Lyndi has three grey hairs. Kat has four. We blame it on Rob. Four years ago, he got it into his head that, as an agency, we should produce and publish a textbook. You’d think that would be enough, but it wasn’t. Four editions on and we are well on our way to having a perpetual drinking problem being experts on curating and compiling knowledge and producing a fantastic product.

The key thing we have learnt is that a lot goes into a book. More than you will ever be able to guess. This is true even when you have been involved, to varying degrees, in the publication of three previous books. This is particularly worth noting when you are producing a book that is essentially the synthesis of an entire agency’s extensive (often technical) knowledge and practical experience. Fortunately, this latest edition (our fourth) is fantastic. Here are some fun facts about it:

• It weighs 1.1 kilograms.
• There are $480 worth of vouchers in the book.
• The last edition that we published in SA (edition three was produced for the US market only) was 363 pages long.
• Edition four is 570 pages long (that’s a third bigger!). We pre-sold over 1000 copies of the book before it went to print.
• The book has five brand new chapters and all new case studies.

It’s safe to say that we have once again, learnt a lot about the process of compiling a book and taking it to market. Today we have decided to share our learnings with you, in case you ever decide to write/publish/compile a book – something we really encourage you to do if you have valuable knowledge to share.

In the beginning

Before you start, there are a number of choices that you need to make. Most important is probably deciding on your target audience. Who are you publishing this book for? Is it introductory or intermediate? Is it a textbook or a handbook? Is it both? For a textbook this is particularly important, as it will determine the amount of background information you need to include, how technical you can get and what kind of voice you can use to speak to your audience. Often, as an expert yourself, it is easy to assume something is obvious when it is not.

Planning

The defining of roles and responsibilities is an obvious starting point in your process. In the rollout of a long term project it’s essential to have at least one person who knows where everything is at any given time. A textbook such as ours - that incorporates knowledge from an entire agency – has many collaborators. Coordinating this takes careful planning and scheduling. It is likely that things will not go according to plan but having a schedule in place at least gives you some idea of how far you are from where you need to be, and what you need to do to close that gap. It will also make you feel better. And sometimes worse, as the case may be.

It is also essential to define approval processes up front. Who is responsible for signing off the final product? If it is more than one person, how will you coordinate the process of approval? What will your protocol be for decisions made later in the process that affect timeline or budget? With a project of this magnitude you will be privy to a lot of valuable input from a lot of people. Of course the smaller your team, the better (from a logistical perspective) but you also don’t want to exclude valuable expertise. Find the balance, with clear cut off points.

Compilation

The process of getting valuable knowledge out of an office full of very busy people can be rather frustrating. Aside from anything else (and we say this with love and infinite respect) not everyone is designed to succinctly explain things to non-experts. This can be a challenge but it’s definitely an interesting and rewarding one.

The best process is probably that of devising a series of consultations and reviews. In our industry, things changed even while the book was being compiled (we may or may not have been very grumpy when Google + launched - don’t stress it’s in the book).

In terms of the final product, the ultimate goal is one tone of voice throughout the book – to familiarise readers with the voice speaking to them.

A content guide that covers things like the spelling of certain words, capitalisation conventions, bullet point conventions etc. is also essential. You should develop this as a content guide for your brand anyway, but a more in depth one is valuable for any copy you produce.

Finding the right designer is critical. We’ve been lucky to have Solveig Bosch lay out all the editions of our book and her work is fantastic. Make sure that your designer is aware of all the necessary conventions in your layout and define your review process up front. Changes made to copy at this stage are far more painful, which is why the editing and proofing phase is so important.

Editing

Do not underestimate the importance of this process. Do not make the mistake of assigning more time for compilation than editing (and proofing). It’s essential that the book is viewed as a whole and edited thoroughly for consistency and clarity. This process, while it can have many contributors, needs to be managed by one person – life can become difficult if there is more than one final decision maker here.

Printing

Get a lot of quotes. It is always tempting to go with the cheapest one. Don’t do that. Have a look at quality. Consider that the printed version is the representation of all of the work that you did to get to that point. If it looks average, not only will you be unable to sell it, but you will also be selling yourself and your efforts sadly short. It is useful to get an idea of the process up front and develop a relationship with your printer. This will ensure that you keep each other informed throughout the process. We were going to go into a whole lot of detail here on the printing process.

It seemed boring though. Get in touch with us if you have any questions.

The final product

Finding errors in the final product is incredibly painful. Every time an error is found it’s like losing the Rugby World Cup final because of a one point difference. Except the nation doesn’t weep – only we do. It is incredibly challenging to put together a book with no typos or errors. Try not to be too hard on yourself, and if you see errors and run into one of us, volunteer a hug.

Almost the end

Once you get to the end of this road, there are a million people to thank. Repeatedly. Our particular thanks go to Sarah Blake for her endless contribution. Our designer, Solveig, who is amazing. And patient. Even when we are changing the same line for the 10th time. To Roger Ewing for his sterling work on our new cover and to the indelible Sarah Manners for her work on proofing the book. To our very own Quirk Education team and to all the people in the agency who commented, contributed and whose brains we picked to put this edition together – thank you. Finally, to our favourite ginger, Rob Stokes who only made Lyndi cry once during this process, thank you.