Westchester Publishing Services

Excellence Delivered

When was the last time you Visited your Typesetting Vendor?

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by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

When I worked in legal publishing, staff regularly flew to India to meet with the typesetting vendor that was doing the bulk of our work, to help set up workflows, review processes, and more. And when I joined Westchester, I was told that as we launched our India Direct operation that many publishers would want to come visit our shops in Chennai and New Delhi. Those days of flying around the globe to see that an operation is there, meet some of the managers, and globe trek seem to be declining when it comes to evaluating typesetting vendors — we see more of that effort invested in flying to China and other countries to inspect print runs for our large trade vendors.

But interestingly, visits to our Danbury, Connecticut headquarters have increased in recent years. Is it just because we’re an anomaly as a US employee-owned company that owns an offshore editorial and typesetting operation — instead of the inverse structure most vendors in this space have?

No, I think it’s because of the staff we have like Terry Colosimo, Susan Baker, and Celeste Bilyard. Our US management team act as consultants for our clients, to help ensure that workflows and project plans are being created proactively and collaboratively, rather than on the fly when a big project hits.

“Sales plays a vital role in having regular check-in’s with our clients whether by phone or visiting them, however, having clients be able to speak to your operation or visit your operation is just as vital,” says Westchester’s Director of Operations, Terry Colosimo. “When I worked at Greenwood Press, my most rewarding experiences were actually visiting printing plants or paper mills. I was able to have face to face time with my customer service reps and get a full understanding of the workflow they were applying to my publications.

True, it’s not necessarily convenient for all clients to pop up I-84 to Danbury — much as it may be hard for them to visit Mona Tiwary in our New Delhi office or our managers at our Chennai, India-based typesetting operation. “But, when publishers can have a face-to-face meeting, or at least a video conference,” says Terry, “It helps you set a productive agenda that can be longer than a phone call with a ‘hard stop.’ It also allows for more casual dialogue and an exchange of ideas – which is valuable to both of us, rather than a ‘dog-and-pony-show’ PowerPoint and canned phone call. Recently, we had the EDP manager from one of our university press clients visit to discuss their program. On the agenda were changes to this university press’ XML aggregator. In discussing the new workflow, the conversation naturally veered into other topics, and we discovered that we were able to offer a solution to their issue-assembly process for journals. This type of dialogue would not necessarily happen with a locked 20-minute phone call, or a slide presentation. These visits are as much a learning experience for us as it is for our clients. By listening and asking questions, we are able to better understand their processes.”

“This type of no-cost consulting that Westchester brings to each client relationship helps all parties – sales, operations, and customer service — take part in understanding overall workflows, as well as which projects are most important, challenges, and solutions that a quick call or an order form would not allow for. “These visits and online meetings help solidify our commitment to building a true partnership with each client. And this kind of dialogue is unbelievably valuable for us, as well as our clients.”

Interested in learning more about how Westchester can work with you to consultatively establish the right workflows for your publications? Contact us to schedule a conversation.

LaTeX composition typesetting example imageLaTeX is one of the most powerful typesetting platforms for publishers of mathematics, economics, and other content requiring the presentation of equations. But, if you’re a publisher of that type of content, let’s just admit something else about LaTeX – it’s infuriatingly complex and can make any project bloat in schedule and cost.

Through our work in the journal and academic publishing markets over the years, we have handled hundreds of books and thousands of articles with LaTeX content.  Every time a new ‘easy button’ for LaTeX appeared in the market, we too were optimistic that it would get easier to work with TeX content. But, since authors all like their own versions, plug-in’s, macros, and templates, most ‘easy buttons’ for LaTeX break the second you pour any content through them.

Sara, Kannan, Dilip from Westchester Publishing ServicesInstead of trying to bypass the problem, we invested.  In our people.  Meet US employee-owned Westchester’s offshore management team. Dilip, Sara, and Kannan scoured the industry to find the best of the best in LaTeX typesetting and consulting and hired them, and asked them to train other members of our staff. Through hiring and training over the years, Westchester has assembled an A-Team of LaTeX operators and engineers, who help The MIT Press, Princeton University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Mary Ann Liebert, and other book and journal publishers with their complex LaTeX content. We have helped Princeton and Johns Hopkins develop LaTeX templates for their authors to use, for Princeton and MIT we provide LaTeX consulting for authors, and we ensure that all of these books with critical math content are published quickly, affordably, and without issue.

Contact us to learn more about how we can help you with your LaTeX publications.

Celeste Bilyard, Production Manager, Journal Services
Celeste Bilyard, Production Manager, Journal Services

Who’s minding your journals at your current vendor? Do they play a proactive role to ensure editorial and production requirements are being handled as efficiently as possible?  Westchester Publishing Services has provided high-touch, high-quality support of journals for over a decade, and is more of a partner than a vendor to our clients.  How?

Meet Celeste Bilyard.  Celeste, like several members of our management team, is a veteran from Greenwood Publishing. Celeste began her career in publishing as an apprentice to the production manager, where she learned the ropes on book production, reprints, copyright, engaged with printers and vendors, and much more.  In between Greenwood and Westchester, Celeste added extra skills to repertoire, including freelance design, coding, and customer service. All of these skills helped her to understand a client’s products and processes to help resolve bottlenecks and challenges.  “Clients expect us to be knowledgeable in these areas and to use that knowledge throughout production to deliver a quality product in a timely manner.  They depend on us, trust us,” she says.

At Westchester, Celeste rapidly became one of the leaders within our then developing journals program.  Her approach to different journal cycles and shorter run times made her a very valuable asset to our clients as we worked collaboratively to address expanding needs, including open access, continuous publishing, onshore and offshore editing, and more. “Clients enjoy the copyediting choices and are extremely satisfied.” she noted.

Celeste relishes the fast-natured pace of the journal department. “Each day is exciting. Every staff member brings different strengths to the department. Some are very technical, some excel at file analysis, some at troubleshooting, resolutions, scheduling tight turnaround times, understanding of coding, and older systems knowledge. This allows us to pair a project to team members who will best suit the journal’s needs, and information is shared to make the team stronger. We help each other in maintaining a well-rounded department.”

Due to this versatility, each client – and for some clients, each journal – has unique workflows. Clients are not expected to select a set workflow for their journal production; rather, Celeste, Terry, and other members of our team collaborate with new clients, working closely and tirelessly to discuss expectations and create custom procedures and profiles in our Client Portal.

This free consulting that is applied to each project and partnership is valuable for both us and our clients.  Wouldn’t you like to know more about how we can help you?  Contact us.

Terry Colosimo, Director of Operations
Terry Colosimo, Director of Operations

In a previous blog post, you learned about the approach to Customer Service that Director of Operations, Terry Colosimo and her team bring to each project. But do you know Terry?

Terry started as a manufacturing assistant at Greenwood Publishing, reviewing final repro before sending it off to the printer, checking blue lines and distributing printer copies. Within just weeks of being hired, she was invited on her first plant tour. “Within my first month at Greenwood, I got to visit two printing facilities and a composition house. I realize that I was very fortunate to have that opportunity and absorbed as much information as I could. I have spoken many times about how those plant visits taught me so much about the importance of defining workflows with the whole process in mind, and the value of customer service—lessons that helped me throughout my career.” It was during this time that Terry was first introduced to Westchester, who was then a vendor for Greenwood. “There were only a few vendors that I could say provided consistent quality and service and Westchester was one of them. I remember working with Sue Grenier, who was my CSR at the time, as well as having conversations with their graphics team about halftone scanning. They were mentors for me, not just vendors. They helped me better understand my needs as a publisher.

As a production editor on several titles, Terry was able to fully understand the editorial process. “Though I did act as editor on some book projects, I was more drawn to working with my print and composition vendors. And so it evolved to where I was often the liaison between our production editors and our vendors.” Terry’s responsibilities also extended to print buying for journals as well as building out their POD program. All these roles gave a good foundation for Terry’s current position at Westchester, because she understands the needs of production managers at publishers, as well as how best to work with vendors to get those needs realized. “I learned how to set up workflows, and manage QC, staff, and schedules. Having been on ‘the other side of the desk’ helps me to know what clients want and expect from a vendor.”

Terry joined Westchester in 2002, leading the Quark department. “I remember thinking, Quark? I know nothing about Quark.” She learned about pagination and design, which having worked at a publisher tied in well with her other experience. As her role at Westchester grew, she developed trafficking and transmission procedures to move files to our India-based offshore composition facilities (starting in 2004) and was instrumental in mirroring the processes, training, and all our procedures in India. “We’re unique in this industry in that we own our offshore typesetting operation, having acquired one that was already a great shop. By bringing our US office’s protocols to India, we mutually established mirrored processes so that we both understand how each operation works. It’s been over a decade of success since then, as we work as partners, not a mothership with an offshore vendor.” This was done through working collaboratively on checklists, SOP’s, workflows, and making sure QC was matching the level we had stateside even though thousands of miles away.

In 2014, Terry started handling more of the operational management, working with sales and client expectations, customer service, and setting up new accounts with both the Editorial Services and Composition Services teams. As Westchester launched its India Direct Offshore Composition Typesetting offerings in 2015, she was involved in establishing protocols for that operation, working in collaboration with our teams in Chennai and New Delhi. She realized that workflows are continually evolving based on the needs of today’s publishers, and took the opportunity to help Sales establish protocols for onboarding that start with a call with members of Westchester’s management and each new client. This gives the client a sense of partnership across the company. “Everyone works together and does whatever needs to be done to make sure the jobs get completed to the customer’s requirements. Everybody pitches in, regardless of traditional job title, to get the work done—whatever it takes. It’s a very collaborative process with the client, rather than talking at them about how this should work to keep our costs down like many vendors do.”

Terry visits our offices in India regularly. “I have just come back from what I think is my 11th visit.” This is of bidirectional value—she learns more and more from our staff in India each trip, and also works to make them feel comfortable with the projects we’re onboarding and handling. “We’re all part of the group, and it’s important to be inclusive, mindful, and respectful when working across time zones and cultures, to make sure everybody is at the table and successful. We have long term employees who have grown and pivoted their skillsets as we’ve added more capabilities and different types of accounts.” It’s through this empathy, ability to listen, and come up with solutions that Terry helps create an environment for our clients, for our US-based staff, and our offshore staff, where we’re all part of the same team, and ensuring success on each project.

Wouldn’t you like to know more about how Terry and her teams can help you? Contact us to learn more.

Tim Davies, Managing Director
Tim Davies, Managing Director

Tim Davies was appointed Managing Director of our new, UK operation in 2018.

Tim is well-known in the British publishing industry, with a strong reputation and an excellent network of industry contacts. His previous roles include Managing Director at The History Press and multiple senior management positions at Oxford University Press, HarperCollins UK, Faber & Faber and others. He is also an executive coach and a mentor on the Independent Publishers Guild’s Mentor Scheme.

Why is Tim so good at being consultative with our UK-based customers?  Well, he began his career as a trainee sales representative at Granada Publishing, later acquired by William Collins. From the start, he was aware how fortunate he was to be in the industry, and enjoyed the enthusiasm and passion the professionals around him brought to their positions. Over the subsequent decades, he honed and developed his industry knowledge.  Through his volunteer position as a mentor in the IPG, he has returned the favour by helping many start-up ventures with consultation on how best to launch or grow their businesses.  It was through our network of British publishers and other industry figures, that a resounding call came back with “Tim Davies”, when we asked who would be a good fit to run our burgeoning UK operation.

In early 2018, Tim came on board in an interim role to help formalise our UK office and grow Westchester’s UK business, which offers editorial and production services to publishers as large as Bloomsbury and as small as those with only a few titles per year. After the 2018 London Book Fair, Tim realised there were significant opportunities to expand in the market, and came on in a full-time role. “I always understood that there is a lot of competition for our services in the market, but that our value proposition is different from the others. Specifically, we’re employee-owned, we’ve been trading for 50 years, we wholly-own our operation in India, and we have an ethical and conscientious approach with both our clients and our staff.” The fact that each client starts with a “kick off” launch meeting with members of Westchester’s senior management team, to essentially freely consult about how best to address their pre-press needs, was very consistent with Tim’s ethos and approach.  “We adapt to our clients’ workflow and processes in the early stages, so there are as few surprises as possible during each project.”

Here’s what one of our UK clients says… “Lion Hudson has partnered with Westchester on a content re-purposing programme for our new Lion Scholar imprint and I have been extremely impressed by Westchester’s professionalism and high-quality services. Working with their UK, US, and India-based senior managers on the workflow at the initiation of the projects has been fluid and productive, with conference calls and video meetings arranged as and when needed. Once the workflow was agreed and the individual projects set up, the India-based project management team has consistently delivered high-quality services – providing proofs to the agreed timeframes, and flagging and working with me to resolve any content or file-based issues. Any initial reservations I had on communication challenges and time zone differences were very soon dispelled. We also use Westchester’s India-based proofreading and indexing services, which are also of a high standard. I look forward to working with Westchester on future projects.”

“It’s this approach that resonates well with publishers in the UK looking for a consultative vendor relationship, coupled with the cost savings of using an Indian typesetting or editorial operation. We are growing rapidly and are very proud to have been given the opportunity to support the publishers with whom we work.”