Why Choose Superior Book Productions
When you choose Superior Book Productions, you can be sure you are working with people who are knowledgeable about all aspects of producing a high quality book. From writing to editing and from layout to printing, we will help you produce a professional and marketable book.
Tyler, our senior editor and founder, has a Ph.D. in English, has published fifteen of his own books, both through traditional and self-publishing, since 2006. Prior to that, he taught writing and English at the university level. Larry, our junior editor and layout artist, has an M.A. in English and has been a professional web designer, corporate writer, and editor/proofreader since 1996. Tyler and Larry met in 1993, when they shared an office at Northern Michigan University as teaching assistants in the English Department while earning their master’s degrees. Their longtime friendship ensures that they work well together. After Tyler published his first book, he hired Larry to design his website, and later, Larry began doing the layout for all of Tyler’s books. When Tyler began helping other authors by editing books for them, he enlisted Larry in assisting authors with their websites and book layout needs, and so Superior Book Productions was born in 2008.
Because Tyler and Larry work well together, Tyler has come to know a lot about the layout process and can guide you as an author in preparing a layout-ready manuscript. Similarly, Larry’s Master’s in English, corporate writing experience, and editing/proofreading work with Tyler means he is more knowledgeable than most layout people about writing. Many editors know little about layout, while most layout people know little about the niceties of grammar and punctuation. With Superior Book Productions, you get a team that is truly cross-trained to understand all aspects of your book’s production.
How the Process Works:
Editing
- You send us your completed manuscript in one Word file.
- Tyler does an edit sample for you so you can see what kind of work needs to be done and become comfortable with our editing style, and so we can arrive at a price and time frame for your project.1
- We will do two edits of your manuscript. The first edit will cover correcting grammar and punctuation. The second edit will focus on content and organization, and we will provide you with suggestions for revision.
- You make revisions to your manuscript based on our suggestions and your own preferences.
- You return the manuscript to us and we go through your revisions and edit or correct as needed, and then let you know if more work is still needed on your end.
- Once you and SBP are in agreement on the manuscript being complete, we will proofread the manuscript and make corrections. We will then deliver the final manuscript.
Layout
- Once you have a proofread manuscript, it will be ready for layout. Larry will create a price quote and time frame based on your chosen trim size (trim size is the physical size of the book expressed as width by height, i.e. 6” x 9”), the number of pages that trim size will generate, and any special requirements you may have, like adding images.1
- We will choose fonts and styles to suit your needs and send you sample pages.
- Once fonts and styles are decided upon, we will complete the interior layout. You will then have three opportunities to review the interior file and make adjustments.2
- We will create up to three cover designs based on your description of what you would like.3 Once you have selected a layout, we will, with your input, fine tune the cover providing up to three revisions.2
- Final interior and cover proofs will then be sent to you and Tyler so, along with Larry, three sets of eyes will look over the final manuscript.
- Needed corrections will be marked by you and Tyler in the PDFs of the proofs and we will make changes as required.
- Once the proofs are corrected and approved by you, they are ready for printing. You then have two options:
- Traditional Printing – We provide you with files ready to submit to a traditional printer.
- Print-On-Demand Services – We provide files you can upload to an online service like CreateSpace or Lightning Source. Or you provide your account information and we upload your files for you.
- Websites
- E-Books
- Marketing Materials
(Read our article on Offset Printing vs. Print-On-Demand for the pros and cons of these decisions)
Additional Services
1If you decide to add content/requirements to the project after the initial quote, it will entail additional costs above the quoted price. We will then either give you an additional quote for the extra work requested or bill you hourly, depending on the nature of the request.
2After the third attempt at an acceptable cover design, you will be billed at our current hourly rate for each new cover design.
3After the third revision, you will be charged at our hourly rate for all additional changes. We will, of course, correct errors at no cost.