What happens?

Manuscript is finished.  At last! You’ve finished your manuscript and are excited about getting it into production. We advise you proofread it, edit; proof again, edit again; and then proof again. Or, ask us about our proof reading service.

How much will it cost?  We will give you a price to publish and/or design your work (see our pricing page), and an estimate of the print options before you commit yourself. If the job doesn’t change then neither will the price.

Agreement. Once you decide to appoint Tricorn Books, we will send out a publishing agreement. The agreement confirms costs and specifications, and sets out responsibilities for all parties. Where possible, it will also include timings.

Payment. We ask for 50% payment of publishing and design fees on appointment, preferably in electronic format. The balance is payable on final approval of the artwork, and before it is placed into production. The cost of any print is payable, in full before the work is placed in the print process.

Manuscript. Send us your finished manuscript in a Word document. If you would like us to have this professionally proofread and/ or edited, then we can provide a separate estimate for this. Or, if you are old school, we can give you an estimate to type up hand written work.

Images. Provide images as hi-resolution JPEGs or Tiffs in a separate file to the text. Clearly indicate in the text where each image should go and supply any captions in a separate Word document. Any problems with this – give us a shout!

Design. A book is judged by its cover, so it is important to get this right. Authors often have a good idea of how they see the front cover so we will work with you to produce what you want. If you have an image you want to use, then that’s a great start, if not, we can discuss other design ideas or alternative image sources. (There may be cost implications when using image banks). It’s not just the front cover that is important, the back cover and accompanying blurb is equally critical and can turn a browse into a buy.

Layout. Typesetting is the process of preparing your manuscript for printing; good typesetting optimises the readability and production of your work. Font type, style, position and spacing are all important considerations. Clean, finished text is also important as amends, once laid out can lead to errors. Images, captions, tables, graphs can be placed in the text or in sections at this stage.

It might go a little quiet! Once we have all the copy and images we will get on and do our thing, working up cover designs and laying out the internal pages. This should take no longer than three to four weeks, depending on the size and scale of the project.

Author amends. Once we have finished, we will send a first draft over as a PDF for you to check. We am to limit author amends to a couple of rounds, depending on extent, as we have found that unseen errors can occur too easily.

Proofs. Electronic proofs will be sent for you to sign off and approve, before being placed in the print process. We can supply printed proofs, however, there may be a small charge for this. At this stage we require the 50% balance of our fees, plus 100% payment for any printing.

The big day!!! Finally, after all your hard work and investment it’s delivery day and the books arrive. You are now a published author, with a copy of your work available world-wide. It’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labour, after all, you’re worth it!