Joshua Mitchell

April 13, 2016

ELANG 430R
Mel Thorne
Editing and Publishing: A Hand in Hand Process
The publishing process has been around for a long time but has changed dramatically
over the last several decades. Publishing can be broken down into several different categories or
individual processes that make up the whole, and they are as follows: marketing and project
research, substantive editing, copyediting, formatting, layout, and design, printing, and
publishing. Each step is vital to the quality of the final product. However, the vast majority of
this paper focuses on the evolution of the printing process because the changes and mysteries of
this process have always astounded me.
As my editing senior capstone project, I was placed in a group with three other people,
given ten chapters worth of a technical book manuscript, and asked to make a book. Our book
topic was traffic safety regulations in Utah and our target audience was the Utah Legislature, as
well as anybody else interested in the subject. This project was very informative to the overall
publishing process and was also a phenomenal introduction to what publishing jobs look like.
Lets take a look at the different steps involved in publishing.
Substantive editing, commonly known as developmental editing or comprehensive
editing, is when an editor considers a documents concept and intended use, content,
organization, design, and style. The purpose is to make the document functional for its readers,
not just to make it correct and consistent (Weber). In my own simpler terms, I understand
substantive editing as reviewing the substance of a document; that is, reviewing the content, the

major themes, and the overall concepts of a document to ensure that it is coherent, clear, and
understandable in general. In my mind, substantive editing involves seeing the bigger picture and
the purpose of the document. As I have worked through the editing minor at BYU, I have
realized that substantive editing really isnt my favorite kind of editing. I would much rather
prefer copyediting.
Copyediting is a kind of document review process similar to substantive editing but also
different in that it is rules-based and concerned with grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other
mechanics of style and the internal consistency of facts and presentation (Weber). Substantive
editing is concerned with the overall big picture of a document whereas copyediting is concerned
with the nitty gritty details of a document. In general, I am somewhat of a perfectionist that is
why the copyediting process has more of an appeal to me personally. I have a great eye for detail
and can tell when something is out of place or not quite right.
Several years ago when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I was playing a card game called
Wackee Six with my family and relatives. It is a wild and frantic game requiring several full 52card decks and individual player speed to lay out all yours cards before your opponents. At the
end of each round, everyone gathers all the cards together and separates them into their colorcoded decks. When a full game is being played, there is a deck of 52 orange cards, a deck of 52
blue cards, and decks of 52 red, green, yellow, and purple cards. One time as we were separating
the colored decks, I was grouping all of the orange cards together. I put them in a pile and began
to shuffle them. I thought the deck felt a little light, so I asked if anyone had additional orange
cards. We looked around and found three orange cards that had fallen to the floor. My dad said,
Wow! Thats impressive! You noticed that the deck was three cards short! Most people
wouldnt be able to tell the difference between a 49-card deck and a 52-card deck, but I could.

Ive always had an eye for miniscule details that generally dont matter to others. But as a
copyeditor, those details do matter.
While working on my editing minor, I took a digital publishing class called Introduction
to Print Publishing. This class was basically an introduction to Graphic Design. We learned
simple design concepts and principles and we were introduced to the basics of Adobe Creative
Suite, specifically InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. The general graphic design process is the
most appealing to me out of all the publishing steps. I enjoy making things look good - its fun
for me. Over the course of my digital publishing class, I designed and created a business card, an
event flyer, three magazine spreads, and an entire book. The business card I created was for a
barbecue restaurant that I have always thought would be exciting to create. I called it That
Really Good Barbecue Place. The flyer was a simple event flyer that incorporated basic
formatting, alignment, and hierarchy principles. The three magazine spreads that I designed were
for a fun and upbeat article about a female monster truck driver facing the challenges and
blessings of being a full-time mother. The spreads incorporated a lot of color and exciting pull
quotes. The book that I created was a recipe book called Backyard Barbecue Society, basically
a compilation of barbecue recipes. I created my own page layout and formatting styles and added
pictures to go along with each recipe. The book is only about 60 pages long, but it is a good
representation of the beginning graphic design skills that I had learned at the time.
Graphic design is by far my favorite part of the publishing process. I believe that it is the
place that allows the most creativity and freedom. Personally, I am creative and I have a thinkoutside-the-box mentality. I am also a craft and artsy person, so it makes sense that I would enjoy
this creative and flexible process. I grew up using PC computers with Microsoft Windows;
however, at BYU, I learned to use Adobe Creative Suite on Mac computers. It was a bit of a

transition for me, but now I am familiar with and proficient using both operating systems. Lately,
I have actually seen a little decline in the use of Adobe Illustrator. I feel like Adobe Photoshop is
growing and becoming more widely used, making Illustrator feel more obsolete, although it is by
no means useless.
One of my favorite experiences this semester was visiting the Crandall Historical Printing
Museum in March 2016. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour that I took and I value the knowledge that
I gained. The largest attraction of the printing museum was one of the six Gutenberg presses built
by Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468, Germany). When he was a young adult, he lived in
Strasbourg, France, for a time and began working on the possibility of printing with individual
pieces of metal cast type. Upon inventing the Gutenberg press, he created five more, making a
total of six presses. He trained six teams and assigned each of them a portion of the Bible to print
and publish.
The printing process was not very difficult at the time but it was quite tedious and
extensive. The first step was to cast the type, which was done by casting individual letters. This
process was very time-consuming so Gutenberg invented something called a type caster. It is a
device into which 600 degree Fahrenheit molten printing metal was poured to be cast. Printing
metal is 80% lead, 13% antimony, and 7% tin. Upon cooling, the lead shrinks, the antimony
expands, and the tin creates a shiny finish, at which time the type castings are placed in cases and
separated by capital or small letters; capital letters are in the upper case and small letters are in
the lower case.
Once the type letters were cast, they were arranged into small wooden composing sticks
to form words and sentences. The type castings were placed upside down and backwards so that
once the ink was applied and transferred to the paper, the words were right side up and forward-

reading. Each composing stick was assembled with others to make a galley. The galleys were
laid onto the press bed and they were surrounded by furniture to hold them in place. The next
step was applying ink. A formula was made to create a sticky and thick black ink. Most inks at
the time were thin and watery, but they needed a thicker ink to stick to the type and transfer to
the paper without running all over. Ink balls, made of wood and goat skin, were then created to
transfer the ink to the type, which was done by someone called a beater. The paper was aligned
and laid on top of the ink-covered type, and then it was rolled under the Gutenberg press, which
is basically a modified olive press that you might find in Israel.
Once placed under the press, the handle was pulled by the puller and the ink was
transferred. After removal, the paper was hung by the peel stick over the strings and ropes to dry
for eight days. When the ink had dried, a whale bone cutter cut some parts of the paper while the
rest was just folded. The paper was then taken to a large press that flattens the folds. After two
days of being pressed, the folded papers were transferred to a vertical clamp in which notches
were cut along the binding. Once the four notches were cut, the signatures were taken to the
sewing machine where they were all sewn together tightly. The plane and plow machine was
another vertical clamp with a sliding blade that evenly cut all sides of the pages minus the
binding. This made perfect edges and removed extra folds, allowing the book to open and be
read freely. Then the binding, composed of end sheets and hard board, was glued on along with
the cover. Final decorations and touches were added, one being gold foil pressed on with a
heated roule.
This is the printing process that Gutenberg underwent while publishing the Bible. The
Crandall Historical Printing Museum is an amazing place. It is the only print shop in the entire
world that still prints with a Gutenberg Press and that uses actual printing metal type. Most other

museums use zinc etchings in their printings, whereas this museum uses individual type molds
cast with printing metal. Also found in this museum are a few other presses. The first is an exact
replica of the press that printed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. It functions
much like the Gutenberg Press or E. B. Grandins acorn press which published the first Book of
Mormon for the LDS church. Second, there is a cast iron Gutenberg Press that actually printed
the very first edition of the Deseret News newspaper, which is a local Utah newspaper. However,
instead of using ink balls for with this press, they used ink rollers.
Ink rollers were the last printing innovations to be created for 400 years, at which time
the Linotype Model 5 machine was made and manufactured by the Mergenthaler Linotype
Company in New York. Although this machine was invented 400 years after the beginning of the
printing presses, the Linotype machine was created only 56 after the initial publishing of the
Book of Mormon. With Grandins acorn press, each copy of the Book of Mormon took about 35
total man hours to create. However, the Linotype machine facilitated this process and reduced 35
man hours down to about three. The Linotype machine was basically an automated electric
engine that enhanced the creation of printing metal type.
It is astounding to see how the printing and publishing process used to work, with the
Gutenberg Press and all, and how the process has evolved to what it is now. During the Fall of
2014, I took of a tour of the BYU Press, Print, and Mail Building. As I toured this building, I saw
most of their stations (although there were probably more that I didnt get to visit): format
printing, black, white, and color document printing, binding, drilling, one-sided lamination,
variable data printing, and the pickup and delivery services. It was elaborate and detailed, but the
entire process seemed quite efficient.

Something that I have learned about the entire publishing process is the importance and
also the difficulty of complete cooperation and communication among members of the
publishing team. As I mentioned earlier, my senior capstone project was to create and publish a
technical book for use by the Utah State Legislature. Our main tasks included substantive editing
the manuscripts, copyediting the manuscripts, formatting them all with styles in CS InDesign,
and printing the final book. All along the way, we learned about creating a marketing plan,
profit/loss estimates, creating a book proposal and design, and setting a book schedule. As all
members of my group were full-time students, it was extremely difficult to coordinate our
schedules so that we could gain a consensus for the creation of our book. We created a style
guide after extensively discussing our hopes and goals for the book. We spent countless hours
editing the manuscripts and formatting our book chapters in the computer lab. And the only thing
that made all of this collaboration possible was our constant contact with each other. There were
several dozen emails circulating among the group each day for four months straight. And
whenever something wasnt right or when group members werent on the same page, it was due
to lack of communication. Some paragraph styles between chapters might be slightly different if
there isnt total group cooperation. Index entries and their subcategories might be in a different
format than others without total group cooperation. Deadlines might be unclear if the project
schedule isnt universally understood by all group members. There are many things that can go
wrong with such a detailed process, but constant communication and collaboration facilitates the
publishing process by a longshot.

Works Cited
Weber, Jean H. "What Is Substantive Editing?" Technical Editors' Eyrie. 10 Sept. 2002. Web. 11
Apr. 2016. <http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=28>.