Proofing Your Book

"Proofing" is simply short for proofreading. 

There is nothing more upsetting than receiving a finished book back from the printers only to find a spelling mistake, grammar problems, or errors. 

An easily-skipped-due-to-excitement step is Proofing. 

Do your Preflighting Step first, making sure you've resolved or skipped all the issues that your page layout software is highlighting.

Then export a PDF for both the inside pages and the cover document. In the PDF export settings select export all pages, not all spreads.) 

Get your PDF printed using either your own home printer (not recommended due to ink consumption) or uploading it to Staples, Office Depot or any other local print shop. 

Another option is to have Blurb or your book printing company print a "proof copy". It's the same as the final book would be except that you know you might have errors in your first proof copy book. This way although somewhat more expensive has the advantage of giving you an exact sense of what the final book will look like and what need adjusting. 

Give your PDF to someone you trust is reliable, detail-oriented, and willing to help. You might even try to assess whether they are somewhat like the people who are the intended audience of your book.

Ask them to read your book very carefully and circle anything they think is a mistake or a problem with the red pen. Give them a deadline. Get the proof copy back and thank them profusely!

Review their suggestions and re-edit your book accordingly. It's suggested you Save As your last version to make a new version called Draft2 before you start changing things. 

Don't take personally anything your proofreader notes. Rather use their their feedback to decide if the things they've noted will resonate with your intended audience or not. 

Here's some things to have your Proofer look for:

1. Fonts – Are they used consistently throughout the book?
   
   
2. Inch vs. quote marks – Good typography uses proper curled quotation marks, not the straight inch marks. Check the ones in your book.
   
   
3. Hyphens, ems and ens – Each type of dash has a different use. For instance, numbers or dates in a range are separated by an en dash, not a hyphen.
   
   
4. Line spacing – Is it consistent in every paragraph throughout the book?
   
   
5. Word spacing – Do you have some lines that are much looser or much tighter than the others? Watch out for forced line breaks that might be left in the file.
   
   
6. Orphans/widows -Those pesky single lines at the bottom of a page or parts of lines at the top of a page. If you can get rid of them, do so.
   
   
7. Running heads need to be consistent and have the proper information, like part titles or chapter titles. It’s easy to make a mistake with these, so check them thoroughly.
   
   
8. Chapter openers should also be consistent. Does each chapter start in the same place on the page and contain the same elements in the same order?
   
   
9. Folios or page numbers need a look. Blank pages should have nothing on them, and also check that your pagination is accurate with all odd-numbered pages on the right. It pays to check!
   
   
10. Page references are another trap. If you referred to something “in Chapter 2” or “on page 112” is it still there?
    
    
11. Paragraph indents ought to be consistent throughout, no matter what style you’re using.
    
    
12. Subhead spacing and alignment can be controlled by styles in your software, but you should check them anyway to make sure they are uniform.
    
    
13. Is the overall design and the colors what you expected?
    
    
14. Is your title clearly visible?
    
    
15. Is the type on your spine clear and straight?
    
    
16. Make sure no important elements are too close to the trimmed edges of the book. I recommend you have .5″ minimum margin around the edges.
    
    
17. If you have a barcode, or if you’ve printed the ISBN on the back cover, make sure they match the ISBN on your copyright page.
    
    
18. If you included a category and price, are they correct?
    
    
19. Don’t forget to proofread the copy on the back cover.