[Sidenote: _Correcting Galley-proofs_]
When the proofs first reach the author, they are supposed to conform
accurately to the manuscript as the author has furnished it. The
compositor has completed his part of the work up to that point.
Proofs, both galley and page, are sent to the author in duplicate, the
galley-proofs being accompanied by the manuscript. The author should
make all his corrections on the set having a memorandum stamped in red,
and return them, with the manuscript, to the publisher. The duplicate
set of proofs should be retained by him for purposes of reference,
or for use in case the originals should be lost. The author ought to
transfer to his duplicate set the changes he has made on the set he
sends back to the printers. All proofs stamped in red must go back to
the printers--galley, page, and foundry proofs.
[Sidenote: _Charges for Author’s Corrections_]
A clause in the contract between the author and the publishers provides
that the publishers shall pay only a fixed percentage of the cost of
the author’s proof corrections, this percentage being reckoned on the
original cost of the composition and electrotype plates. For example,
in a book of 400 pages, which costs for composition and plates $400,
there would be an allowance to the author of $40 for corrections, if
the percentage were 10 per cent, or $60 in case the percentage were 15
per cent. When authors get their first royalty statements, they often
fail to understand why this sum was exceeded, especially if they are
not acquainted with the details of type-setting and electrotyping.
[Sidenote: _Where Danger Lurks_]
To add a single word in the proofs, if the word be of different
length from the excluded word, may involve the resetting of several
lines; while, to add a single word after the plate has been made, may
sometimes cost as much as the original composition and plate of an
entire page. In type set by machine, the changing of a single letter or
punctuation mark requires the resetting of the entire line.
To insure the least cost, all author’s corrections should be made on
the first galley-proofs. Corrections in galley-proofs can be minimized
with a little care. When confined to the occasional substitution of one
word or of several words of about the same length, the cost is usually
small. But the cancellation or addition of half a line will require an
overrunning of type from that point to the end of the paragraph, which
may mean the space of a page, or even more if the paragraph is a long
one. If several other changes should be made in the same paragraph, it
would be found easier to reset the entire paragraph, doubling the cost.
A galley-proof sometimes contains so many corrections that the entire
galley must be reset.
[Sidenote: _Costly Corrections_]
An author should never make alterations on a page-proof, if he can
avoid doing so. In the galleys there is flexibility for additions and
subtractions, but in the pages the mass of type is fixed accurately
to the line. When an author makes a change in a page-proof, it should
be remembered that if several words or a sentence are added, it may
be necessary for the printers practically to reset every line on that
page, and possibly to overrun all pages to the end of the chapter.
Should the pages contain cuts, this difficulty will become still
greater, so that it might be less costly to reset the entire page, or
even more. Corrections in page-proofs, therefore, when made at all,
should, if possible, be limited to the space of the page, the matter
taken out and the new matter put in containing the same number of
letters.
[Sidenote: _Foundry-reading_]
When the author’s page-proofs and foul proofs have been returned to
the printers, any new corrections indicated by the author are made
in the type. A proof-reader again reads the pages over, to make it
certain that the first proof-reader and the author have not overlooked
any errors. This is called foundry-reading. Should the foundry-reader
detect any errors due to the author’s oversight in going over his
proofs, he either corrects the error or returns the page on which it
occurs for the author to answer the query or approve of the correction.
[Sidenote: _Queries_]
On all proofs the abbreviation “Qy.” for “query,” or a question mark
(?), should always be answered. Such memoranda indicate that a question
has arisen with the printers, as to a statement made or an apparent
inconsistency, and the author alone can answer it.
After the plates have been cast, corrections are sometimes asked for
which might have been made in the galley-proofs or in the original
manuscript. Corrections in plates are very difficult and always costly.
Only the simplest changes can be made without resetting and recasting.
[Sidenote: _Publisher and Printer_]
Letters about corrections should not be sent direct to the publishers
unless it should have been found impossible to make the corrections on
the proofs themselves. The publishers’ office and the printers’ place
of work are usually in different parts of a town, if not in different
towns, or different States.
If corrections are to be made for a new edition of a book, the author
should ask the publisher to send a set of sheets on which to mark the
corrections. By this means accuracy will be best secured.
[Sidenote: _Return Proofs Promptly_]
Let it be repeated that all proofs should be returned promptly. The
holding back of proofs delays publication. Pages can not be made up
until the return of galley-proofs in consecutive order. If there are
serious delays, the publishers may not be able to issue the book at the
proper season, or at the propitious time. The loss thus incurred will
fall on the author as well as the publisher.
[Sidenote: _Technical Marks_]
Authors unfamiliar with the technical marks used in correcting proofs
are referred to the frontispiece of this book, where is given a
specimen of a corrected proof-sheet, showing the markings most commonly
used. Along with it may be seen the same page of matter printed from
type as corrected according to the markings.
[Sidenote: _Charges to Authors_]
The author sometimes asks if all the changes marked on his proofs are
made at his expense. The answer is that only the corrections which he
himself makes, or authorizes to be made, are charged to him.
When two or more persons read the proofs, one set only--that having the
printers’ red stamp on it--embodying all the corrections, should be
returned to the publishers.
V
OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS
“How likest thou the picture, Apemantus?”
_Timon of Athens._