Author-supplied composition

Author-supplied copy for direct page makeup is not new, not does it rely on any new or developing technology for its success. The renewed use of author-produced camera-ready copy is achieving real savings in production costs and some reductions in production time. The American Geophysical Union publishes one journal that is totally author-prepared, two that contain both commercially typeset and author-prepared material, and both hard cover and paperback books of completely author-prepared material. For some of these publications copy-edited manuscripts are sent to the author for preparation of the final copy. The most significant problem has been developing an instruction sheet that is clear and easy to follow and that covers most problems which may be encountered by the typist but is not so long that it will be ignored. An equally difficult problem has been the establishment of quality standards. The savings in production costs have allowed us to reduce page charges by more than half and to price books at about half the price of a comparable typeset book.