- Open the Workflow section to change the Expected Date.
- Click on the calendar icon next to Expected Date.
- Use the arrows to find the month and year you want, and click on the date.
- Click Save Changes.
- Remember, you will need to refresh the page to see the new date.
You’ve signed the contract. Your journey to publication consists of 9 stages, what we call the Workflow sections.
- Manuscript Upload and Approval
- Copyediting
- Final Copyedit
- Proofs
- Cover
- ebook
- Printing
- ebook Distributed
- Book in Warehouse
The entire journey takes roughly 14 months from the contract being signed to your book being published.
It usually takes about four months between the Manuscript Upload and Approval section beginning, to the Proofs and Cover sections being Approved/Confirmed.
To see where your book is in the production process, click on Production and scroll down to Workflow.
You can open each Workflow section by clicking on the down arrows to the right of the bar, and close them by clicking on the up arrows.
Once you’ve signed a contract, the Manuscript Upload and Approval Workflow section will open up. Once that stage of the process is completed, the next one, Copyediting will open up, and so on. Check your inbox! The email notifications will keep you updated on the whole process and tell you what you need to do.
Each Workflow section has a Notes for this workflow stage box where you can leave notes for your Publishing Team or, in some cases, change the Expected Date. If you do so, make sure you remember to click Save Changes.
Each time a new Workflow section is opened up, an Expected Date (initial deadline for the stage’s completion; we aim to complete each stage before the Expected Date) will appear.
Each section is a different colour, depending on where it is in the process.
- Green – approved and finished
- Yellow – current stage
- Red – Overdue (not completed and Expected Date has passed)
- White – Yet to begin
A production stage/ Workflow section is completed when the Approve/Confirm button is pressed, usually by a member of the CI team, and sometimes, you, the author. Once a stage is completed, it cannot be changed.
Expected dates are guidelines, not set in stone.If your current Workflow section is red (overdue) it’s usually because a member of staff hasn’t approved it yet. Don’t worry! If something's been in red for over seven days (and it's not in your control) then raise a query on the Author Forum.
Manuscript Upload and Approval
- Triggered after you sign the contract and when the Managing Director puts the book In Production
- Approved/Confirmed after the Editorial Manager has checked over the manuscript
- Expected Date is set at one week from In Production, but if you're still working on the manuscript you can change the date to suit your timeline
Copyediting
-
Triggered once the Editorial Manager has approved the Manuscript Upload and Approval stage
- Expected Date set at 30 days from the approval of the previous section
- Approved/Confirmed by Copyeditor when they uploaded the revised manuscript
Final Copyedit
- Triggered after Copyeditor has uploaded the revised manuscript, sending you a notification asking you to check the manuscript
- Expected Date set for seven days later. Change the date here if you need more time to check the manuscript
- Approved/Confirmed 1 by you when you upload the checked manuscript
- Approved/Confirmed 2 by the Editorial Manager, who gives the manuscript one last high-level inspection, including the deletion of mark-ups, tracked changes, and any remaining comments
Proofs and Cover
- Triggered after Editorial Manager has Approved the Final Copyedit
- Expected Date for Proofs set at 60 days later, 75 days for the Cover
- We aim to produce proofs within two weeks of receiving your approved manuscript, four weeks for proofreading, two weeks for corrections to be made
- The Draft Cover is created during this time and finalized once the Proofs have been Approved/Confirmed by the Editorial Manager.
- Proofs are Approved/Confirmed by the Editorial Manager once the corrections have been done
- Cover is Approved/Confirmed by the Editorial Manager when they are happy with the full and final cover
- Authors cannot access this section
ebook and Printing
- ebook and Printing are triggered when the Editorial Manager approves the Cover stage
- Expected Date for both ebook and Printing set 240 days later
- ebook is Approved/Confirmed by the ebook Designer when the ebook is be ready for distribution
- Printing is Approved/Confirmed when the Print Manager sends an order to the printer
- This is scheduled for six to eight weeks prior to publication to allow books to reach the warehouse and be distributed from there to retailers
ebook Distributed
- Triggered when the ebook stage is Approved
- Expected Date is 30 days later
- Approved/Confirmed when the Sales Coordinator has sent the metadata for the ebooks to NBN, usually about 4 weeks before pub date
Book in Warehouse
- Triggered when the Printing stage is Approved/Confirmed
- Expected Date is set 30 days later although the books normally reach the warehouse in two to three weeks
- Approved/Confirmed when the Print Manager sees the book is in stock with our two primary distributors, Wiley and NBN
Please do not delete any files within the Production Workflow, unless you have loaded something in error. We keep all versions of the text, so we can refer back to them if problems arise later.
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