Manuscript preparation for AMPP books
Adapted for AMPP from “Saving You Time and Money”
©2020–2022 ERF Editorial Consulting, www.erfedits.com
Revised 28 June 2022
If more than one author is writing a book, make sure all authors have each other’s contact information including email—and cell phone numbers—in case of emergency.
Text
AMPP uses US English, except in cases of proper nouns.
No use of first person pronouns (I, my, us, we, our, etc.) are permitted.
If there are things to be verified, they should be dealt with prior to submission or editing.
Formatting and styles
Do not submit manuscripts to AMPP with highlighting or shading for any text.
If there are things to be verified, they should be dealt with prior to submission or editing.
Use only plain text in your files—no specialized styles, fonts.
Do not use page headers or footers of any kind except for page numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.).
If you are using Microsoft Word to prepare your manuscript, do not use Word's predefined heading styles. Use plain text. Be consistent throughout the book including font and size, especially if more than one author is contributing to the book.
Headers
—Use header numbers to organize text (note that all words are capitalized):
Chapter 1 Name of Chapter
1.1 First Level Header Title
1.1.1 Second Level Header Title
1.1.1.1 Third Level Header Title
Use numbered fourth level headers (i.e., 1.1.1.1.1) only if necessary—and—if it is pervasive throughout the book. If your text is so involved that further subdivisions are needed after fourth level headers, you may use it, but note that the formatting may change during editing to conform with the AMPP established style.
Footnotes
You can use Word’s “Insert > Footnote” command, however, the number must be enclosed in parentheses, e.g., (1), to distinguish them from reference citation numbers.
Figures and tables
It is the author’s responsibility to submit camera-ready, publication-quality figures—whether the author created them, obtained them from another source, or if they were scanned. These high-quality figures must be submitted with the manuscript.
NOTE 1: Using low-quality figures, etc., as placeholders in the text is permitted as long as you make your editor aware they are only low-quality placeholders and that you provide your editor with the high-quality versions of each figure.
NOTE 2: PowerPoint is a presentation package—not an illustration package! Figures created in PowerPoint need special handling and saving to get them to be publication quality. The dots per inch needed for a figure to look good on the printed page is at least 300 dpi vs. the 72 dpi that PowerPoint produces without special saving procedures. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain high-quality figure files no matter what the source software is.
If figure part labels (A, B, C, etc.) are imbedded in the figure itself, verify that there is enough contrast between the background color and the letter color, and that they show up (e.g., a yellow or light gray background with a white letter on top is not acceptable).
NOTE 3: Permission must be obtained in writing for any figures you want to use that you (or one of your co-authors) did not create or photograph. See USING MATERIAL FROM OTHER SOURCES.
All figures and tables must be cited in the text.
Figure Captions and Table Titles
All figures and tables must be numbered using the chapter number (e.g., Figure 1.1 for the first figure in Chapter 1, and Table 2.1 for the first table in Chapter 2). Write captions and table titles in such a way that readers will understand what it is without other text. Figures and tables are often on another page from where they are cited, so they should be self-explanatory.
If the figure (drawing, photo, etc.) was obtained from another source, photo or other credit must be given, as in “Photo courtesy of XYZ Company” or “Drawing courtesy of XYZ Company”. Be consistent with how the credit line reads, and all figures obtained from others must be done with permission from the owner/copyright holder.
For multipart figures (labeled A, B, C, etc.) there must be corresponding descriptions of these in the caption as in
“Figure 1.1 Corrosion widgets in the lab: (A) opened, (B) before cleaning, (C) after cleaning.”
Using material from other sources
If you are using material from other sources—even if that source is AMPP—you must obtain permission in writing from the source to use their material (e.g., tables, photos, drawings, charts, etc.). It is an infringement of copyright not to do this.
NOTE Getting permission from an individual author to use his/her work is nice, but it does not exempt you from getting written permission from the publisher of that source if the publisher is the one who owns the copyright.
References
Although EndNote is handy for references when writing a book, it does not work seamlessly when the book is sent for printing preparation (a.k.a. “layout”). If you use this Word plugin, you will need to convert the document to plain text. If this is not done, extra review cycles will be needed for reviewing the files in the proof stage.
Use the most recent AMPP style:
Book:
Jones, A.B., C.D. Smith, E.F. Jones, and G.H. Smith, “Title of Work,” Book Title (Philadelphia, PA: XYZ Publisher, 2020): pp. 100–143.
Standards:
NACE 1234 (latest edition), “Title of Standard” (Houston, TX: NACE International, 20xx).
Journal Article:
Jones, A.B., C.D. Smith, E.F. Jones, and G.H. Smith, “Title of Work,” Journal Title Spelled Out [Vol. #], [Issue #], (2020): pp. 1185–1194.
Website:
Author/Copyright holder, “Name of Page,” Complete URL (Date you accessed URL).
Although many authors use the reference style they are most familiar with, this adds more time and expense to the publication process to get the references into AMPP style, so following the AMPP style speeds up the process.
List all authors in each reference. Do not use “ibid” or “et al.” in reference lists.
When citing a journal article, spell out the name of the journal. Do not abbreviate it.
Verify there is a citation in the chapter/book for all references in the References section and vice versa.
When you cite the reference in the text, use the corresponding number in the References list, superscripted, after punctuation, e.g., “Smith (2020).1 ” If you cite a reference in the text such as “Smith et al. (20xx) deduced that…” you must still indicate the corresponding reference number.
References in the list must be in the order they are cited in the text and numbered accordingly.
NOTE: If a reference must be given in the Front Matter (Preface, Foreword, etc.), use an inline citation or footnote. Do not cite references with reference numbers in the Front Matter. Numbered citations should always start in Chapter 1.
Once the manuscript is complete, is it ready for submission to AMPP and/or editing?
The text/manuscript you submit should be as close perfect (as far as you are concerned), as possible. The more work you put into the details prior to submitting it, the less work the editor must do, which saves time and money in getting your book into print.
You as the author are strongly advised to read the book from “cover to cover” prior to submission to AMPP. Most books are written either out of chapter order or over the course of many months or years, so errors and/or inconsistencies creep in during the writing process. Catching these errors before the book is edited saves time and money. If you are the only author, try to get a peer to review the book for a learned critique.
If more than one person is writing the book (unless each chapter is standalone and does not reference other chapters, such as in a conference anthology), it is strongly advised that all authors read the book from cover to cover before it is sent for editing. Coauthors can catch errors and inconsistencies that the original author will not, in addition to adding different perspectives to the narrative that could make the book better.
Once your AMPP editor is assigned, let that person know if you (or any of the authors) will have times you are not available for questions or reviews (such as when on extensive travel or vacations).
Once the manuscript is edited, is it ready for layout?
After the book is edited, its next step is preparation (layout) for printing. Your editor will ask for your “approval for layout”. After it is laid out, you (as the author) will receive the page proofs. It is imperative that you—and any coauthors—review the proofs carefully and in their entirety cover-to-cover. Even though you reviewed the files when they were still in Word (prior to the layout step), when the format of a document is changed (fonts, columns, sizes, etc.), mistakes you did not see before will suddenly be apparent, which is normal.
This review of the proofs is an extremely important step and is not one to be ignored, done in a cursory manner, or handed off to someone else. If you do not have time to go through it as it should be done, wait until you do have time. Many things depend on how, and when, you review these proofs. Failure to review them properly adds unnecessary time—and expense—to the publication process.
Put all revisions to be made into either as a comment in the PDF file, a separate Word file, or an email. DO NOT make changes to the PDF yourself even if you have the software that can do this.
Only after you give your editor the “OK to print” notification will the book be sent off for indexing. NOTE that this is a totally separate step from both editing and layout and is done by a professional indexer.
Your compliance with these guidelines will ensure the most streamlined process possible.
To discuss further or to submit a manuscript, reach out to jean.broge@ampp.org