Re: RARA-AVIS: ARCs

From: Al Guthrie ( allanguthrie@ukonline.co.uk)
Date: 04 Feb 2003


----- Original Message ----- From: "Joy Matkowski" < jmatkowski1@comcast.net>

> Can anyone tell me if ARCs are proofread and corrected before they become
> books in the warehouse? I surely do hope so. I'm reading an ARC for
review,
> and I've rarely seen more errors, even in first pages.

Depends, as John says. When I first started working in the book trade six years ago, proofs were very popular, and very badly constructed. There was no cover art, poor quality paper, etc. You could tell there were going to be errors. And, my goodness, there were. Nowadays, proofs tend to look more like the final book version, with "uncorrected proof copy" written in place of a barcode, and, in my experience, there are fewer errors. ARCs these days tend to be the finished product with an indelible sticker planted on the barcode to stop it being sold. Some publishers (Headline, I think) write "advanced reading copy" in place of the barcode instead of
"uncorrected proof copy", because it sounds better. Having said all that, errors in proof copies are usually spotted before final print. If you have an ARC with a sticker covering the barcode, it's probably too late.

Al

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