BooklynPUBLISHING

The twelve checks we run before a manuscript is typeset

Booklyn production desk · updated 2026

Typesetting a manuscript that has not been checked is how a book ends up in its fourth proof round. These twelve checks take about ninety minutes on a 60,000-word file and remove nearly every delay we used to see.

Structure

  1. Chapter headings use one real heading style. Not bold body text, not centred manual formatting. A table of contents can only be generated from actual heading levels, and a two-pass TOC with true page numbers depends on it entirely.
  2. Chapter count and order match the outline. Renumbering a missing Chapter 14 after typesetting means reflowing every page after it.
  3. Front and back matter exist. Half title, title, copyright, dedication, contents at the front; acknowledgements, about the author, also-by at the back. Missing back matter is the most common late change, and it changes the page count, which changes the spine width, which invalidates the cover.

Text

  1. One space after a period, everywhere. Two spaces create visible rivers in justified type.
  2. Straight quotes converted to typographic quotes — and apostrophes in contractions checked, because automatic conversion turns ’90s into an opening quote every time.
  3. No manual line breaks inside paragraphs. They survive conversion and break reflow in the ebook.
  4. Em dashes, en dashes and hyphens used deliberately. Ranges take an en dash, interruptions take an em dash.
  5. Scripture references verified against the stated translation. If the book says ASV, every quotation is checked against ASV, not against memory.

Assets and rights

  1. Every image is at least 300 DPI at its printed size. A 600 px-wide photograph is a two-inch image, whatever the screen shows.
  2. Every image has a traced rights status. Public domain means a verifiable publication date or an explicit release, not an absence of a watermark.
  3. No song lyrics, and no quoted poetry, without a licence. Lyrics are the single most common rights failure in music biography, and the rights holders do check.
  4. Citations resolve. Every note points at something a reader could actually go and find.
The check that saves the most time is number three. Back matter added after typesetting changes the page count, and page count drives the spine, which drives the entire cover file.

If your manuscript passes all twelve, production is mechanical from there. The cover math comes next.