Print and ebook layout for novels and narrative non-fiction

Electric Book Works handles layout and ebook production for publishers of novels and narrative non-fiction.

• Pricing is simple: $10 per 1000 words. That includes a print-ready PDF, an epub, and a PDF ebook.
• You’ll have direct contact with your production specialist for simple, speedy communication.
• Book in your book a week in advance, with a pre-agreed design template, and turnaround time for first page proofs will be two working days.

The Park is one of several novels we’ve produced for renowned publisher Pan Macmillan.

Requirements

To make this simple pricing possible, we have a few requirements:

• This pricing is for text-only, black-and-white books. If your book has features like images, tables, or poetry, send us your manuscript and we’ll send you a quote.
• You’ll provide a written brief describing the book’s genre and audience, and noting any special or unusual book features.
• Your manuscript should be copy edited, and sent in a single Word file or Google Docs link. It should include all text, including prelims such as the title page and copyright page. Any unusual features (e.g. special formatting or font changes) must be clearly indicated in the manuscript.
• We’ll implement one round of reasonable proofreading and authors’ corrections (e.g. 1–2 small corrections per page), and up to three sets of page proofs. We charge for additional work at $35 per hour, and always let you know beforehand.
• We offer this service to established publishing teams only. We’re not able to provide the guidance and support that first-time self-publishers need.

If your project has different specs or requirements, let us know and we’ll discuss how to get it done quickly and cost-effectively. We can handle or guide you on any step in the overall book-production process.

Workflow

This is how a typical production process would work.

• You contact us in advance to book in your project.
• You send us:
  • the copy-edited manuscript,
  • a written brief describing genre and audience, noting any special or unusual book features, and
  • a large PDF or JPG of the cover (required for ebooks).
• We send you any queries by the next working day, with a proposed production schedule.
• Once any queries are resolved:
  • If there is no pre-agreed page design in place, we do an initial layout and send you a sample PDF to confirm the page design within two working days. We can make minor adjustments to the page design. (If you require design options or multiple rounds of adjustments, additional design costs apply.)
  • If or when the page design is confirmed, we send you first page proofs (PDF and epub) within two working days.
• You provide a single copy of the PDF with proofreading and author corrections clearly marked up. Feedback on the epub, if any, should be clearly written up. (If you need help recruiting a proofreader or collating corrections, we can provide this for an additional charge.)
• We implement the corrections and send you second page proofs (PDF and epub).
• You provide any final corrections marked up on the second-page-proof PDF.
• We implement final corrections and provide final, print-ready PDF, an epub, and a PDF ebook.

Note that we do not use InDesign for book layout. We use a digital-first system that we have refined for over ten years, which lets us produce PDF and epub from the same files. If you definitely require inDesign layouts, let us know. When working from InDesign we charge a separate, additional fee for epub conversion.

Read more about our digital-first production process here.