Woohoo. I finished correcting first proofs of my new collection STORIES FROM BONDI due for publication by Ginninderra Press in September. A big job. Final proofs are the next step in the publishing process.
So what are first proofs?
Initial proofs of the book from the typesetter, sometimes still delivered in galley format.
For the author, this first set of author proofs can be a challenge because often what is delivered is the raw typesetting output. Text will have been formatted and a key task for the author is to check that no text corruptions occurred at the file conversion stage of typesetting.
However, because tables, illustrations, etc. may not yet have been added, what these first proofs still lack are the real page breaks and an indication of the book’s final extent. For this reason, careful scrutiny still needs to be given to the final proofs.
This definition is extracted (and expanded on) from the book Getting Published: A Companion for the Humanities and Social Sciences by Gerald Jackson and Marie Lenstrup.
Libby Sommer, Author 
I have just finished trawling through my first proof and putting all the italics back. Congrats, it is a milestone.
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good to know you understand the big task of checking first proofs, Roberta. best of luck with your new book 🙂
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Wow! Congratulations, Libby and exciting times for you! I like the explanations of the various proofs and always tickled by the idea of galley proofs! Good luck with your latest book. 😀
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thanks heaps, Annika. yes, exciting times for me. best of luck with your writing journey to you too 🙂
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Interesting. It explains why some books I receive have weird notations between pages. I never understood it.
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good to know you learnt something new from the post, Jacqui. glad to hear.
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Reblogged this on wake up and smell the humans and commented:
I’m waiting on Ginninderra Press for the final proofs of my collection Dead People Don’t Make Jam. Thought I’d reblog this post from Libby Sommer which explains the process.
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glad you found the post useful Sean. thanks for the reblog. good luck with publication of your collection. such a wonderful achievement. congratulations.
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Wishing you as much success as some of my other blogging friends have enjoyed!
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thank you so much for your sentiments. much appreciated.
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