Manuscript Review

Once you have submitted your manuscript to Strategic Books, it will be sent to the Manuscript Review Department. Here an editor will go over your manuscript and evaluate what changes need to be made (if any).

In this phase, your work will be scrutinized for things such as: typographical errors, spelling and grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and syntax errors. The editor will set out a list of errors in these categories that need to be corrected, and will advise you if you need an edit by a professional editor, or if he/she feels you can make the corrections yourself.

Examples of punctuation errors:

"I'm home", she called out "is anybody here"? Plopping down on the stool in front of the counter she reached for the cookie jar, it was full of her favorite chocolate chip cookies!!!!

• comma goes inside quotation marks
• question mark goes inside quotation marks
• comma goes after "out"
• comma goes after "counter"
• use semicolon, instead of comma after "jar"
• use only one exclamation mark

Examples of grammatical errors:

She thought it was to good to be true. But it was all happening so quick.

• too
• However
• quickly
  

Examples of syntax errors:

When it wouldn't fit through the doorway because it was too big, she had tried to even turn it sideways.

• It was too big and would not fit through the doorway, even after trying to turn it sideways.

A check will be done on the title of your book, to find out if that title is currently in use, and the author's name will be checked for other authors by the same name.

Example: There is another author by the same name, how may we distinguish you?
(middle initial, title, pen name, etc.)

Example: There is another book with the same title. Have you researched other titles, or would you prefer to add a subtitle?

To prepare the Production Department for receiving your manuscript, the Manuscript Review editor will look at formatting issues such as:

• When submitting your manuscript, please ensure that all chapters are in one Word document.
• The first page of your manuscript should be the title page. This should contain the title of your book, your name, your by line, and word count.
• Do not use hard returns as this creates a nightmare in the production department. (hard returns are created when you press 'enter' after each line)
• Pictures, sketches, diagrams, graphs, charts and photos should be emailed in a separate folder
• Headers and footers should not be manually typed at the top of each page, but inserted from the tool bar, from tools, insert, header and footers
• All font should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt.
• Margins should be 1" on all four sides

While this may sound overwhelming to the first-time author, do not fear as there is nothing that cannot be corrected on our end. However, we do ask that you do your best in these areas, and then leave the rest up to us.

Sometimes authors have written about, or included somewhere in their book, real people; photographs; sketches; medical or legal advice; or other issues that we feel need an evaluation by our legal team. The Manuscript Review editor will note this. If you should see the box checked "Legal Review Needed," this is nothing to worry about, it is simply standard procedure.

When this phase has been completed, you will receive a Manuscript Review Report, so that you are always kept up to date with where your manuscript is in the overall process of turning it into the finished product.

At Strategic Books, we want your book to be as error free as possible, and the Manuscript Review process is just one of our valuable aids that help insure this. Our goal is to be as proud of your book as you are!

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