Book Editorial Management
End-to-End Book Publishing Pipeline — From Manuscript Submission to Sales Tracking
A complete book publishing management system that automates every stage from manuscript intake to final publication and sales — for publishers, editors, designers, and authors.
Who We Built This For
Khanna Book Publishing Company Private Limited is one of India's leading academic publishers, based in Daryaganj, New Delhi — publishing textbooks and reference books across engineering, computer science, AI, and applied sciences. Managing a large author base across multiple subject categories, Khanna Publishing needed a centralized digital platform to replace email and spreadsheet-based workflows that had become unmanageable as their catalogue and author list grew. Frequent Solutions designed and built their end-to-end editorial management system covering the full manuscript-to-publication pipeline.
What We Set Out to Build
Publishing a book involves a complex series of handoffs between stakeholders — authors submit manuscripts, editors assess and check for plagiarism, lawyers or admins process contracts, designers lay out the content, authors review the design, and then the book is published across platforms. Each stage has its own decisions, approvals, notifications, and status updates.
For Khanna Publishing, this entire process was being managed through emails, phone calls, and shared spreadsheets. Authors had no visibility into where their manuscript stood. Editors had no unified view of which manuscripts were at which stage. Designers received assignments informally. Sales data arrived from multiple platforms in different formats. The result was a process prone to miscommunication, missed follow-ups, and delayed publications.
Frequent Solutions built a complete Book Editorial Management platform in Laravel — a multi-portal web application with dedicated dashboards for Super Admin (publisher), Editors, Designers, and Authors. The system automates every stage: manuscript submission requests sent by category via Amazon SES, plagiarism check reporting, accept/reject workflows with automated email notifications, digital contract signing, design assignment and review with Shiprocket hard-copy dispatch, publication with ISBN management, and sales tracking with commission analytics.
The result is a single source of truth for every book in the publishing pipeline — with full status visibility, automated notifications, role-based access control, and real-time reporting for both the publisher and individual authors.
Project Facts
Tech Stack
What Needed to Be Solved
Khanna Publishing managed their entire manuscript-to-publication pipeline through emails and spreadsheets, with no centralized system to track manuscript stages, assign work to designers, manage contracts, or give authors visibility into their book status. As their catalogue and author base grew, this informal process became a bottleneck that delayed publications and eroded author confidence.
Manuscript submissions from hundreds of authors were tracked in spreadsheets — there was no system to see at a glance which manuscripts were submitted, under review, approved, or rejected
Plagiarism check results were stored informally and the accept/reject decisions were communicated by individual emails, with no audit trail or consistent follow-up process
Contract signing was done by printing, signing, scanning, and emailing PDFs — a slow, error-prone process with no version control or digital record
Book design assignments were communicated verbally or by email — designers had no formal task view, and authors had no way to know when their design was ready for review without calling in
Authors had zero visibility into where their manuscript stood at any point — every status enquiry required someone at the publisher to manually look it up and respond
Sales data from Amazon, Khanna's own platform, and other distributors was collected manually, making royalty reporting and commission tracking a time-consuming monthly exercise
Inside the Platform
Every module is purpose-built to replace a standalone tool — unified in one workspace.
- Pipeline overview: total manuscripts by stage across all categories
- Pending actions: plagiarism checks due, contracts awaiting signature, designs pending review
- Author list with category assignments and current manuscript status
- Bulk email dispatch to authors by category for manuscript submission requests
- Sales summary: total earnings, commissions, and platform breakdown
- Category-wise manuscript listing with plagiarism percentage and status
- One-click plagiarism check initiation with auto-generated percentage report
- Accept/reject workflow with automated author notification emails
- Status timeline with timestamps and admin comments at every stage
- Bulk view of all manuscripts sorted by category, stage, and date
- Real-time manuscript status visible at every stage of the pipeline
- Contract displayed for digital signing once manuscript is accepted
- Book design review: view PDF, annotate feedback, approve or request changes
- Published books with sales platform links and ISBN numbers
- Sales dashboard showing platforms, book links, and earnings
- Per-book sales data: platform, copies sold, MRP, royalty %, gross amount
- Commission tracking with TDS deduction and net payable calculation
- Year-wise earnings reports with graphs and pie charts
- Professional fee statements matching Khanna's existing statement format
- Author-facing view of sales platform names, book links, and revenue share
Everything in One Workspace
Manuscript Submission Portal
Authors submit manuscripts through their dedicated portal after receiving a category-specific email request via Amazon SES. The system tracks status from "Requested" to "Submitted" with timestamp and admin comment at every transition.
Plagiarism Check & Reporting
Admin runs plagiarism checks on submitted manuscripts and the system generates a percentage report per manuscript. The category-wise dashboard shows all statuses and plagiarism scores, enabling informed accept/reject decisions with automated author notification.
Digital Contract Signing
Accepted manuscripts trigger a contract to appear on the author's portal for digital signing via e-signature API (Adobe Sign / HelloSign / SignNow). Signed copies are dispatched to both admin and author automatically, and the status advances to the design phase.
Design Assignment & Review
Admin assigns a designer to the book from within the platform. Once the layout is complete, the design is sent to the author via email PDF or physical Shiprocket dispatch. Authors annotate and submit feedback or approve for publication directly in the portal.
Publication & ISBN Management
Once approved, the admin enters publisher name, ISBN number, book name, and relevant publication attributes. The book is marked as published and made available on configured sales platforms — Amazon, Khanna Books, and others — with links auto-added to the author portal.
Sales Tracking & Commission Reports
Admin records and tracks book sales across all platforms — copies sold, MRP, royalty percentage, gross royalty amount, TDS deductions, and net payable. Reports are viewable as graphs and pie charts; authors see their platform links and revenue share.
Automated Email Notifications
Amazon SES powers all system emails: manuscript submission requests by category, plagiarism outcome notifications, contract acceptance congratulations, design review alerts, and the 5-year automatic book revision reminder sent to authors.
Role-Based Access Control
Separate portals and permission sets for Super Admin (publisher), Editors, Designers, and Authors. Role-based access control ensures each user sees only the modules and actions relevant to their function — with customizable permission levels per staff member.
How We Built It
Requirements & Workflow Mapping
Mapped the full publishing pipeline through stakeholder workshops — documenting every stage, decision point, user role, notification trigger, and integration requirement before writing a single line of code.
Multi-Role Portal Architecture
Designed the database schema and role-based access architecture to support Super Admin, Editor, Designer, and Author portals within a single Laravel MVC application — with module-level permission control per role.
Manuscript & Editorial Pipeline
Built the manuscript submission flow, plagiarism check reporting, accept/reject workflow with automated Amazon SES notifications, digital contract signing integration, and the full stage-status tracking system.
Design, Publication & Sales
Implemented the book design assignment module, author review portal with PDF annotation, Shiprocket hard-copy dispatch integration, ISBN and publication attribute management, and the sales tracking dashboard with commission analytics.
Testing, Training & Deployment
Conducted end-to-end testing across all four user roles, trained the Khanna Publishing team on all modules, migrated existing author and book data, and deployed to a Linux dedicated server — with 30 days of free post-launch support.
Full Scope of Work
Built a multi-role Laravel MVC application with separate authenticated portals for Super Admin, Editors, Designers, and Authors — each with role-specific dashboards and module-level permissions
Implemented the full manuscript pipeline: category-based email dispatch via Amazon SES, author portal submission, plagiarism check reporting with percentage display, and automated accept/reject email notifications
Integrated digital contract signing workflow — accepted authors see a contract on their portal, sign digitally via e-signature API, and both parties receive the signed copy automatically via email
Built the book design assignment module: admin assigns a designer, tracks design status with estimated completion date, and dispatches the finished design to the author via email PDF or Shiprocket physical delivery
Developed the author review portal allowing PDF annotation with inline text comments, accept/reject decisions, and feedback submission that re-triggers the design phase when revisions are requested
Created the publication module for entering ISBN, publisher name, and sales platform details — with auto-linking to the author portal once the book goes live on Amazon, Khanna Books, or other distributors
Built the sales tracking and reporting system with per-book data across platforms (copies sold, MRP, royalty %, TDS, net payable), viewable as graphs and pie charts for the admin and as platform links and earnings for authors
Implemented the 5-year automated book revision alert system, journal management module (same pipeline as books but without revision or sales tracking), newsletter management, and FAQ module for author guidance
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