I've written a story that, as a backdrop, showcases a close-knit, multicultural group of neighborhood kids. There is nothing in the story that denotes the ethnicity of any of the kids (just gender references), no stereotypical anything, but in my minds eye I see the mix. I grew up in Detroit, MI in a neighborhood just like this and attended really diverse schools from elementary all the way through college..

My question is, how do I approach publishers with this vision of the story? Should I spell it out in the query letter?  I do need some help on this one. The story is pretty polished and ready to go. Thanks in advance.

Ha! Thanks, Harold!

FWIW, I see authors thanking their book designers all the time, which is great, but I have never been told who designed my books. Now that I know that's a thing, I'll ask going forward!

Thanks, Harold. So who typically makes the changes to the CE'd file? And who copies the text into InDesign? I'm assuming there are no longer "typesetter" jobs in publishing?

I don't know if there's any one procedure. It's worked out between the editor and the copyeditor.  The person who brings the text into InDesign is the book designer.

No, there aren't typesetters in publishing. When I started, way back in the 20th century, there were still companies that did typesetting in NYC. No more.

Thanks Vijaya and Debbie


--T.B.

So, as dewsanddamps said, there are very possibly changes to the copyedited manuscript, and even if there aren't, someone has to accept or reject all of the copyeditor's changes, and answer all of their questions, for the manuscript to be "final."

Typesetting is much more than copying and pasting into a PDF! Now that we have electronic files, the manuscript no longer needs to be keyboarded, but the text does have to be copied into a design file (typically InDesign) and then all the design choices that have been made need to be applied--how chapter titles are set, headers, etc.

You then have what's called a "galley"--if it hasn't been set in pages. Back in the days of physical typesetting, galleys were long pages just showing the text before it had been pasted into a "mechanical." But I digress. You might also have "page proofs." And yes, those then need to be proofread, to make sure that all of the copyeditor's changes were made, and that all the formatting has been correctly applied, and that no new errors have been introduced.

It's quite a process, and it mostly takes place out of sight.