Editing Pictures and other Illustrative Materials in the Art of Book Publishing

Abstract

The art of book publishing beings with a manuscript – getting it and shaping it towards
publication. In a bid to publicize and spread among people the words, pictures and other forms
of illustrative materials the imaginative and mind (authors, photographers, illustrators, etc.)
have produced, editors and publishers as it were, open and close the ‘gate’ that stands
between the information source (authors, photographers, illustrators, etc) and the receiver
(reader). Both words and pictures are ‘set in order’ before publication. Pictures and other
illustrative materials must bear captions, stating what the pictures cannot say for themselves.
This paper stresses the fact that editing as gate keeping process is not restricted to accepting
and rejecting of manuscripts for publication. It is the process of building a nexus between text
and image (pictures and other forms of illustrative materials) during its transformation from
the authors manuscript to the printer’s plate.