The book formatting and interior layout process for your book is one of the most important steps in the publishing process. To get started, you must fill out a questionnaire and tell us more about any book formatting ideas that you may have. When it comes to book formatting and interior layout you have options and we want to make sure that we incorporate your feedback. Then we format a sample chapter (usually the first chapter of your book) so you can confirm that it looks how you imagined it. If you want something about your book formatting changed, we will do one (1) round of revisions for free.
Once you approve the book formatting on the sample chapter, we complete the entire interior layout of the book and present you with an electronic proof. You get one (1) round of minor revisions to correct anything you missed (anything we missed is corrected for free).
If after this point you require more changes, there are some associated fees (see FAQs).
Once you approve the final interior layout (and cover) in electronic and physical proof form, the book is ready to print!
Why is the ownership of the digital files for your book cover and book layout so important?
If you don´t own them (most self-publishing companies own the digital files) and decide to terminate your publishing contract, you will need to pay again to layout the book and cover design. This is never a problem for a Mill City Press author.
At Mill City Press, we believe that if you pay a self-publishing company to publish your book, you deserve to own the digital files that contain your book’s layout and cover design. You shouldn’t have to pay anyone else to create files that you’ve already paid us to construct.
What do I need to do to my file prior to submitting it to Mill City Press?
If you have your manuscript in a Microsoft Word document, you will only need to remove any images (photos, charts, etc) put in placeholders, and then send us the images separately. If your manuscript isn’t in a Microsoft Word document, then you’ll need to convert it.
If you have a press-ready file, we’ll ask to see it first in order to make sure that it meets the specifications required by our printers.
All of the pre-submission requirements can be found at formatting guidelines
What are my choices for trim size, cover material, and paper stock?
If you have purchased either our Basic or Advanced publishing packages, the trim size, cover, and paper stock options can be found at POD Trim Sizes. These options are the only options available from the printer that prints our books for POD (print-on-demand) distribution.
If you have purchased either our Premium or Professional publishing programs, you have too many options to list here. Please consider that non-standard trim-sizes, embellishments to cover stock, etc. will increase the printing costs considerably. To get a custom quote on specific printing needs, please contact us.
Does Mill City Press have any hidden formatting fees?
No. Not only does our contract spell out situations wherein you might be required to pay additional fees for extra formatting, we’re also putting it all right here. The situations below are out of our control and can potentially incur additional formatting fees. With that said, all additional formatting fees are cleared with the author before proceeding.
Situations that may result in additional fees for formatting:
Changes after Approving Sample Chapter
As you know, we create a sample chapter layout of your book using the font size, margins, and design elements that you submit in your interior layout questionnaire. We then ask you to log into your author account and approve the sample chapter. Don’t approve it until you’re sure you like it because that sample chapter will be the template we use to format the remainder of your manuscript into your fully finished interior. If after you approve the sample chapter, you decide you want changes to the margins, font, or anything else you approved in the sample chapter, the cost is $50 per hour with a minimum fee of $50.
Fonts
If you want a font that we don’t offer in our standard options, you may purchase that font (Author is responsible for this process) and provide the files to us, or we will attempt to source that font for you and charge your account for the cost of the font.
Revisions Prior to Final Layout Approval
Once the full layout is complete we supply you with a digital version of both your book’s interior and cover in the form of a PDF file. This file is how your cover and interior will appear on/in your finished product. This is your time to review it. All of our publishing packages include one (1) round of up to twenty (20) collective “minor revisions.” Examples of “Minor Revisions” include: design changes (headers, breaks), typographical errors, punctuation, spelling, and/or extra spaces between characters or words that were in the original submitted manuscript. Any errors that are identified as a result of altering or oversight on the part of Mill City Press during the layout step are always corrected at no additional cost to the author.
If you want to make editorial revisions (e.g. you want to change content) or other minor revisions after the complimentary round, the cost is $50 per hour, with a one (1) hour minimum.
Please be advised that each round of revisions can take between 10-15 business days, so plan accordingly.
Revisions After Final Interior is Approved
Carefully reviewing the interior layout prior to approval is absolutely crucial. Once you have given your approval to the final interior, changes you request after that tend to be very expensive. Once your book is formatted, but has not yet gone to print, the cost to change the trim size is $400, resizing the margins is $300, and changing the font size is $50 per hour. The reason we need to charge for this is that all of these revisions require that our designers re-format the entire interior to new specifications and this takes a considerable amount of time.
Post Print Revisions
You will be charged a fee of $50 per hour to make changes to your book once the book has been printed. There is also a $50 fee for each file that we must resubmit (interior and cover are treated separate files).
Cost for Interior Image Placement
You get up to twenty (20) images (pictures, graphs, charts, etc.) placed into your book's layout as part of all publishing packages. If you have more than twenty (20) images, the cost to include them in the book is four dollars ($4) per additional image.
