| name | book-publication |
| description | Assemble the drafted chapters into a manuscript, typeset the body to the chosen profile, and hand off to print geometry. Use as the final stage, after review and graphics. |
Publication
Turning a directory of chapters into something a print-on-demand service accepts.
Two jobs, and this stage owns one of them
| Job | Owner |
|---|
| Manuscript — concatenation, body typesetting, profile conformity | here |
| Print geometry — trim, gutter, spine, cover wrap, pre-flight | kdp-publishing |
The split is not administrative. A cover cannot be built until the interior is
final, because spine width is page count multiplied by paper caliper. A cover
built from an estimated page count produces a spine whose type sits off-centre,
and nothing on screen reports it — it is discovered when the proof copy arrives.
So geometry is handed off, last, to a tool that refuses to accept a page count
and measures the built PDF instead. Do not reimplement any of it here.
Sequence
python3 scripts/book.py lint --strict
python3 scripts/book.py assemble
--strict first, and it is not optional. An unresolved [VERIFY:] marker or a
figure without a spec is a hard failure at this point.
assemble writes two files: the concatenated manuscript in manifest order with
part dividers, and a JSON sidecar carrying title, author, snapshot date, profile,
handoff target, word count and per-chapter status. Undrafted chapters appear as
comments rather than being silently omitted — "which chapters were actually in
this build" is the first question asked when a proof looks wrong.
Typesetting profiles
typeset/profiles/*.toml describe how the text is set — measure, families,
sizes, leading. They do not describe trim, gutter, spine or bleed.
One value leaks upward into authoring: the measure. It fixes the maximum
monospace line length that will not wrap in print, and that cap belongs in the
style guide. It is a measurement, not a convention. A book authored against Crown
Quarto's 5.62in measure and moved to KDP 6x9 will wrap its listings, and the
symptom appears on a proof rather than in a build. Re-derive the cap whenever
trim or monospace size changes.
Channel differences worth knowing
- Lulu offers Crown Quarto (7.44 × 9.68in); KDP does not. KDP's 7.5 × 9.25in is
not offered by Lulu. Targeting both means a profile per channel and two
different page counts.
- Colour interior changes cost per page substantially — a definition-stage
decision, not one to discover at upload.
Handoff
Read [production] handoff in book.toml. Default kdp-publishing. Pass it
dist/manuscript.md and dist/manuscript.json, and let it own everything from
trim geometry onward.
Set status = "production".
