COPYEDITING • TYPESETTING • PROOFREADING • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • E-BOOK SERVICES

We provide comprehensive editorial and production services to the publishing industry:

Copyediting

This is the first key stage to producing the perfect book. We ensure spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct and consistent in terms of sense and suitability.

In the past, this was done on a hard copy of the manuscript, but copyediting is normally now done electronically, usually in Word, and often includes structuring the text for typesetting using tags or in-built styles.
 
We are used to working with different house styles and, depending on the level of intervention required, we can also restructure and rewrite as needed. We often liaise direct with authors and fully understand the need for sensitivity in this process, especially if rewriting is necessary.

See our About Us page for some of the subject areas we cover.

Typesetting

Designing attractive pages is crucial. We have Mac- and PC-based systems using the latest Adobe Creative Cloud software, primarily InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat Pro.
 
The complexity of the books we work on varies hugely – from more academic monographs involving several levels of footnotes and endnotes, parallel texts, integrated images and plate sections, through to fully illustrated books, brochures and exhibition material. 

We create original design layouts or follow in-house design briefs as appropriate, supplying print-ready PDF files as the final product.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the critical stage where final tweaks and corrections make sure the book is as polished as possible. This is also usually carried out onscreen now, by marking up PDF files electronically.

We check that spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct and consistent throughout, and validate all references to notes, tables and illustrations. We will flag up any queries for the author and publisher.

    Project Management

    We often also manage the whole project for a publisher, taking the author’s manuscript through editing, typesetting and proofreading to production of the final PDF files, closely liaising with the author and publisher throughout the whole process.

    e-Books

    We've found the tools for producing e-books have improved considerably over the last few years. Normally we use InDesign to produce the initial EPUB files, and then edit the XHMTL/CSS/OPF/NCX package files as necessary to ensure text and images are formatted accurately. 


    Using e-reader simulators and relevant hardware, we can test the e-book files to ensure the styles, links and TOC elements are functioning correctly.