The layout phase of publishing is often when many people start seeing their publications take a professional look, and that’s true. However, layout is not where a project “starts.” It works much better when the manuscript it receives has been carefully prepped. Otherwise, the designer will have to deal with ongoing or unaddressed editorial changes, which makes fixing errors more difficult and slows the overall timeline. It can be very useful for beginners to check their manuscript before layout to ensure the publishing workflow runs much more smoothly.
The first consideration to address in checking is the text itself. Has it settled into its final form? Go through the book and ask yourself these questions: are the chapters in the right order? Does the heading of a section describe the contents accurately? Are all intended parts of the book present? Are introductions and conclusions, as well as appendixes, references, front matter and back matter, in place, as intended? If large portions of content are still in a constant state of rewriting, it’s generally best for layout to wait until that editorial process is finished.
After this initial check, move on to issues of consistency. Look for places where a consistent choice has been repeatedly made and make sure the whole publication reflects it. The same title format has been used for all chapters. Headings follow the same pattern everywhere. All lists, quotations, captions, tables, and figure labels are consistently formatted. If you’re working with a style sheet, check the whole manuscript against it now, before passing the file on to layout. Minor discrepancies may seem fine now, but can be glaringly obvious once the design work has started.
Next, review supporting information: are the image placeholders marked out correctly, are all captions in place and up to date, are any necessary tables labelled, are all references accurate? Are any chapter titles likely to change before the final text is in place? Also, if the document has a table of contents, check that those chapter titles are ready to be printed as is. Check the document metadata (the working title and subtitle, author name, keywords, book description, etc) to see that they are consistent across the document and any other documents.
Once more open your document for the purpose of checking the final file. Is the name of the file appropriate? Is it clear and easy to find? Are you certain all file names and file locations are clear and unambiguous? Are there multiple, conflicting files that need to be deleted or moved to a different folder? Are all comments handled (either addressed by the comment or deleted, not left unresolved or ignored, or as planned with the author/design team). If the author and designer and others are working separately, ensure all the people working on the book are working from the same version of the file.
Finally, to ensure the best results and avoid missed steps, create a pre-layout checklist on a page of your own. Check the document against these questions. It might have questions or sections about structure, consistency, supporting materials, metadata, file naming etc. Once you have checked every one and made a plan or taken all the necessary actions, put the document aside for a little while. Then read the document once more before passing it on. You’ll likely find some details you might have missed while making previous changes that this check will bring to light.
So there you have it. Layout is not the start of the publishing process; it’s certainly not the last step either. However, it’s one step of many to complete your work, and it works much better if the manuscript has been prepared in certain ways. For beginners, a quick check before layout of the structure, consistency, supporting materials, metadata and file naming can help establish better practices and workflows to be used on future projects.