type on white board or paper. In some cases if it is necessary or convenient for an artist to trace from a piece of base art, then the finished illustration could be prepared on a sheet of matte finish acetate. This type of acetate will take pen or brush work very well.
5. The art can be oversized as long as the type used (if any) will appear as approximately 9 or 10 point when the illustration is reduced to the final printed size on the book page. The type needs to be legible, of course, so it mustn’t be too small. Nor should it be so large that it appears overwhelming on the final printed page.
6. Please make sure that the type on the illustration is final. It is difficult to correct editorial errors on artwork.
7. The most common book page size is 6 x 9 inches. The “live” printing area for this size is about 4-1/2” x 7”. The illustration will need to fit into this space after reduction. (When giving instructions for preparing oversize art, you could tell the artist that a fifty-percent reduction is the most common.) There is no need to make simple diagrams occupy the full area; very occasionally, it is possible to extend figures slightly into the page margins.
8. It is best to consult with the publisher regarding the particular typeface for your book before setting labels.
9. Patterns such as dots and crosshatchings may be used as long as they are not so complicated that they become confusing to the eye. Only relatively coarse screens should be used. The coarseness depends on how much the art will be reduced.
10. The book will be printed on an offset press, so all techniques and procedures common to this form of printing should be kept in mind by the artist who is preparing material for reproduction.
11. Please be sure that the original art is sent to BW&A—not xerox or photoprint copies of the art. Keep copies for your reference, and for use in preparing caption copy.
12. Electronic art can be furnished & is easier to correct if there are editorial errors, but it requires technical savvy to produce and should still follow guidelines 1–11. We prefer Adobe Illustrator eps format (Freehand is also ok, but will be harder to correct if errors are found). PDF files are also ok, but make sure the resolution is at least 1200 DPI for anything with type, and note that changes will be difficult. Please do not provide Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint artwork. Instead, print the figure so it can be scanned. No matter what electronic format, please provide a labeled printout of each illustration in case it has to be recreated (a last resort). Please include information about your computer and the file type, e.g. Mac Illustrator 7 eps. Include your fonts on disk, if possible. If possible, speak with your production coordinator before preparing much electronic art.
___________________________________
Prepared for Wesleyan University Press by
B. Williams & Associates, Book Design and Production
1009 West Main Street, Durham, NC 27701
919-956-9111 bwa@bwabooks.com