By BookBaby author Scott McCormick

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

You’ve written your book, had a celebratory cup of coffee, rewritten your book, sent out the manuscript to your beta readers, rewritten it once again, sent it to your editor, fixed all your grammatical and spelling errors, and now, finally, you’re ready to publish, right? Not so fast. Before you publish your book, you’re going to want to produce a book Proof and do a final check.

What is a book proof?

A book proof, also known as a proof copy, is a pre-publication version of your book. A book proof is produced after galleys or ARCs, but before final publication. Book proofs are used for — you guessed it — proofing your book. (This is where the term proofreading comes from.) You use a proof copy to make sure that every single element of your book is perfect before giving your printer the approval to publish your title.

Proof copy vs galley copy vs ARC

Book proofs differ from galleys and Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) in how they are used.

Galleys

Traditionally, galleys were coil-bound versions of your book that only contained the body of your text (in order words, no cover, front matter, back matter, or formatting). A galley proof is purely for editing, and in traditional publishing, only your editor would get one.

ARCs

An ARC is a nearly complete version of your book. It includes your cover, front and back matter, photos, etc., and for the most part, formatting has been completed. (But not always. In the ARCs for my Mr. Pants books, the typeface for the dialog balloons hadn’t been selected yet.)

ARCs are generally sent out to reviewers or to other authors for endorsements. One key difference between an ARC and a proof copy is that ARCs don’t necessarily need to be printed. These days, most reviewers are happy to receive a digital proof of your ARC in PDFs or ePub format.

Proof copies

Book proofs are mostly used for the final editing process to ensure that everything is perfect. Some distributors may want a book proof before they will agree to sell your book.

Understanding the importance of book proofs

As you will see, book proofs are not just used for proofreading your copy. They are also used for checking all your graphic elements and more.

If you are self-publishing your book with BookBaby, you will receive a digital proof to get your final approval before going to print. However, you really should order at least one press proof so you can make sure the final physical copy is exactly how you want it to be. This is important because this is your only chance to catch printing mistakes.

Key elements to inspect in a book proof

Once you order a printed proof copy, here are the key elements to inspect to make sure everything is up to snuff.

Text

I get it. You have edited and re-edited your book a million times already. By this point you can’t even see straight. But a proof copy is your last chance to catch typos and grammatical mistakes, and this is where using a printed copy really comes in handy. There’s something about viewing your book in a physical format that will cause you to see things you have previously glossed over.

But because you have edited this book so often, once you are done proofreading your book, you should give it to one other person so they can check it with fresh eyes.

Print quality and color accuracy

Until this moment, you’ve only seen digital versions of your book, so here’s your one and only chance to view your physical proof to check the print quality and color accuracy. Do the colors of your book look like your digital proofs? There will be a slight variation, due to the differences between screen colors and print colors, but you shouldn’t be shocked when you see your book in print.

Check out the photos and graphics to make sure there are no issues, like moiré patterns.

Book cover considerations

Of course, every aspect of your book needs to be perfect, but this is doubly true of your book cover. After all, it’s what is going to draw in your potential readers, and if you book looks less than professional, you’re going to blow sales opportunities.

Although I’m sure you or your designer spent hours making sure your front and back cover design were perfect onscreen, this is your opportunity to see it in physical form. The proof is where you’ll be able to double check that the image is centered and level, that your spine isn’t bleeding over onto the back cover, etc.

Correct titles, headers, etc.

Up to this point, you probably haven’t spent any time proofreading your front or back matter. Now is the time to make sure everything is error-free. Check your title page, your copyright page, the dedication, the “About the Author” section, and everything else. Make sure your ISBN is correct as well as your social media links and website URL.

Double-check the table of contents to make sure all the page numbers refer to the correct chapters. Check your page numbers throughout the book. Check the headers that run across the top of the page. Make sure your name and title are printed correctly, and that neither of them appears on pages where a new chapter is beginning.

Make sure you are happy with your fonts. Make sure all your paragraph breaks are consistent. Make sure your illustrations, maps, photos, etc. are all in the right place and the right size.

Leveraging BookBaby’s single book printing services

Any reputable publishing partner should provide you with a chance to order a proof copy of your book. If not, you need to find another partner or book printer.

With many publishing partners, you can’t always be sure that your proof will match the final copies. At BookBaby, we use the very same presses to print proof copies as we do the books that reach the marketplace. So you know your single press proof will be exactly the same print quality as the books your customers buy.

Related Posts
What is an Advance Reader Copy?
Book Cover Design Ideas: Before and After
A Guide to Writing a Book Dedication
About the Author Examples to Get You Inspired
What to Know About Writing a Book Table of Contents

This BookBaby blog article What is a Book Proof and What Should You Look For? appeared first on and was stolen from BookBaby Blog .