Camera-Ready Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
If you have selected camera-ready production for your new edition, you will be pleased with the great flexibility in the development of your manuscript – you can include all of your ideas! “Camera-ready” means that you will submit your materials ready for press. Hayden-McNeil will print them exactly as submitted, without editing or altering them in any way.
Manuscript Formatting and Organization
Keep your margins consistent. Ideally, each page of the book should have one- inch margins on all sides. If you use less than a one-inch margin, we may not have sufficient space to apply the binding. If your book is perfect bound or three hole drilled, please see our
PDF for Press Checklist for more detailed guidelines.
To ensure complete accuracy, number your pages consecutively using Arabic or sectional (A-1, A-2 ….) numbering styles. Any materials you want to include before the main text begins, such as Table of Contents, Acknowledgements, Preface, or Dedication pages, should be numbered with Roman numerals, beginning with “iii”. We will supply the Title and Copyright page, which are “i” and “ii”.
Your book will be printed double-sided, so it is useful to think in terms of right-hand and left-hand pages. Each chapter or lab should begin on the right-hand side, with an odd-numbered page.
To achieve this, it may be necessary to insert a blank page preceding certain chapter openers. The blank page should be paginated, and will generally have an even page number. You may also need to insert blank pages after student worksheets or other perforated pages, so that the back sides of these pages are blank and important material isn’t inadvertently torn out.
It is a good idea to check illustrations, photos, and other images. They should be captioned correctly, and if they are used in numbered order or are referred to within the text, the numbers and references should match.
If you would like to make use of Hayden-McNeil’s guidelines regarding style and usage, our
proofreading manual is available for your reference.
Quality Control
To achieve optimal print quality and readability, we recommend using a serif typeface for the body of your text. Common serif typefaces include Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia, Book Antiqua, and Palatino. Sans serif typefaces (such as Arial, Helvetica, and Franklin Gothic) are suitable for headlines, graphs, captions, and similar applications.
Imagery
If you are including your own images, please use grayscale only. If you and your Managing Editor are planning to print your book in color, please contact Christy Kubat (
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; 734-455-7900 x 136) for special instructions regarding color images. Your imagery may include photos, illustrations, screen captures, or other graphics. The manuscript layout should include enough whitespace for each piece and its caption.
If Hayden-McNeil is providing imagery, your Managing Editor will need to know what images you need about two weeks prior to your manuscript due date. When your images are approved and ready, we will send you the high-resolution versions for you to import into your manuscript. We will send the images in a Word document, which you will be able to copy and paste into your manuscript.
Submitting Your Completed CRC Manuscript
Your Pre-Press Technical Coordinator, Christy Kubat, will send you specific instructions on how to create your press-ready PDF file. Once your file is created, you may upload it to your Managing Editor’s web portal, or include it on a disc with your hard copy.
We request that you send us a hard copy print-out of your manuscript so that we can use it for reference as we prepare your files. This print-out is extremely important to ensure the integrity of your digital files.
Before you send your materials, it is a good idea to look over our
PDF for Press Checklist.
After reading through these guidelines, you may have questions on how to apply them, or you may have specific goals for your manuscript that are not discussed here. If that’s the case, please call your Managing Editor. We look forward to providing you with the answers and options you need to achieve a successful new edition!
