Louis F. Fieser Harvard Un~vers~ty Cambridge, Massachusetts
I I
Novel Techniques in Book Production
A
1200-page book which covers the literature of selected topics in organic chemistry to July, 1961, appeared in hished form in September, 1961. Included are 91 name-and-date references to 1961 papers, some of which appeared in June journals. This account of the production of "Advanced Organic Chemistry" is presented in the hope that description of the unorthodox techniques employed may be useful to other authors and of some general interest. For several years Mary Fieser, with an uncanny facility for rapid and retentive reading and for gleaning the gist of a complicated paper, prepared large stacks of uncorrelated surveys in various stages of completion. For about two years I spent all available time reworking, organizing, and integrating Mary's material. Even when her version a t first seemed satisfactory as it stood, it usually was improved in the course of rewriting the section and designing the formula charts. I did not have to study the papers cited because Mary had done that; I could thus scan the papers for experimental or historical details which would add interest. Formulotionr
The routine of publication ordinarily starts, on receipt by the publisher of a completed manuscript, with estimation of the costs of printing and of reproducing the formulas and photographs. Black and white photographs present no problem. A halftone is made rapidly and a t reasonable expense by photographing an 8 X 10-in. print through a screen and transferring the image to a copper plate for etching. A zinc plate for reproduction of a printed formulation or line drawing is cheaper; in the new book we used material reproduced in this way from all our previous books. Typesetting moves a t a pace which seems fantastically fast. I n a book on organic chemistly the rate-controlling step is reproduction of several hundred elaborate new formulations. I n all our books these were done from wax engravings made by the firm of Magnuson and Vincent a t Haward Square. The wax engraving process is meticulous and time consuming, and steady production has to be maintained on several jobs simultaneously. Thus the engravings for our "Advanced Organic Chemistry" book required about two years for completion, whereas the typesetting time amounted to something like 3 4 months. A publisher, by careful technical editing, often can improve considerably the work of an inexperienced or careless author. Also, the publisher ordinarily attends to all details involving reproductions. However, a considerable delay is inevitable if the work of engraving starts only with receipt of the completed manuscript. Our publisher (Reinhold), however, authorized Mag-
nuson and Vincent to make engravings from copy which we submitted to them directly. Thus work on engravings started as soon as the first section of manuscript had been typed. Proof reached us by messenger and was corrected and returned promptly. First and second revisions were handled in the same way. Compare the orthodox procedure in which each copy and publisher revision makes the journey: author engraver publisher author. Furthermore a possible misunderstanding is easily forestalled by a few words with the man on the job. For a time, formulations drawn in pencil were redrawn and typed by my secretary, and a carbon copy went to the engraver. This careful copying is slow, and typing began to fall considerably behind writing. To speed things up I dispensed with typed formulations and had engraving run ahead of manuscript typing. Pencilled formulas were clear enough to the engraver, the typist was spared considerable time, and an occasional typing error was eliminated. I n typing the manuscript, Miss Lytle simply pasted in a print or proof of each engraving. Copy to be sent out for review was made on the elegant Xerox machine; the reader could then help eliminate errors from engravings, rather than from copy for the engravings. Ordinarily a technical editor of the publisher's staff numbers and keeps track of all engravings, halftones, and zinc plates, but the editor can operate only with information obtained from the author. Since use of an i n t e r m e d i i seemed inefficient, I took over this job. There were headaches over changes in the order of chapters, insertions, and lost plates, but eventually all of some 1900 plates of three types reached the printer (Waverly Press) safely in a series of shipments in aluminum laundry boxes.
-
-
-
-
The Proof
-
Except for the last four chapters, the set of galley proof to be corrected and returned with the manuscript followed the usual routing: printer publisher -+ publisher's proof reader authors. However, duplicate sets of proof went out to five competent chemists who had agreed, most generously, to read the entire proof. The combined knowledge, wisdom, and talent of this group of readers was of inestimable value to the project. For the convenience of readers, each batch of galley was accompanied by a r e t u ~ nenvelope with stamps for airmail special delivery. Typesetting was started after submission of about 400 pages of manuscript, and for some time afterwards I was able to feed in manuscript fast enough to keep the printer in supply. I n this period I did not read galley proof but periodically entered corrections found
-
Volume 39, Number 2, February 1962
/
99
h s outside readers,. by - Mary, - . and by three research associates. With Chapter 12 I stopped sending in galley proof for paging, both to gain time for writing and to allow onnortunitv for revision. With Chanter 27 the ~ r i n t e r ran out of manuscript and had to interrupt typesetting until I was able to supply enough of the remaining four long chapters for resumption. After completion of the last chapter, I plunged into revision, in succession, of Chapters 12-27. This went fairly rapidly even though it required scanning new issues of the ten major journals and preparation of numerous insertions. Direct contact with the engraver proved invaluable, for to expedite engravings for insertion in early chapters I had merely to stop in a t M and V's and put early copy on top of the pile awaiting processing. A few very late additions required formulas and the time did not suffice for the production of engravings, and so I made paste-up copy for zinc etchings with material cut out of Xerox copies made from the journals. A few addit,ions were made in page proof by utilizing empty space a t the ends of chapters.
indexing sometimes brings out useful points not specifically stated in the text, for example, instances of steric hindrance and of rear attack evident from the context hut not identified as such. Advance indexing paid off particularly when we reached the anxiety-filled stage of the last stretch. I n this period we dispensed with the professional proofreader, and galley proof came to us directly from the printer. As a means of avoiding a possible holdup on our part, I indexed the last four chapters from Xerox copy of the manuscript while the material was being set in type. Thus, a week before receipt of the last page proof, the index files were complete and typing could begin, using some section numbers instead of page numbers. As soon as page proof became available, section numbers were replaced by page numbers. Thus the author index was submitted two days after receipt of the last page proof. One week later the final copy of the subject index was delivered to the printer.
Decimal System for Identification of Chapter Subheadings
Arrangements were made in advance for translation of the book into German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian. The Japanese publisher Maruzen also will produce an offset-printed Asian edition for sale, a t about 28y0 the price of the American book, in Japan, India, etc. Asian editions of other books of ours already in print are excellent reproductions and include cleverly done corrections of errors. Segotiations currently under way may make these low-cost Englishlanguage books available also in other countries, including Israel, South and Central America. Students of many countries will thus profit from Japanese craftsmanship and low production costs. I n the case of all foreign editions of our books, the overseas puhlisher produces a translation or offset printing under contract and pays a royalty shared between the American publisher and the authors. "Advanced Organic Chemisty" includes 70 photographic illustrations, which a foreign publisher can reproduce satisfactorily only with halftones made from 8 X 10-in. glossy prints from the original negatives. Thus, well before publication of the American edition, a set of prints was made for each prospective edition already under contract. Former co-worken now in Communist China requested and received permission from us to translate "Steroids." The Chinese edition necessarily was done without contract or royalty, because our country does not recognize the country of publication. Russian translations of early editions of our "Phenanthrene" book and "Organic Chemistry," as well as of the latest edition of "Experiments" (1960), were done without contract because the Soviet Union does not subscribe to the copyright agreement. I n Cambridge for a visit about a year ago, Professor M. M. Shemyakin told me that a Russian publisher was preparing t o translate our "Organic Chemist~y,"3rd ed. I told him of the new book in progress, and a t my suggestion he advised the Russian publisher to translate the book of 1961 rather than the one of 1956. I am glad to have our books used, and I feel that a contribution to the training of Soviet scientists may help promote better relations between our countries.
..
Some chapters lend themselves well to organization into a series of topics, each of which can be presented in narrative form. Even when the material consists of a collection of short subjects, grouping of related subjects under a series of side headings helps achievement of a simplifying classification. Each substantial subdivision was assigned a section number; thus 12.24 means Chapter 12, section 24, and each page of this section carries the identifying number. This system offers definite advantages. Cross references to section numbers can be made directly in the manuscript in the way they will appear in the finished book. Cross references are sometimes subtle, and even those that are obvious a t the time of writing may he difficult to locate some months later when the only clue is an entry 00, or 000, or 0000 (the printer's code for indicating a missing cross reference). Furthermore, printing of a given block of the book can start only when all cross referencing in this block is complete, and the decimal system eliminates any holdup on this score. The Indexes
Indexing is a tedious chore, but a good index enhances the usefulness of a book and a poor one can spoil it. No one but the authors can prepare an adequate index and, since they will be pressed by publisher and printer to complete the job, they should work according to a prearranged plan and start a t the earliest possible date. In this hook the majority of chapters were indexed from page proof by the following technique. One of us would go through a chapter and write down each entry on a 3 X 5-in. card without trying to remember or ascertain if the same entry had appeared earlier. At the end of the chapter my secretary indexed the cards and clipped together all those referring to the same entry. A single card was then prepared carrying all appropriate references and subheadings and integrated with the index file proper. Starting the subject index a t an early stage prompts one to think of useful summarizing entries. Cross 100
/
Journol of Chemical Educofion
Foreign Editions
The German translator was supplied with corrected galley proof as it became available, and he had completed a considerable portion of the translation a t the time the American edition appeared. A corrected copy of the completed page proof was dispatched to Professor Shemyakin for transmittal to a Russian publisher unknown to me. Work on translations in Japan, Italy, France, and Mexico will start a t later dates, and hence the foreign editions probably will appear a t intervals of some 1-5 yean after the original book. Since the field is moving so rapidly that a gap of even a year would entail considerable obsole*
cence, we decided on a plan for keeping all foreign editions up to date a t the time of publication. The plan is to scan new journals as they appear for material falling within the framework of our book and to prepare additions, insertions, and corrections for transmittal to all translators after they have been reviewed by authors of the papers concerned. We applied this scheme to currently appearing German, Japanese, and Chinese editions of "Steroids" and thereby extended the date of literature coverage. Such writing is leisurely and comparatively easy; whenever there is call for a revision or supplement the material will he a t hand.
Volume 39, Number 2, February 1962
/
101
