Technical Links and Information
If you'd like to send in PDF files (that's great!), there are a couple of very important factors that will affect how smoothly your job goes, and therefore how it looks and how fast you get it. First, all fonts should be embedded. If you are using Acrobat Distiller, then use the Distiller joboptions files listed below, and that should take care of it. If you are exporting PDF files directly from your working application then select "embed all fonts" in the configuration dialog. Secondly, if your PDF file is for black text, set up your Print options to print out as black and white, not color.
In making the PDF file, be careful to maintain the quality of any images in your book. Don't downsample lower than 300 dpi or compress to a level worse than high quality. Unless you have file size limitations, I would avoid compression altogether just to be sure.