5 Advance Copies for Self-Publishers to Approve

Advance copies are pulled from the book run, after printing and binding.

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Before we ship books, we want you to see the finished books. If we are shipping the books from Asia to the USA, we want you to approve five sample books before they are loaded on board ship. So seldom is there a problem, but in the rare situation when there is a problem, we want to avoid the extra time lost as well as the cost of shipping.

If it is a legitimate mistake that we made, not to worry. We stand behind the books we print. If it is a mistake that you made, then a reprint will mean more cost and time lost. Those advance copies are important!

Opportunities to avoid mistakes before seeing advance copies …

Manuscript

First, you will have the final manuscript to proof.

Editing and Proofreading

A proofreader or a second set of eyes should proofread the manuscript. The author should sign-off on the edited manuscript.

Book Designer and Graphics Proof

When the book goes to design, the designer will not proofread. If you catch mistakes at this point, they will charge for Author’s Corrections, also called Author’s Alterations. When the design is complete, we require our clients to sign-off on the PDFs and / or proof set, so we can send the files to prepress.

You may be using InDesign to layout the book yourself. If so, be sure to have someone else proof it for you. It is hard to catch your own mistakes!

Printer’s proof

Prepress at one of our select printers, will output a proof set that we send to you. You will be required to approve the proofs on our Book Approval form.

Authors can see that by the time you get the advance copies, but no changes can be made unless there is a significant problem in printing or binding. You will have already signed our book printing quote form with all printing, paper, and binding specifications. We have samples of stock, and similar books we’ve printed.

To sum it up …

We point out the pitfalls in hopes that authors are attentive to the process. The last thing we want is for you to have to not approve the advance copies, and worse yet, have to pay for a mistake that could have been avoided. We are on your side!

Now read more about book delivery.