Every book produced by Boyle & Dalton undergoes a rigorous 5-step book production process.
Small presses and self-publishers fail because they’re not producing books of a quality that will compete with books coming out of the Big-5 publishers. We’re committed to producing every book with exceptionalism, and with a complete production infrastructure.
The Big-5 publishers are the 5 companies that control approximately 80% of all purchased books in the U.S.A.: Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins.
Our model has proven that books produced correctly and to a professional standard can and do compete with titles coming out of the biggest publishers in the world. The only difference between our books and Big-5 published books is that our model allows us to pay authors a royalty 10 times what they pay, on average.
Our founder, Brad Pauquette, spent a decade consulting with authors and publishers of all types and sizes, and distilled the process of successful book production into 5 critical steps. He originally outlined these 5 steps in his book, The Self-Publishing Handbook: Five Key Steps to Professionally Publish Your Book.
At Boyle & Dalton, after books are vetted for initial quality and accepted for publication, we embark with the author on a complete production process which typically takes 4-12 months to complete. This is the same process these books would undergo at a Big-5 publishing house, and we’ve proven that it produces exceptional books.
Step 1: Developmental Editing
The first step is to make the book better. No book leaves the author’s pen ready for printing. A professional, experienced developmental editor will carefully read and analyze your book, and work with you to improve story development, plot structure, character development, phrasing, technique, dialog, and so much more. This is a back-and-forth, one-on-one process with the editor.
In this stage, the editor does not make changes directly to the manuscript (with few exceptions). Instead, the editor provides feedback and instruction to the author for improvement.
While it can be challenging to receive hard criticism on your work, most of our authors grow so much as writers through this process. This process improves the manuscript we’re working on, and the techniques they learn improve all of their work moving forward.
Step 2: Copy Editing
Once the manuscript works, from start to finish, it proceeds to a line edit. The copy editor will take the manuscript and find mistakes, line-by-line, as well as standardize the book to the Chicago Manual of Style. The copy editor isn’t concerned with big-picture issues, those were solved in the developmental editing stage. The copy editor is focused on specific phrasing, wording, mistakes, and importantly, the style guide.
Step 3: Interior Design
The way the interior of the book looks is important for both print and digital readers. Readers of different genres have different expectations for how the book will look. Your reader’s experience will be dictated by the work of a professional book interior designer, who will ensure that our book looks professional, fits the genre, and is technically correct.
Step 4: Cover Design
This is the step everyone is excited about, and it can happen at any stage of the process. Our professional designers carefully research, plan and expertly execute every book cover. We identify the best audience, working with the author’s input and feedback, to create a book cover that will grab the attention of the right readers.
Step 5: Proofreading
Once all of the other tasks have been completed, a professional proofreader carefully checks every word on every page and the cover to ensure that there are no remaining mistakes. Professional proofreaders have a mind-boggling and uncanny skillset, and their oversight is critical to a top-quality book.
Following proofreading, the book is finalized for printing and distribution. The print book will be provided to Ingram, the nation’s largest distributor, and we’ll distribute the e-book to all major retailers ahead of the release date. For some of our titles, they’ll move on from here into audiobook production.
As a hybrid publisher, we complete all 5 of these steps with feedback and input from the author. Every one of our books is produced at the highest quality utilizing this proven system. Our staff collaborates and cares for every title that passes through our publishing house.
Are you interested in publishing with Boyle & Dalton? Submit your work for consideration today. Learn more and begin the process here.
Questions? Contact us.
