What is the procedure for editing a book?

You should have received an email containing our NOTES FOR EDITORS. If you do not have this document please contact us for a copy.

 

Is there a FAQ page for Authors?

Yes. Please ask all authors to read our Author FAQs.

 

Where are the Instructions for Authors?

These are available at Instructions for Authors. Please ask all authors to read this document (only one page so won't take long) and the Author FAQs.

 

Do authors have to assign copyright?

Yes. All authors should complete and return our Copyright Transfer Form. We must have a signed copyright form for each chapter. Please see Author FAQs for more information.

 

Can authors use figures or tables copied from other articles or books?

Copyright law prevents us from publishing copyrighted material. Authors are advised NOT to submit any material that has been published previously. Please see Author FAQs for more information.

 

Does my book have to have an index?

No, although we strongly recommend that it does. An index greatly enhances a high-level academic book and readers will find an index invaluable.

 

Do I have to do the index?

The editor should prepare the index. The best index is produced by someone familiar with the book and who is an expert in the scientific areas covered by the book. The editor is the best person to produce an index that is both useful and scientifically correct. If you elect not to do the index then the cost of paying a professional indexer is deducted from any payment due to you for your role as editor.

 

When and how do I prepare the index?

There are two ways of preparing an index, you can choose either Automated or Manual:

1. Automated. If you are familiar with the index system in Word please feel free to mark index entries in the Word files before you send us the manuscripts. We can automatically compile the index from your Word index markers. Please consult your Word documentation or help menu for details of how to mark index entries. There are also a number of online tutorials that you may find useful, for example etutorials.org. It is not possible to use the automated method after you have submitted the manuscripts to us (because we convert the Word files into specialised typesetting software) so please ensure that you mark all the index words before you send us the manuscripts.
2. Manual. Creating a manual index cannot be performed until the final page numbers are assigned. This will be after the authors have corrected their proofs. You will be contacted at the appropriate time. Full instructions are provided at Index Preparation.

 

How long does it take to prepare the index?

By following our instructions at Index Preparation a small but useful index can be prepared in a matter of hours.

 

Instead of doing an index can I supply a list of index words?

No. The software used to produce our books does not permit this approach.

 

Can I design the cover of the book?

The cover of the book is normally designed by our prepress department. It needs to be technically accurate in terms of margins, spine, bleed, crop marks, etc. It is one of the final tasks and cannot be completed until we know the number of pages in the book so that the spine size etc can be calculated. The cover design is often based on one or more figures from the book.

 

What is wrong with the cover picture of the book on your website?

The design for the cover is not finished until the book is nearing completion. Meanwhile a "placeholder" cover is used on our website. This "placeholder" is often very plain. In time it will be replaced with the final cover.

 

Do I have to meet the deadline?

Please try! Sometimes with multiauthor books a situation can arise in which some authors submit their manuscript on time while others are considerably late. When the book is eventually published the chapters submitted in a timely manner are noticeably out-of-date. To avoid this unfair and often contentious situation we try to adhere to a fixed deadline. Please ask authors to facilitate this process by submitting manuscripts by the date requested (earlier would be very much appreciated!!!).

 

Where and when do I send the manuscripts?

Please send us everything together in one package. Wait until you have all the chapters (final edited versions with citations and reference lists in correct format).

1. Use a separate folder for each chapter. Label the folder with the chapter number and author name.
2. Place all the chapter folders and any other material in a single folder labelled with the title of your book.
3. You can "ZIP" the files if you wish.
4. Please ensure that all figures are at the highest resolution possible. Authors sometimes reduce the file size so that it does not "take up so much space" (e.g. for sending by email) but smaller file sizes will mean lower resolution and the picture in the printed book will not look good.
5. Please supply the figures in the original format provided by the author. If we subsequently cannot work with this format we will liaise directly with the author to see what other formats they can provide. Normally you do not need to convert figures to other formats.
6. Please supply full postal address and email address for each author. This will allow us to contact them rapidly if necessary. Indicate which is the corresponding author of each chapter.
7. Please supply a short description of the book (roughly 200 words) that could be used on the back cover. This will be used for marketing and promotion of your book.
8. Please don't forget to send us the signed Copyright Transfer Forms and Permissions Forms for each chapter.

Send us the files by one of the following methods:

1. FTP. When you have all the files ready please ask us for the FTP address, username and password
2. Email. We recommend you ZIP the files first.
3. Airmail or courier. The files should all be on one CD with a separate folder for each chapter.

If your authors have not already sent a signed Copyright Transfer Form now is a good time to remind them ... we have to have one for each chapter. Download form at: http://www.horizonpress.com/hsp/pdf/stored/copy.pdf

 

Do I get a proof of the entire book?

Yes. After the authors have corrected the page proofs of their chapter you will receive, by email, a copy of the entire book for you to check for errors and also to prepare the index. Note that only corrections of typographical errors and other essential corrections will be accepted at this stage. Please follow the instructions that will be sent with your proofs regarding corrections and return within the specified timeframe.