Benefits

There are many benefits to be gained from using one person to take a book from author’s disk to final output.

• Speed
  When one person handles the whole process, less time is wasted. While I’m editing, I’m also preparing the text directly for my typesetting software, which saves time. By the time editing is complete, I can go straight to page make-up, with all the queries answered by the author.

  Compare this with the process whereby one person handles the copy-editing and a separate company does the typesetting. The edited text often sits around at the publisher’s office, awaiting answers to queries. Only then does it go to the typesetter, who has to assess the job and schedule it. I’ve usually produced page proofs before a book that follows the traditional process has even reached the typesetter.

  To give you an idea of how much time can be saved, I expect a typical book to take about three months from receipt of disks to supply of final output. In the traditional route, that’s about how long it takes to get to the first proof stage. The record is one month from disk to PostScript, including indexing, for a 256 page book.

• Cost savings
  It costs less because I can prepare the text and illustrations specifically for my typesetting software. I can therefore make gains in efficiency that would be lost when one person edits and another does the typesetting. I also have low overheads, resulting in savings that can be passed on to clients.

• Consistency
  Because only one person is handling the whole job, it’s much easier to maintain consistency between, say, text and illustrations. This leads to fewer corrections, greater speed and lower cost.

• Single point of contact
  A lot of in-house time is spent on passing messages back and forth between editors, illustrators, typesetters, proofreaders, indexers and others. With just one person to deal with, in-house editors spend less time on each job and thus become more productive.