TGS presumes that you have submitted what you feel is a manuscript ready for publication. You have already edited and spell-checked the manuscript. Your submission is your final edition, ready to publish.
Don't let all this scare you. It is really quite simple when you get used to it. Do not call TGS under any circumstances for help in learning or using word. It is virtually impossible to do this over the phone. There is help available at libraries, junior colleges, in books, etc. You could even hire a qualified college or high school student to format some of this for you.
TGS begins its work from the Word (doc) program. All submissions must be reduced at some point to a word document. If your work is submitted in word, it will save you some money. We can utilize work from most word processors, but all non-Word submissions have to be converted over to Word. Some of these conversions are time-intensive. This work is billed back to the author.
The word file is merely our working copy of your book, the book is never printed directly from word, but placed into another program for publishers.
The instructions below are assuming that you are presenting your work in Word format to TGS. If you are not sending it in word you can at least see what we have to convert it to.
Your word document under page setup should be set to book fold and landscape.
Margins:
bottom = 1 inch
right=.6 inch
left =.6 inch
gutter=.4 inch
header= .8 inch
footer=.8 inch
TGS is more than happy to format the book from beginning to end. We do this day in and day out and are quite fast at it. However, the time is billed to the author.
We want all paragraphing formatted in JUSTIFIED. Lists, tables, and such should be formatted to the left or centered.
All chapters begin on an odd page number.
Your table of contents should be set use the auto update function in word under the insert references section.
Indexes if used, should also utilize the auto update function.
Page numbering should be the auto function in the header or footer.
Pictures should be placed and sized to fit the page margins required. Your pictures should be sized at 300 dpi to the approximate size of your page. If we have to resize your pictures and images you will be billed for this 'extra' work. This too is time consuming.
Using a picture that calculates out to 12 inches width and forcing it to fit in a five inch area is a critical drawback to production. Word continues to calculate and draw the 12 inch picture. This slows down printing considerably. Scanners are normally set to make very large size images. These should be resized without the dpi quality being reduced.
Your original scans and your resized ones should be included on the CD you send to us. If for some reason a picture won't print, we can go back to the original and recover the needed digital format to print.
We do not recommend putting your email address on or in your book. Put your website address and there they can get your email address. Email addresses change often, sometimes for reasons beyond your control, and it costs time and money to change these in a locked-down file.
During our work on preparing the book, if we catch a word mis-spelled, all work is stopped and the manuscript sent to an editor for checking the spelling. This delays getting the book to print, however the professionalism of your book and of TGS is graded by the public on word spellings. It is very necessary to do this.
If the margins are not maintained throughout the entire book then we have to stop and have the book reformatted to match our requisites for the margins. We have to cut approximately 1/8 inch off the top, bottom and edge of the book after printing and binding. Pictures are notorious about jumping out of the prescribed margins if the author is not watching this closely.
Copyright (c) TGS Publishing 2005- US Copyright, Library of Congress- All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced by any means or in any form without written permission. Crawling by unauthorized spiders and bots is forbidden. Website copying is a violation of copyrights and this site is protected under international law and treaty.