The process of getting the Mammal Atlas to print has been long and arduous, made longer by all the checks and balances required along the way. The book describes 122 mammal species, and 48 authors divided the work. Several of the authors contributed multiple species accounts. Artists contributed line art illustrations. Forty photographers contributed images.
The team met the first goal by preparing all the individual species accounts as individual documents. This stage wrapped all the illustrations, tables, maps, and images with the author’s text. After that, they went to the typesetter for layout in print form. Then the team reviewed and edited the entire collection through a multistage phase. They reviewed each portion and checked it for accuracy, grammar, and that all component parts told a consistent and correct story. Once the team approved the contents of all the pieces, they made the changes, and the editors performed one final review. The typesetter received the files back for clean-up and final formatting. Once everyone approved the individual documents, they assembled them into a single final document and combined it with the indexes, table of contents, introductions, acknowledgements, credits, and book covers.
After many years of work, the typesetter now has the final revisions for the San Diego County Mammal Atlas, and the printer will receive them soon. The printer, which is locally based (Sunbelt Publications) in El Cajon, will print a sample book. They will outsource the bulk of the printing to another company. All that awaits is to turn all the hard work into the book we’ve all been waiting so long for.
