Preliminary Edition

Cognella may first publish your book as a preliminary (or closed-class) edition. Preliminary editions allow us to publish an initial version of your book quickly, providing you material to use in your course, the opportunity to class-test the content of your book, and additional time for you to perfect your manuscript prior to a national release. Because a preliminary edition is meant to be class-tested, it will be available for purchase only by your students. While your book is class-tested, you’ll work with your editor to fine tune copy, finalize content, and put the finishing touches on your book so it can move to a first edition printing.

The preliminary edition cover will be a clean, simple, Cognella-branded cover that is easily recognizable as a class-test version. You and your Cognella cover designer will use the preliminary edition cover as a starting point for the development of your first edition cover. To learn more about the Cognella cover design process, peruse Quick Guide: Cover Design.

Because a preliminary edition is a work in progress, some of the key features of the text may not be finalized for this printing. For example, your preliminary edition may not feature the final title of your book, complete promotional copy, full-scale interior book design, or other details. There will be plenty of time to finalize these features as you and your editor work together to prepare your first edition.

First Edition 

After a preliminary edition publication, Cognella texts move to a first edition publication. Depending on your project, your book may bypass a preliminary edition publication and progress directly to a first edition publication. You may have already discussed your book’s publication plan with your signing editor. However, if you are unsure of how your project will progress, contact your editor for more information.

Most Cognella titles will undergo some type of peer review prior to a first edition publication. The type, depth, and breadth of the peer review will depend upon your project type, your target publication schedule, and other factors. If you’re unsure of what type of review is planned for your textbook or the time frame in which it will occur, speak with your project editor.

To prepare for a first edition publication, our licensing team will secure full permissions for all third-party content. At this time, the team will also finalize any contributor agreements, if applicable. This process can take anywhere between one to four months, depending upon the amount of content the team will need to clear, as well as the third-party publishers and contributors with whom they’ll negotiate.

In some scenarios, a first edition of your text will go to print, but licensing permissions will restrict the text to closed-class use. In other cases, permissions will be granted quickly and your text will be ready for a national release sooner rather than later. This depends entirely upon the licensing agreements Cognella will need to negotiate and the specific copyrights in play for each piece of third-party content you’ve selected for your text.

In addition to securing permissions, there are a number of other tasks our production team must complete in order to ensure your book is ready for a first edition publication and a national launch.

The following pages outline the additional tasks required to prepare your book for publication.