Editing & Design

Editing

Editing services are available to authors who sign under the Best or Pro levels.

The main goal of the editing phase is to polish your book and make your message as clear as possible for readers. Our book editor will approach your manuscript with a fresh perspective and a keen eye for detail. If you speak with other authors, they will tell you that a professional editor is vital to the production process. Although professional editing is not a guarantee that your book will sell, it is an important step in putting your best foot forward. The following is information about the various editing steps:

Proofreading—The proofreader is responsible for reading the manuscript and looking for any grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors normally after the design and layout (typesetting) has been approved.

Copy Editing—The copy editor looks only at the paragraph level to correct any grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors.

General Editing—The editor looks at the overall content of the book and works to improve the flow of the text while correcting any grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. The main goal of the editor is to improve the readability of the manuscript by adding transitions, tightening writing, or rewriting sentences to enhance what the author has written. Each level listed below includes all services in that level and all previous levels.

TEACH Services handles editing and copyediting during the initial editing phase. Unless an author has paid for proofreading, he or she is responsible for secondary copyediting (verifying sources other than the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy and looking for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors) after the editing phase and is also responsible for proofreading after typesetting is complete. In addition, professional editing ensures that your writing follows The Chicago Manual of Style* and publishing industry styles and standards, including using gender neutral language. Our professional editors will also ensure that the writing and organization of the book are cohesive and consistent throughout, enhancing it where necessary.

TEACH Services offers economical editing services. If you were to have to hire a professional editor for a 35,000-word manuscript you might find the charges to be quite high—one thousand to five thousand dollars or more, depending on the complexity of the manuscript and the extent of the editing needed. While a friend who took an English class in college may be willing to do your editing, we will only accept manuscripts for the TEACH Services imprint that are professionally edited that follow the strict guidelines as listed in The Chicago Manual of Style. TEACH Services’ editing charges are typically quite a bit less than what is quoted above, but only after an evaluation of your manuscript can we give you an actual estimate.

The work of a professional editor includes: correcting grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors as well as ensuring that proper transitions are used to guide the reader through the book; deleting repetitions that detract from the book and its message; removing unnecessary words or weak phrases; and checking for unseen plagiarism (improper documentation) and suggesting how to obtain permissions. Click HERE for information on Fair Use in quoting. All Level 3 or higher books require the Author to fact check all Bible texts, Spirit of Prophecy references, and check other facts that need to be verified to ensure their accuracy. Our professional editors will spot check about 10% of all quotes and, if they find errors, you may be required to have us check and confirm all quotes at additional charges. Our editors will utilize the tracked changes feature in Microsoft Word so that you can review and approve all of the changes that are made to your manuscript. Upon completion of the editing process, you will receive a PDF of your manuscript. At that time, you will review the changes and work with the editor to make any further corrections to your manuscript before it is sent to typesetting.

As a Christian publisher we endeavor to glorify God in our publications. In addition, we seek to provide quality reading materials that will enhance the spiritual lives of Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) and other Christians.

If a book is accepted, and during editing it becomes evident that the manuscript is not compatible with these goals, we reserve the right to make changes to the manuscript by removing questionable material and rewriting as necessary.

Books which embrace teachings that are not at this time fully accepted by the SDA church, or that promote practices that are outside of current SDA policy, may be printed under the Aspect Books imprint to facilitate further research and study; they will not be promoted by TEACH Services.

TEACH Services avoids publishing books that:

• Emphasize controversy, showing a critical spirit toward persons or leaders,
• Highlight adamant opinions and/or sensationalism,
• Promote moral or ethical compromise or wrongdoing,
• Are spiritually misleading or out of harmony with biblical truth (e.g. communications or messages from heaven/God/angels or ideas that are only vaguely supported in the Bible or writings of Ellen White but promoted as fact),
• Use names, descriptions, or photos of people without their consent or permission of the rights holder,
• That are discriminatory, possibly illegal, or could lead to libel charges (please visit Major Injury Law for information), and
• Contain quotes from obscure sources that can't be referenced properly or for which the author does not have reliable proof sources.

In order for a manuscript to proceed with any of the above, TEACH Services and the author must be able to reach consensus. Titles originally intended for TEACH Services imprint and promotion and later determined to require a change to Aspect Books imprint, will have all costs for promotions revert back to the author and advances to publisher.

*Please note: The Chicago Manual of Style does not capitalize pronouns such as He, Him, His when referring to God, but TEACH Services does. Also, Chicago capitalizes major religious events such as the crucifixion, the ascension, the incarnation, but TEACH Services lowercases these events. See our Style Guidelines (PDF) for details.

Design

What is the first thing that catches your eye when you are at a bookstore filled with thousands of books? Of course, the cover! People are attracted to well-designed covers that are clean, sleek, and present the main idea of the book in a visual format. All of our publishing levels benefit from the front cover design service built by our graphics department.

And once they open the cover, you will continue to hold their interest if the interior text is laid out in an organized and professional manner with consistent headings, chapter titles, easy-to-read typefaces, appropriate spacing, and other design features. (Cover layout and design services are available to authors who sign under the Better, Best, and Pro levels.)

The role of the designer is to make the interior of your book look its best. Our designer will do the following:

• Update any web-links to forwarded web-links,
• Select fonts and font sizes,
• Place pictures, graphics, and tables,
• Create the table of contents and cross link the pages,
• Insert footnotes and cross link them,
• Create pull quotes,
• Build chapter layout,
• Select proper margins and trim sizestrim sizes

  Trim sizes within either group will have the same cost. Remember that smaller trim sizes means more pages, and larger trim sizes less pages (greater or lesser number of pages will not change the author's cost to publish, but will either increase or decrease the Suggested Retail Price).
  	Group A	Group B	Group C
  	4.00 x 6.00 inches	6.690 x 9.61 inches	11 x 8.5 inches
  	4.00 x 7.00	6.625 x 10.25
  	4.25 x 7.00	7.000 x 10.00
  	4.37 x 7.00	7.440 x 9.69
  	4.72 x 7.48	7.500 x 9.25
  	5.00 x 7.00	8.000 x 8.00
  	5.00 x 8.00	8.000 x 10.00
  	5.06 x 7.81	8.000 x 10.88
  	5.25 x 8.00	8.250 x 11.00
  	5.50 x 8.25	8.268 x 11.693 (A4)
  	5.50 x 8.50	8.500 x 8.50
  	5.83 x 8.27	8.500 x 9.00
  	6.00 x 9.00	8.500 x 10.75
  	6.14 x 9.21	8.500 x 11.00

At TEACH Services, our designers work closely together to create a beautiful, professionally designed interiors that will grab people's attention. 

Standard cover design work includes the front and back cover. Our designers will supply eight different covers for you to review and "Pick One" for us to use for your book. This will include a description of your book, the ISBN barcode, and a short biography and/or photograph if you desire and if there is enough space (any jewelry for adornment will be edited out). If artwork is desired or required, we have many artists we work with who specialize in a variety of styles.

If you shop for a designer outside of TEACH Services for you cover or interior layout and design, you may find the prices might range as little as $250 and up to $1,000, depending on the quality and complexity of the work. Please note that TEACH Services’ interior design and cover charges are typically less than the high end mentioned above and are included with our services. Please not that suppling your own design will not reduce your charges for cover design. However, they are more than the low-quality beginner too. As we make our profit on sales of your book, we wish you to have the highest quality and eye appeal possible to achieve the highest sales.

E-Book Conversion

The e-book market is growing at an astonishing rate. More and more individuals and publishers are supplementing their print books with e-books. TEACH Services has invested time and money into learning the ins and outs of the e-book market and the different formats and requirements of the major e-book distributors—Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Apple. In addition, all e-books are listed with more than 40 independent e-book sellers.

When we convert a print book to an e-book, the finished product will have the following components:

• Front book cover design
• Table of contents
• Copyright and front matter
• Body text

Subject to an additional fee are the following components:

• Tables, photographs, or graphics
• Footnote and/or endnote hyperlinks
• Index hyperlinks
• External hyperlinks

If you are a publisher who is interested in outsourcing your e-book production or an author who has already published your book but would like to convert it to an e-book, please contact us at 800-367-1844, extension 3.

Audiobook Conversion

GoodEReader reports that the audiobook format has the highest growth rate in the entire publishing industry. To help you keep your book relevant in today’s market, TEACH Services offers Audiobook conversion. TEACH will help you procure the right reader--insuring that you are happy with the sound, feeling, and emotion the reader gives. For more information about audiobook conversion please contact our publishing department at  with questions or to schedule an appointment for an Author Advisor to call you at your convenience: https://tsibooks.youcanbook.me/

Children's or Graphic Books

If you have or are writing a children’s book, we follow a slightly different procedure to build and create your book. Click here to view our process. Please note: Children’s e-books are normally produced in a “fixed format” in color and, therefore, are designed to be best viewed on iPad, Nook Color, Kindle Fire, and other tablets. Please note that illustrations are a major cost in production of any illustration-heavy book. A standard 24-page children's book should have a minimum additional budget of two to three thousand dollars over the base publishing cost to produce, depending on your art requirements (Standard, Advanced, or Premium Quality).

Proper Coding for Your Book

The publishing industry uses the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) to trace your title back to your publisher. In addition, our design team handles obtaining the ISBN for your title and registering your title with R. R. Bowker, a bibliographic tool for libraries, booksellers, and publishers. We will also obtain a LOC (Library of Congress) catalog number for your book, and assign a BISAC (Book Industry Subject and Category) topical code.

Following are samples of some of our book covers: