MANY A SLIP TWIXT THE CUP AND THE LIP

Recent talk in my writer’s group: one of us is in the throes of self-publishing and was filling us in on some of the trials and tribulations she was enduring.  Currently, her chief complaint is that the route she’s chosen to follow does not provide her with a “proof copy” for checking prior to final go-ahead before printing the number of copies she requires.

What has really stunned her however is that her complaints to a writer acquaintance elicited the response, “What on earth do you want a proof copy for?”

We, too, were stunned at this response and began to quote examples, from our own experience, of how essential it is to proofread the “final copy” of any work.  Lest you are tempted to feel the same way, let me list a few that we came up with:              

1.   Numbering on the table of contents page was not in line with the actual page number of each chapter in the body of the work.  

2.   Words, phrases and even complete slabs of print omitted or relocated.                          

3.   Pages printed upside down or reversed.

Bottom line is – you can’t trust technology!

With the best will in the world, mistakes happen, glitches, hiccups, whatever you want to call them, occur in the best regulated circles so everything has to be checked.  And rechecked!

Sometimes it is simply a small step in the process has been overlooked by the author.  This was what had happened in  #1. above: she’d neglected to send her file as a PDF.  So easily done!! 

But not always – the machine itself (maybe its human operator) can have a bad day and stuff things up by accident.

Perhaps the classic in this last was one involving my brother.  He writes and self-publishes technical books and was somewhat diverted on receiving the proof copy of his latest effort.  The cover looked great.  But the book itself was quite a bit thicker than he’d expected.  Opening it up revealed, not the words he’d labored over but the complete text of a romantic novel – a genre he never read, let alone ever wanted to write.

Imagine the waste if he’d by-passed requiring a proof copy and had simply taken delivery of the couple of hundred copies he expected to sell.

© Mary McDee 2023

Feature Photo: The Proof-read Proof © L.M. Kling 2023

Comment from IS Administrator: Same company, different result. About the same time that the fellow above-mentioned author had published their book and had trouble having a proof copy delivered, I had published The T-Team with Mr. B. No problem having a proof copy delivered as you can see from the photo above. Had the publishing company’s policies changed in a matter of days? Or was something else going on?

Fellow authors, I invite you to share your experiences on publishing and having your books printed. Let us know in the comment box below.

Cheers,

Lee-Anne Marie Kling