Once a manuscript has been edited and finalized by the editor and author, the MS Word or Apple’s Pages document is transmitted to the book designer for design and typesetting.
The book designer creates an interior design sample(s) for the author’s input and approval. Once the interior design is approved by the author, the book designer (aka typesetter) will lay out the book in QuarkXPress or InDesign. The initial typeset document, which reflects the actual pages of the upcoming book, is called “first-pass page proofs” or simply “first pass.”
The first-pass page proofs should be read carefully both by the author and a professional proofreader. Here’s why:
- An author will invariably discover that this fresh look at their manuscript gives them a new perspective on the content and they may want to make some tweaks. These tweaks should be kept to a minimum since, at this point, the typesetter will need to manually transfer those changes to the typeset file. For guidance on how to check your page proofs, click here.
- A proofreader’s fresh look is always valuable, since people are not machines and the author and editor may have overlooked some minor typos, misused words (i.e., “you” rather than “your”), repeated words or phrases, etc. For a list of what a proofreader looks for, click here.
After the author’s and proofreader’s changes have been made by the typesetter, the second-pass page proofs are produced. While the typesetter will take care to enter all changes correctly, the author will need to make sure that all of their changes—as well as the proofreader’s changes—have been satisfactorily incorporated. After any remaining changes have been made, the third-pass page proofs are produced, which should be print-ready—in a perfect world. In traditional publishing, these are called “blue lines” because, at one point, they were actually printed in blue.
At any point during the proof stage, you can use the PDF as an “advanced reader copy” (ARC)—also called “uncorrected reader copy,” “galleys,” or “reviewer copy”—for potential endorsements and other book-marketing-related requests. When doing this, it’s a good idea to insert a PDF of the front cover as the first page of the interior PDF.
Traditional publishers often send out a printed, bound version of an ARC to a reviewer, but this can be costly for the indie author. While the ARC should be close to the final version of the book, it’s still not the “final” version; some proofreading corrections may still need to be made. Nevertheless, it’s a professional package that will likely make a better impression on a potential influencer than a word document version of the manuscript.
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