Prepress Services of Two
Brothers PressFor manuscript conversion (formatting) for the book printer, read on...
What does "Prepress" mean?
Strictly speaking, "prepress" means that process of importing a Word or other text file into Adobe InDesign software, then formatting it as the final step before creating a .pdf file for a book printer. The final .pdf file of your book will look exactly like it will when printed and bound. Some novices are content with turning a formatted Word document into a .pdf file and submitting that to a printer, but Word, for all its features, does not support leading on the printed line, and visually the lines of text in a Word document will appear with gaps of greater or lesser degree in the final document, when left and right margins are flush. InDesign is not a word processor but a highly sophisticated formatting program that sets up the manuscript into a well formatted document as it will appear in book form. Another such program is Quark Express.
Our Prepess services
With Two Brothers Press, writers have the option of choosing a format for the way their books will appear when published, including font choices, headers and footers, and even the trim size of their books—based upon the specifications of their chosen printer services. However, most print-on-demand publishing houses set up manuscripts for the printer as part of their publishing services. In some cases, writers can submit ready-to-print manuscripts in .pdf format and save hundreds of dollars. Booksurge (an Amazon company) and Lulu are two such publishers that accept ready-to-print .pdf files. When you submit such files, you avoid the costs associated with Booksurge's more expensive "full service" pricing.
We also offer the same high-quality cover set up services that we do for the book block. We do not obtain "royalty free" pictures for you to use for your covers, so you will need to have a design in mind and be ready to send us graphics for the cover of at least 300 dpi.
Two Brothers Press offers prepress services only AFTER editing or receipt of a fully edited and "clean" manuscript. Our prices are competitive with other prepress services. Typsetting a manuscript of 30,000 to 100,000 words is $350. Anything over that up to around 250,000 words is $500. You will not want this service if your POD or printer works with your Word file.
If this prepress process is "Greek" to you, please consider Two Brothers Press manuscript conversion services or use a POD publisher that performs this function.