McGraw-Hill Professional's
Guide for Authors

Guidelines

Our guidelines are tailored to the specific requirements of the individual areas. Please click the link below for the appropriate Production Guidelines for your book. These guidelines will identify your project team members and roles, as well as provide key information needed for the creation and submission of your manuscript.

If you have questions about the guidelines, please contact the person indicated for each area.

Business Author Guide
--> Business Guide
Education Author Guide (includes Language and Test Prep)
Medical Author Guide
Technical Author Guide (includes Engineering and Computing)

Production Overview

Whether you are writing about finance, medical procedures, architecture, or preparing for the SAT, you can be assured that we will work with you to create a quality book. The many topics on which we publish have certain commonalities in terms of process and obviously a number of differences in terms of guidelines, requirements, and timelines.

Production Process

The process that will transform your manuscript into a printed and bound book is launched at what is called the transmittal meeting. At this meeting, the people who will be working diligently to shepherd your book successfully through the production process discuss such matters as the kind of copy editing the manuscript needs, exactly how art should be handled, whether any essential items from the manuscript package are missing, and the design of the published book. You will be contacted soon after the transmittal meeting with any questions that we might still have, along with the the anticipated editing and production schedule.

At this point your manuscript will be copyedited and you may be asked to review the edits and answer any queries. Your input is critical at this time as making changes after this stage can cause delays and have an impact on the book's schedule.

The next step in the production process is typesetting. The resulting proof, which will look pretty much like pages of a published book, is sent to you for a thorough review, as well as to an experienced freelance proofreader. The proof may be shipped in batches.

After the completion of the paging process (which includes incorporating revisions and internal reviews), your completed book will be sent to the printer, where it will be printed, bound, and shipped to our warehouse. At this time it will be available for purchase and you will be a published author. Congratulations!