Chapter IV: Act IV: , Scene i

[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._