The day has finally arrived. Months or years of hard work have finally come to fruition. Your Microsoft Word manuscript is now a proper galley or proof.¹ I’m talking about the near-final PDF the printer uses to create the physical version of your book.

In today’s post, I’ll describe what to expect as you review this critical document and edge toward the finish line.

Anticipate a Slew of Minor Galley Issues

Whether you’re writing a 30,000- or 90,000-word book, the initial galley won’t be perfekt.² All things being equal, longer, more complex books yield more issues than shorter, simpler ones.

Let those two statements sink in.

Regardless of your publishing method, all first versions of galleys contain flaws. On rare occasions, the number of errors is downright astonishing. If you haven’t found any blemishes, keep looking. I promise, they are there in the form of orphans and widows, typos, or minor hyphenation or dash issues.

My books are no exception to this rule. Here’s a simple example from The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace:

A skilled proofreader will flag all issues and your designer will diligently fix them. Each version of the galley should ship with fewer mistakes.

There Should Be No Formatting Surprises

If you’ve signed off on the galley template months before (and you certainly should have), then the PDF should present zero formatting surprises. Zilch. Each font, style, size, footnote, callout, sidebar, table, bullet point, figure, and format will match those in the approved template. If this isn’t the case, either:

• There’s been a communication breakdown; or
• Your designer lacks the chops to complete the job.

Minor Tweaks You’ll Invariably Need to Make

Months can go by from manuscript completion to the editor’s sign-off. During that time, odds are high that:

• A URL breaks.
• An event occurred that warrants minor alterations in the text.
• A figure needs some updating.
• You used a word too often in the same paragraph.
• You forgot to mention someone in the acknowledgments.
• The editor or ghostwriter erred in citing a book in the bibliography, but no one caught it during the editing process. It happens.

Each of these issues is manageable. Just be smart about how you handle them. When swapping out text and figures, be mindful of spatial considerations or you’ll cause pagination issues. For instance, say that a current sentence contains 200 characters. Its replacement should mirror that number. A 500-word substitute will likely bite you in the ass. Ditto for a half-inch figure that supplants its quarter-inch antecedent.

The new 500-word or two-inch insertion will likely cause problems.

That goes double if your book’s index is already finished. Tread very lightly here. Depending on the severity and placement of your proposed changes, your indexer may need to start from scratch. AI won’t be coming to her rescue.

Beyond Minor Galley Issues: Major Surgery

Perhaps you didn’t pay much attention to the book’s figures during the project’s early stages. You were too busy to respond to your professional designer’s detailed queries.³ Maybe you pooh-poohed the document’s margins, fonts, sizes, kerning, or leading. You never printed out a few pages using an actual printer. Despite these pending questions, you insisted that she proceed with the layout.

Now you look at the PDF and finally realize the error of your ways. Your designer was right after all: that 15-point font for footnotes looks puerile. Seeing your near-final book rightfully induces panic. She needs to make major alterations STAT.

The status quo is the author’s fault. Making these types of foundational changes means that they will pay extra—or the legacy publisher will register a charge against future royalties. And if you notice structural problems and need a developmental edit at this point, you really put the cart before the horse.

On Gates, Books, and Priorities

What You Need to Know

The later and more significant the change you want to make, the more likely it is to cause downstream problems. Allocate sufficient time to review your galley and for your proofreader to catch all of the issues before the book goes to print—something Taylor Swift’s team should have done.⁴

Another set of eyes (yours) can’t hurt at this point in the process. For God’s sake, though, hire a professional. (Don’t rely on the help of a well-intentioned friend who likes to read.) You’d be amazed at the mistakes that experienced, vigilant proofreaders find that even intelligent authors miss. What’s more, you’re too close to the text.

Next Steps

Now that you know what to expect, it’s time to review your galley like a pro.

1. I use the two terms interchangeably although subtle differences exist.
2. Yes, that typo is intentional.
3. I won’t vouch for amateurs here.
4. After 111 posts on this site, it was high time for my first Swifty allusion.