Featured Projects

In 2006 Jerboa Books, a publisher based in Dubai, came to CPM with an idea for a lavishly illustrated series of books for children about Arabian animals. A local author from Dubai had written outlines and plans for four titles, and Jerboa Books wanted help to turn these into something that would leap out from the shelves. Jerboa Books’ ambition is to improve the quality of home-grown books in Arabia, especially titles published in Arabic, and it wanted to publish simultaneous co-editions of this series in English and Arabic. English schools in Arabia follow the UK National Curriculum, so it made sense that the development of this project came to us in England (not least because of our experience with other educational publishers).

CPM helped to expand and develop the original plans into the series Creatures of Arabia. We used UK authors experienced in writing for children to write the text in consultation with the original series author. We also used specialist consultants for fact-checking, given the unusual subject matter.

The picture research, a specialist task, was both a pleasure and a challenge. For example, it was not enough to simply find a photo of an Arabian horse; the image had to have an Arabian desert background, too (rather than, say, a Wyoming plain). Another difficulty was that some of the featured animals are endangered and rarely seen, or seen only at night and therefore hard to photograph. We made contact with all sorts of fantastic and very helpful photographers in Arabia who supplied many of the images.

The resulting titles Mammals, Reptiles & Amphibians, Birds and Sea Creatures are a beautiful introduction for children to Arabian wildlife.

Aside from our successful relationships with British publishers, we have also developed valued connections with publishers from other countries wishing to reach the English-speaking market.

Project managing these co-edition titles requires specific skills, as they are set up and printed differently. In traditional colour illustrated books, the page is printed with four plates; in co-editions, there is a fifth plate that prints only the text, which allows simultaneous printing of several languages by simply changing this plate and thus reducing the printing costs considerably. The editorial implication of this process is that the colour files must remain identical for all languages, and that we cannot alter the layout in any way – we are provided with files where all illustrations are low resolution. The text must fit comfortably in the space provided in the original book, which can be a challenge because English is on average about 20 per cent shorter than most European languages.

Another challenge presented by co-edition titles is that they require some content adaptation to suit the British and American markets. We look after many gardening titles, for example, and the same flower or plant may not be known by the same name on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This was particularly true in a book we managed for Parragon entitled A Concise Guide to Roses. Likewise, ingredients in cookery may not be known by the same name or are sold in different packaging. Additionally, reference to laws or data about the country of origin often needs to be localised.

On receipt of the manuscript in the original language, we commission a freelance translator with subject knowledge. Depending on the size of the book and the schedule, we may have several translators working simultaneously on a title. The translation is then passed to the copy-editor. We also work closely with the overseas publisher to resolve any factual errors.

Once the manuscript is copy-edited, the project editor carefully checks that the style has been correctly applied. The edited text is passed to our production department for layout, then checked by our in-house readers to ensure that all the text is present and follows the original design.

The next stage is crucial, with the editors ensuring that the text fits well in the space provided. This often involves slight rewriting/rewording to avoid orphans and widows, or more considerable rewriting to fill boxes. Following this, a set of proofs is sent to a freelance proofreader then the marked-up pages are put back into production for corrections.

If we are doing both British and American editions, we will create a duplicate of the files at this stage, and a new set of proofs will be sent to a different proofreader for Americanisation or Anglicisation.

When all the proofreader's corrections are integrated, we create low-resolution PDFs that are uploaded onto the publisher's ftp server for approval. As part of the approval process, we make any final corrections, then prepare the printer’s PDFs and verification proofs. These look a bit strange, as you can see only the text seemingly floating randomly. But, of course, when the book is printed this layer is imposed onto the illustrations.

The Travellers series covers a wide range of countries, regions and cities around the world. It is aimed at travellers aged 30 and over who are interested in the people, culture and history of a destination. The books describe the most enjoyable and fascinating places to visit, both well known and off the beaten track.

The Hawaii book was published in March 2008, and CPM was involved from the very beginning of the project. We found and commissioned the author. In this case it was someone who had written for us before, but often we need to seek out new talent, especially if the destination is an unusual one.

Once the author was briefed, the next step was to agree a synopsis for the book with Thomas Cook. The author was given some guidance about the places and sights to include, but her specialist knowledge allowed her to round out the book plan more fully. The project editor ensured that all parties were in agreement about what the book would contain before moving forward.

The author's manuscript was carefully checked by the project editor to ensure it met the brief for the series, covered everything that had been agreed regarding the content, and was appropriate to the readership. The manuscript was then sent to a freelance copy-editor, along with a copy of the references for new maps provided by the author so that the text could be checked against the maps as it was being edited.

While the copy-edit was taking place, the map references were also being checked by the project editor to ensure that all the places mentioned in the text were marked on the map, and that any walks and drives were clearly plotted. Once that was completed, the project editor commissioned a cartographer to create the maps. She also undertook an initial photo selection, ready for the page layout stage.

The copy-edited text was checked to ensure the editing brief had been followed. Queries were resolved with the author, then the text and selected photos were handed over to our in-house production department to lay out the pages.

After initial layout the pages were checked first by the in-house reader to make sure the series style had been followed, then by the project editor to address any issues such as overmatter or gaps. New maps were placed, corrections made and acknowledgements written, and the resulting proofs were sent to a freelance proofreader.

Following the proofread the pages were put back into production for corrections, and the final colour proofs created for Thomas Cook. Once those were approved and outstanding corrections taken in, PDFs were made and sent to the nominated printer, along with a corresponding set of proofs. Archive files were sent to Thomas Cook.

All Aboard! is a series of English Language Teaching books for the Latin American market, produced on behalf of Macmillan Education. These books are used primarily in private schools in Mexico. We were tasked to assemble 18 different titles – six student books, six workbooks and six teachers' books, all of which cross-referenced and were designed to be used together. There was also an accompanying set of audio CDs, for which we had to ensure that the scripts correctly matched the content of the books.

We project managed the books from initial manuscript right through to film, using a team of three in-house project editors (each responsible for one strand of the series). Because of the enormous amount of illustration in the student books in particular, much of the work involved commissioning and managing a group of illustrators. Many of these were based in the USA, as the overall style for the books was American English. This meant grappling with time differences as well as establishing a common language in order to understand and resolve queries on the visual references.

By far the biggest challenge, though, was ensuring that the content of the different strands of the series matched from one book to another. This was achieved through tight-knit co-operation between the in-house editors (easily done, due to their proximity within the CPM office), and by using a tried and trusted group of freelance suppliers for copy-editing and proofreading to guarantee continuity. As you can see from our testimonials, this was a resounding success.