Submission Guidelines
In order to publish your book via our website your manuscript should be formatted in a way we can accept. This enables us to reduce costs, a saving we pass on to you. However, if you can't do this, you don’t need to worry about any technical specifications that the printers require as we can take care of formatting your manuscript to the correct specifications and professional standard. (Please see our Professional Text Layout Service for details)
Step 1: Check your work thoroughly
To give you a service, which allows you to produce your book without paying thousands of pounds for publisher, services, as standard we do not spell check or proof read any work submitted. However, we are able to arrange for third-party proof reading & editing, you can find out more about this service. (See our Professional Editing and Proofing-Reading Service)
Step 2: Ensure your work is correctly formatted in either Microsoft Word or one of our other acceptable file formats.
It is important that your book is formatted correctly in the exact trim size. Click here for your choice of trim sizes in B/W Books or click here for Colour Books. If you wish to create a book, which is different to these ranges, then please contact us directly for a quote.
All margins must be set to at least 15mm. (Top, Bottom, Left and Right margins)
Set the Gutter to 0mm. Set Headers and Footers to 15mm.
Your book must end with a minimum of two blank pages.
MANUSCRIPT FORMAT
Your manuscript must be submitted in an approved manuscript file. This file is one file laid out in one of our acceptable trim size formats in portrait orientation. Please do not submit more than one manuscript file (i.e. do not separate chapters or sections into several files.) Separate your chapters by inserting a page break. To print your book, we need to see how your manuscript flows from the title page through the text chapters to the end. You file must exist as a single document on your hard drive.
Accepted Platforms and Applications
- Microsoft Word (Any version)
- Microsoft works
- Openoffice
- RTF Format
- Adobe PDF
- Adobe InDesign CS2
Basic Manuscript Text Format Rules
There are some standard rules concerning layout of text. Listed below are some useful guides, which you may wish to follow to format your manuscript text conventionally. However if do not want to follow convention you do not have to. The book is yours and you can format the text the way you want!
Be Consistent
Be consistent in your use of each element in your book. The title, subtitle, author name(s), etc. should be used and spelled exactly the same way every time they appear in your manuscript.
Spelling
Be absolutely consistent in your spelling and capitalisation. We will not spell-check your manuscript.
Chapter Breaks
Each chapter should end with a simple page break. This will let us know where the end of the section occurs.
Page Breaks
Please do not insert page breaks at the end of what you feel is a "page" in the body text. Since your manuscript is a word processing document, the length of the pages may not be the same when the book is printed as many word processing documents have a tendency to reflow when moved from computer to computer. (As a rule this does not happen when saved as a Postscript file or PDF file). If you are "pausing" between paragraphs (ideas) within a chapter, please note this using a double line space.
Punctuation
Make sure your text wraps. Do not manually hyphenate words. Let your word processing application do it for you automatically. To indent paragraphs, use a tab character not spaces. Use only one space after all punctuation. View the number of spaces, hard carriage returns and other invisibles by clicking the paragraph symbol on the toolbar at the top. Punctuate carefully. Punctuation almost always falls within quotation marks.
Proof Reading and Copy Editing – Styles
Check your style guide and have your manuscript copy edited and proofread.
To separate periods of time or numbers, use en dashes (the longer dash). Dashes, ellipses and other special characters are found under the Insert menu under Symbol/Special Characters. Use em dashes (the longest dash) or ellipses (...) to separate thoughts or clauses within a sentence. To separate words use hyphens (-).
WORDS TYPED IN ALL CAPS should be limited, as they become difficult to read.
The Special Characters list in your word processing application is where you will find smart quotes and other useful characters and symbols. Use them automatically by selecting them globally (for example in Word, go in the Tools menu AutoCorrect/AutoFormat/Replace Straight Quotes with Smart Quotes, etc.
To emphasise text, use bold.
GRAPHICS
What is a graphic?
A graphic is anything else that is not text. It can be large, a background texture, small a picture a piece of clip art or map.
Will you scan an image in for me?
Yes if required, please submit all images by Registered Mail and we will be happy to quote for this service.
How do I embed a graphic?
Microsoft word:
Click on where you want to place and embed your graphic. Go to the Insert menu, click Picture and then select from file in the file name box, type the name of the file you want to embed, or click browse to select from a list.
Mac:
In navigation window, find and select the file you want to embed (when you create an embedded object, be sure the link to file check box is selected).
Accepted graphics formats
The file format of a graphic is the internal structure that a computer uses to save a graphic. Choosing the correct file format can directly affect the final output quality of the printed image.
Tiff (.tif )- Tagged Image file - for raster images such as scans of photographs (half-tones), pictures from digital cameras, images created in a digital painting programs. This is the standard file format for scanned images and for exporting grey-scale and colour images to other programs.
EPS (.eps)- Encapsulated PostScript vector images such as pie charts, bar graphs, and some clip art. Standard format for saving object-oriented graphic.
We do accept these formats if you cannot provide the formats specified above:
- Bmp -but they cannot be easily sized
- Gif files - but they are a lower resolution format and will not print very well.
- Jpeg or .jpg files, - but this is a compressed file format and decrease image quality.
What are the preferred resolutions for submitting graphics?
300 dpi is the preferred minimum resolution for all grey scale images including photographs. Line art, (images without any shades of grey, i.e. a cartoon) and colour photographs should be scanned in at 600 dpi for optimum quality.
What size should I make the images?
Images should be submitted in their final form and size, as they will appear in your manuscript.
If you have any problems or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information.