Sugartown Publishing

Many Approaches

to Editing a Book

Line-editing: Reading purely for typographical, grammatical and punctuation errors. No comment on overall content, idea development, or structure of work.

Copy-editing: Reading for paragraph unity, syntax (sentence structure and cohesiveness), style, grammatical and punctuation errors.

Developmental editing: Reading for overall structure and organization; idea development and logic or clarity as to intention of the author and its fulfillment; syntax (sentence structure and cohesiveness), style, grammatical and punctuation errors.

Indexing: Reading to identify relevant entries in order to create and edit a book index, necessary for most non-fiction or academically oriented books.

Proofreading: often the most overlooked but most important task in polishing a book, proofreading is a form of editing that is specifically looking for typographical errors, as well as inconsistencies that have slipped past both the author and editor, such as in the way citations are handled, numerals, typography and design choices.

What to Consider When Designing a Book

Binding: soft or hardcover

Size: most trade paperbacks are 5.5x8.5 or 6x9

Front Cover: color or black & white, image, font style, finish

Front of the Book
Table of Contents

Illustrations or Maps

Author’s Biography

Epigraphs and/ or Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface: written by the author

Foreword: written by someone other than the author, sometimes an eminent person with expertise in the subject matter or who knows the author

Back Matter

Appendix or Appendices

References or Footnotes

Glossary

Bibliography

Colophon

Body or Main Section of the Book

Font & leading: depending on the font you choose, a good point size for a lot of readable text is 11/12 or 12/13

Chapter titles: you can get more creative with your chapter fonts and often sans serif faces or more decorative faces are chosen here

Justified or Ragged right-hand margin

Running heads or footers

Placement of page numbers
 
Back Cover
Photo
Promotional Copy
Blurbs from readers, “experts,” notable or reliable people in the author’s field
ISBN  Bar Code
Price
Cover & back photo credits
Info about author
Photo of Author