What Is Involved in the Book Printing Process?

One of the chief considerations in the book printing process is the type of book to be printed. At the initial stage the publisher will need to determine the specifications of the book in terms of the design, the size, the content, and the arrangement. This is even more important when someone contracts the services of an independent book publisher to publish a book on his or her behalf. When publishing houses sign writers, it is usually up to the writers to determine how the book will emerge.

In such a case, they will provide the writer with in-house editors, designers and other professionals who will help ensure a good final product. The writer will submit a manuscript to the publishers who will review it and decide if it needs any corrections as well as whether to move it along the book printing process. This also depends on the type of book the publishing house is trying to print, ranging from children's books to science textbooks. The cover of the book will have to be designed since this is one of the most important aspects of the book. Once all of the editing has been done and any applicable graphics have been applied to their appropriate positions in the book, printouts of the book will be given to the writer for revision and approval before the main full-scale production begins.

When the person embarking on the book printing process is an independent individual who wishes to use his or her own resources to print the book, he or she will have to purchase several services from the printing press of choice as it pertains to the book in question. For instance, the book printing process for a children's book is different from that applied to the production of an adult fiction novel. In the case of a children's novel, the writer will either supply the graphics to the printers or decide to purchase the services of an in-house artist for a fee. Just the same, the fiction writer will have to decide whether to pay the publishers to supply a proofreader and editor to help ensure that the book is up to standard and free of grammatical errors and other mistakes or to do the work by his or her self. Book printing may be done based on a process known as print on demand whereby the books are printed according to demand, or a certain number may be printed at the same time.