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Each
manuscript submitted to THREE·C·PUBLISHING·COMPANY
will be given prompt and careful consideration. Please
submit manuscripts or manuscript proposals to us at:
THREE·C·PUBLISHING·COMPANY
5104 Abbey Glen Drive
Flower Mound, Texas 75028
When
preparing a manuscript the use of a proper word processing
program or layout program will greatly enhance the proofreading,
editing, formatting and printing functions. We highly
recommend that each manuscript be submitted in MS Word
format for ease of transfer. We require that all
authors provide their manuscripts on a 3.5 inch floppy
disk, formatted in one of the programs listed below,
preferably MS Word. We require that you also submit
two (2) hard copies of the manuscript. The hard copy
of the manuscript should be printed out from the disk
submitted disk so that both are exactly alike.
In
addition, the submitted work should be saved in sections
on the disk as separate documents, such as:
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(1)
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Front
matter |
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(2)
|
Chapter
1
|
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(3)
|
Chapter
2 |
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(4)
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Chapter
3 etc. |
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(5)
|
Bibliography |
|
(6)
|
End
matter |
If
you choose not to use MS Word for the submitted manuscript,
the following are the types of formats that we accept
at the present time for book interior layout and cover
layout.
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Book layout and design
It is best
that the manuscript be submitted in MS Word format and
to allow the design and format to be performed by TCPC
to reduce the copyediting and other formatting problems.
TCPC realizes that each book should have it's own look
to it. TCPC will take the submitted manuscript and convert
the manuscript to the proper size, formatting, fonts,
color, and graphics to make each book unique. We have
listed some general hints here to help you out.
| • |
Set
page sizes to the finished size of your book. If
your book is going to be 6x9 then the page size
should be set to 6x9. Elements that bleed should
extend 1/8 of an inch off the page. |
| • |
Margins
should be set to take into account the binding edge
of the book. Margins are a personal preference. |
| • |
Leave
documents as single page or simple reader spreads.
There is no need to impose, as we will do that prior
to printing. |
| • |
Whenever
possible the master pages should be used to insure
that common elements are consistently placed. |
| • |
Style
sheets are a writer's best source. |
| • |
Please
do not use more than three (3) fonts in your manuscript.
(Include the names of these fonts when submitting
the manuscript) |
Cover layout
and design
File construction for covers depends greatly on how
the book will be bound.
TCPC will set the page size to the finished size of
your cover, which will include the spine.
For example, a 6x9 book with a 1/2 inch spine should
have a page size of 12.5x9. Elements that bleed should
be extended at least a 1/4 off the page.
| • |
Determine the spine width. |
| • |
Elements
that do not bleed should be kept at least 1/4 inch
from the edge. |
| • |
Graphical
elements should be of sufficient resolution and
color space. |
Fonts
TCPC understands that using different fonts can really
help to convey a certain look or draw attention to certain
elements in your book. TCPC can convert the text to
the proper fonts and size. This is faster and easier
to do by TCPC than the Author submitting the work.
If you choose to do your own fonts, you should always
ensure that the fonts you choose are going to print
the way you want them to print. This can be done by
following some of the guidelines listed below.
| • |
The general consensus is that Post Script Type 1
fonts are superior to True Type fonts, based on
their reliability. An excellent and free Type 1
management tool is Adobe ATM Lite. All users, regardless
of platform should be aware that the style buttons,
such as bold, italics and others, used in applications
can be unreliable and should not be used. Although
your application might show the font as bold when
you click the button, if the font is not available
in a bold weight, the display will be misleading
and the postscript output will be wrong. |
| • |
Keep
track of all fonts used in the creation of your
job. This includes fonts used in illustration and
graphics. |
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All
fonts used should be sent along regardless of how
common they might seem. |
| • |
Please
do not use more than three (3) fonts in your manuscript.
(Include the names of these fonts when submitting
the manuscript) |
Illustrations
and Scanning
To get the best results possible a lot of care should
be taken in the selection and creation of graphical
elements.
Graphics come in two main types, which are vector and
bitmap.
Vector-oriented images are more flexible than bit maps
because they can be resized and stretched without loss
of quality. In addition, images stored as vectors look
better on devices, such as monitors and printers, with
higher resolution. Another advantage of vector graphics
is that representations of images often require less
memory than bitmapped images do. Vector images are ideal
for items such as logos and simple illustrations. Typical
applications that create vector graphics are Adobe Illustrator,
Macromedia Freehand, Corel Draw, Canvas and most CAD
packages.
Bitmap graphics are fantastic for complex images like
photographs. The one drawback they have is that they
are resolution dependant and every one of the graphics
will have an ideal resolution for output at a given
size and any deviation from that will result in a decrease
in quality.
Regardless of which graphic format you are using it's
always best to create or scan graphics at the final
output size and color space. The color space for any
of our machines will be CMYK, Pantone Spot or similar
but not RGB.
The graphics, art and illustrations should be submitted
on a separate disk identifying the program and content
of the submission.
Bitmaps or Scans
Color or grayscale scans should be 300dpi at final size.
This means if you have an image for the front cover
of a 6x9 book you should scan for a 6x9 @ 300dpi. This
will yield a file size of roughly 14megs for a color
file. Scans under 200dpi will start to show "jaggies"
and files above 300dpi will just be a waste of space.
All color files should be converted to CMYK.
Line Art scans (1 bit) should be a minimum of 600dpi
for best results. A common 1 bit scan image would be
something like a UPC barcode.
Color
Typically the digital machines used in the production
of books utilize Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black to
produce color just like a standard offset color press.
This means that they prefer to have CMYK files supplied
to them. This will insure proper ripping and the greatest
color accuracy. Like all color processes, there are
a great number of variables that affect the final color.
The single biggest mistake is to assume what you see
on your screen will match the printed output. But what
you see is normally not what you will get in the final
phase. Most printing jobs will take in account the color
calibration, tonal range, contrast and dot gain compensation.
PDF Files
Adobe's Portable
Document Format is very useful and practical. I recommend
that you check out their web site for further information.
If you provide a well-made, error free ready to print
PDF file it will save you some money.
Common
Problems that Occur
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Not including fonts. All fonts are resident
on the computer, which created the document, and
are not in the document itself. Regardless of how
common the font may seem, we will need you to supply
these fonts. Beware of fonts used in graphics, which
are then placed in your layout. Please provide these
types of fonts also. |
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Not
including graphics. Most layout programs (not
word processors) link to the high resolution graphic
and place a proxy image. When the file is output,
the application knows to grab the high-resolution
image and swap it. If we do not have the high-resolution
file the application is looking for we can't output
it. Applications, which do this include, Quark,
Pagemaker, Illustrator 8+ and Indesign. |
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Incorrect
page size. A beautifully formatted letter (8.5x11)
sized document, which was intended to be a 6x9 book
will not squeeze into that size without a lot of
work and redesign. We can do it, but you'll save
money by doing it ahead of time. |
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The
mystery collection of files. If your project
contains many files, which need to be assembled
in a particular order to create a finished book,
name your files in a logical way. For example, OFC
(outside front cover), IFC (inside front cover),
OBC (outside back cover), IBC (inside back cover),
TOC (table of contents) IDX (index), Chapter (#). |
| • |
Low-resolution
images. All output devices have optimum resolutions
for image quality. If the files contain images with
resolutions lower then optimum then quality will
suffer. |
Please see
the Basic
Manuscript Preparation Guidelines also located
on this web site for further information about manuscript
preparation.
For authors/editors
submitting manuscript prospectuses, please provide the
following information:
| 1) |
Explain
how far along you are with your plans for the manuscript. |
| 2) |
Provide
a proposed outline and table of contents. |
| 3) |
Provide
details as to the estimated size of the manuscript,
or estimated size, in terms of double-spaced, typed
pages as well as number of words. |
| 4) |
Explain
if you will be including any illustrations, tables,
charts, or other items in conjunction with the manuscript.
Please include a description of these items and
the number of each of these items. |
| 5) |
Provide
a copy of your curriculum vitae and that of each
author, coauthor or contributor of the work. |
| 6) |
Have
each author/editor complete an Author/Editor's Marketing
Questionnaire. |
| 7) |
Include
a preface of 300 or more words outlining the scope,
plan and purpose of your manuscript. |
By allowing
TCPC to convert the submission to our specifications
will save time and money.
We try to adhere to a prompt publication timetable when
a manuscript is accepted for publication. We will attempt
to have the page proofs to authors/editors within about
four to six weeks after we have a finished manuscript
in hand.
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