Book publishing

A copy edit involves a professional editor reading your manuscript to correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar and highlight any potential issues with sense, consistency, or repetition. This ensures that your book enters the production process with as few errors as possible.

On the other hand, a proof read is a final read-through of your manuscript after it’s been typeset to catch any remaining spelling or grammatical errors, while also checking for page layout errors, such as incorrect text indentation, page numbers or running headers. You get to approve any changes made during the copy edit and/or proof read processes before publication.

Opting for both of these editorial services will ensure that the inside of your book is of the highest quality and reduce the chances of any errors remaining in the text by the time your book is printed. Each service serves a different purpose, meaning that a proof read is not a replacement for a copy edit.

We have a skilled editorial team working on our authors’ manuscripts, taking a human-centric, emotionally intelligent approach to editing that can’t be found in AI editing software. Our editors are real people, editing real writers’ words, for real readers to enjoy.

When you look at any two books on your shelf, you'll notice how the appearance of their text is different. So how do you decide what font to use, what size, how large the pages should be and what makes the page pleasing to the eye? Text design is an art form which should not be overlooked. We design your book's text and ensure that you're happy with that design before typesetting begins.

Typesetting is the process of page layout, where we place images and lay out the text to give it that professional polish. Then we send you the typeset proofs to check and approve.

We have skilled in-house cover designers who can design your book's cover from scratch, using either your own images or by sourcing photographs or illustrations for you.

Our cover design process is collaborative, where you can either bring the ideas and our professional designers can turn those into cracking covers, or you can leave it to us to get inspired by your book and produce a sparkling cover that will help sell your book.

An ISBN enables a bookshop to identify a book's publisher, and thus be able to order it. Depending on the author's preference, we either supply ISBNs under our Troubador imprint for books published in the UK on their behalf, or we can use author-owned and supplied ISBNs if preferred.

How do booksellers know your book is available? They use bibliographic databases run by companies such as Bowker and Nielsen, which supply metadata to bookstores. Troubador supplies enhanced bibliographic data through an industry-standard Onix-3-based system, giving our books the widest possible chance of being found. We also hold a BIC Basic and Digital Tick award for the quality of our data, helping us sell more books for our authors.

Utilising our network of talented illustrators, we will work with you to match you with the perfect illustrator to bring your vision to life. We can cater to most styles of illustration and will work to ensure that the end product you receive is of the highest possible quality.

Following a briefing with a Troubador team member, we’ll select an illustrator from our network that most suits your requirements and we will manage the administration of the process from start to finish. Alongside facilitating the creation of the illustrations themselves, we will ensure that you retain the full copyright of those images to use as you wish in your future work.

We use a wide range of printers in the UK, each with its own strengths and specialisms, so we can take over that lengthy hunt for the right printer at the right price. We can also advise on the correct form of printing and distribution bearing in mind your aims in self-publishing.