For the numismatic publishers in the house, what is the procedure for processing a manuscript after

Longacre

I was reading the latest issue of Dave's Notes, and I was immediately interested in the following comment that he made:

"The Whitman Encyclopedia of Half Cents and Large Cents, the manuscript for which was completed some months ago, is now being processed at Whitman headquarters in Atlanta and will be released in 2010."


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For the numismatic publishers or authors in the house, can you give us an idea of what is involved in the "processing" of a manuscript after it is finished? I see that QDB finished the manuscript several months ago (and, probably in the meantime, has written several more manuscripts), so what exactly goes on in-house after it is received by the author? One would think a few clicks in Microsoft Publisher for editing of the manuscript, and zipping the file via email to Guangzhou for printing, and the book would hit US Customs in a week or two. Does anyone know?

Wolf359

If I wrote it the next stop would be the fireplace.

edix2001

Last night, at our club's holiday party, Jim Bevill, author of "The Paper Republic" discussed a behind the scenes look at the writing of his newly released book.
One FAQ he had was that it took him two and a half years to write, and then another eight months at the publisher before if finally came out.
During his talk he referred to the many back and forths he had with his publisher over different parts of the writing that they wished to change or delete, so I'm thinking copy editors, fact checkers and the like all busy trying to create the best product possible.

The Paper Republic - The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas

mgoodm3

The writing is only a small part of the job. There's diagrams, pictures, layout, editing...

Coinosaurus

If you start with 300 pages of text and 600 photographs, it takes a long time to put it all together, to make it visually interesting and coherent. In the meantime there is a lot of back and forth between the editor, author, and graphics/production people. You have to line up a slot in the printing house, and allow shipping time to the US (Longacre has previously been banned from discussing this last point). The marketing machine has to ramp up and put together a plan that coincides with the production.

Also, the publisher is constantly putting together a roadmap - perhaps on an annual basis, and has limited production capacity. An author's manuscript may not land in their hands exactly when they can take it. Kind of like an assembly line.

It's sort of like shooting a move - there are still a lot of things to do after filming, before it shows up in the theatres.

RWB

The manuscript or electronic file are put into a large “Word Star” blender and chopped down to the 3rd grade level…all words of more than three syllables, all footnotes and sentences longer than six words are chopped into sorter bits. These are loaded into a thing that looks like a paint sprayer, but is called a “WordSmyth.” This sprays the words onto a metal plate where they dry into an confused muddle. The “CopyEditorPerson” then rearranges the muddle into bits that resemble other, past bits. This is done to avoid originality.

After this the “SubjectEditor” looks at the arranged muddle and picks a subject for the book. If no subject is evident the “SubjectEditor” labels it a romance novel or adult fiction or religious – the three are interchangeable in publishing circles – or in publishing squares or hexagons….

Once this is finished, the book plates are tied to large cranes, and the cranes fly to China where the “Happy Peoples Socialist Printers” copy something off the internet and print your book. The printed books are packed in cartons, stamped with lead and radium-based paint, and loaded on the “Lucky Chicken Food Shipping Company” slow boat from China.

The books eventually end up someplace, where they go to someplace else, and sold by someplace store, and well…. you get the idea….

This is much like legal book publishing only with legal books the contents start out totally garbled, and get worse.

Longacre

<< <i>This is much like legal book publishing only with legal books the contents start out totally garbled, and get worse. >>







I spent most of yesterday arguing with another lawyer about a transaction that does not even exist for US tax purposes (under the tax law), but sought an indemnity for it in the event the transaction sprang into existence for some reason. I thought it was all settled until I got a call (at home) from him this evening and he asked to be reimbursed for the tax effects of his indemnification of the transaction that does not exist for US tax purposes.

And you wonder why Longacre looks to the boards for a quiet diversion.

RWB

There exists a similar problem in particle physics - particles pop into and out of existence without warning.