The Development Process from Start to Completion
In almost all cases book development is an iterative process and is rarely done all at once. The process is straight forward, but considering all of the elements to go from a raw edited manuscript to a polished final product we feel it’s best to break the complete process into a series of steps. This ensures consistency from the first page to the last and eliminates oddities and issues in between. The text will go through a number of specific passes before it is considered “done”.
General Overview
Pass 1) This is a general overview of the manuscript looking for things that will come up later on. This looks for instances of foot notes, end notes, side bars, call outs, images, and other additions to the narrative that the author is looking to include. Knowing early on if special treatments are needed or desired will help with the development process later on.
Initial Layout
Pass 2) The manuscript gets dropped into the layout program. In most instances this is Adobe InDesign. The bulk of the text is then tagged with specific paragraph styles. These styles are usually unique to the book. They define the typeface, point size, spacing, justification, indent depth, and a number of other characteristics. When the bulk of the text has styles applied, we have a pretty good idea as to how long the book is going to be. If it’s going to seem exceedingly long, we may consider dropping the point size 1/2 to 1 full point and decreasing the line spacing a bit as well. Conversely, if it seems shorter than desired then it’s a good time to change the format to a smaller size, increase the point size and spacing, and also adjust margins.
Text Management
Pass 3) We go back through the text and work to eliminate odd spacing between words and other distracting visuals. Most of the text does not have hyphenation applied. But there are times that it is necessary to keep a string of long words from having too much or too little space between them. By allowing hyphens to break up selected words and managing the kerning we can eliminate oddities that distract from the narrative.
Titling
Pass 4) After the bulk of the text has been managed to eliminate visual problems in the paragraphs, then we look at the titling. This includes chapter titles, sub-titles, and secondary titling within the narrative, as well as the spacing from the titles to the text.
Detailing
Pass 5) At this point it’s time to look at the detailing of the text eliminating widows, orphans, and runts wherever possible. This gives the book a professional and polished look. Optimally, a paragraph that spans two pages does not have a single line at the bottom of the previous page (an orphan) or a single partial line at the top of the following page (a widow). There are times when the text is just not going to comply, but most of them can be resolved. A “runt” is a short word at the end of a paragraph on its own line that is shorter than the following paragraph indent. From a visual standpoint, these should be resolved whenever possible.
Headers and Footers
Pass 6) Now that the text is set and most issues are resolved and we know things are not going to be moving around, we add the headers, footers, and other finishing details. At this time, we can set the page numbering and create the Table of Contents and add the Copyright information.
Additional Detailing
Pass 7+) Depending on the complexity of the book and how we feel about the previous processes, we may make additional passes through the text from front to back help to ensure that everything is correctly set, properly defined, and there are not any distractions to the reader.
Reviewing Progress
Along the way, we send samplings of the text after the initial layout to make sure the look and feel is accepted. If any final corrections need to be made, they can be relayed in a couple of ways and get taken care of.
Converting to eBook
After the print version is considered “done” then we can make the eBook conversion. Since everything has a defined style applied, the electronic version will mimic the print version visually and work much like a book with proper page breaks and navigation. Having the styles defined and applied is important since they convert to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The underlying mechanism for an eBook works in the same manner as a web page, so minimizing overrides to the defined styles is important.
Keeping Focused
Between passes through the text, we get away from it long enough to change perspective and keep focus on the project. This could be an hour, a day, or maybe more. Trying to do it all at once invariably ends up missing details and things that should not be there or should be and aren’t.
Summary
A well planned and executed development path helps to give the text of a book a nice, clean, and easily readable text.
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For more information or to inquire about your book project with Bravo Book Design use our Contact Form, or email us at BravoBookDesign@gmail.com or call 509-953-8680 9am to 4pm Pacific.
