The Hidden Danger of Errors
Three years ago I watched a client print 5,000 copies of their self-published memoir with their own name misspelled on the spine. Not on the copyright page, not on the cover, not in the text, just on the spine. I watched as the author had her book proofread seventeen times, had it edited by a professional, and had read through the text one last time before it went to press, only to have a different designer provide the file for the cover art.
That’s the thing about errors. They don’t shout. They hide in corners you think you’ve checked, in files you didn’t think to look at again, in assumptions you made that seemed so correct at the time.
I’ve worked in print production for more than fifteen years now, and the one thing I’ve learned definitively is it is riskier than you think to be convinced you have catch everything the first time. Your Eyes! They Lie!
How Your Brain Betrays You
Few people realize what their eyes are doing when they proofread. It turns out your brain is actually intervening, overusing what it expects to see while underutilizing what you’ve actually placed before it. If you’ve ever felt adrift reading the same paragraph six times and failing to see the same error, it’s because your brain has anticipated each word you want to see in its exact place, and delivered.
It’s efficiency. You’re efficient. And that’s its problem.
Because your brain, and mine, can outspeed any reader. Which is why you just printed 2,000 copies of that brochure with “pubic relations” instead of “public relations”. It’s not your fault.
It’s your mind. So, the first rule is that you’re not capable – no person is capable – of proofing themselves. So you don’t proofread yourself.
Get Someone Else to Proofread
You get someone else to proofread you. You don’t call a self as careful as my client was careful, an anomaly you recognize, and then move past it because you believe you must be doing better than that. You’re not.
You can’t. Your brain knows you can’t. If there’s any way you cannot bring another human being into your project, and I am sceptical that’s true but I will assume it for the purposes of this advice, you need to take other measures if you want anything to be perfect on the last pass.
Alternative Proofing Techniques
Before final review, take your document, if saved as a file, and change the format. Change the font. Read it aloud.
Read it backwards, sentence by sentence. If it is printed out by now, read it out loud. Read it backwards.
Do whatever you know you can’t do when you work on screen or in the same old font. These techniques will occasionally catch errors that escaped previous rounds of proofing. Good enough for me.
I still am mystified as to why just changing the font helps so much, but it seems to jump start the brain to see the mistakes. Do it.
The Definite Quality Check
What other steps should you take beyond the thorough proofing?
You should implement a systematic process to control the details the well-meaning overlook. Here is what is critical and why: Double check everything that appears repeatedly, whether page numbering, running headers, chapter titles, image captions, etc. Anything that repeats is inherently more likely to have a mistake in it, because people assume it has been checked from the start.
On a submission I inherited, I discovered the writer’s comp sheets had the odd spelling – “smilar” instead of “similar” – on all her page references, because two lines had gotten merged in the file. It remained unnoticed until I asked what in the world “Chaptre” was doing as a header starting on page 147. Be highly critical of anything that moves from page to page or file to file.
When your writer steps away from the manuscript for three weeks, when your two designers swap files, when you notice the covering jacket in black and white but not on screen, that is where errors hide. This is also where they can get introduced. Two designers assuming the other designer is handling the author’s information..
File merge equals major misspelling. Make sure every work that passes out from your desk is viewed physically in print before final decision and print volume. A printed proof is the hardest part to come by in the production process, sure, but unlike any other step in the processing, I guarantee it to catch even persistent errors.
Colors won’t be right in print, your fonts are going to look different, and PDF interact differently with your eyes than what will happen with your finished product. Bite the bullet and printed a sample or two. You’ll thank me if it saves you ten times the heartache.
Create a Detailed Checklist
Last but most definitely not least in quality control is the checklist. You need to create a clear, tangible, step-by-step page by page, line by line, image by image, watch list for your final review. You need it on paper or in print.
Your mind will a lot more comprehensively than you can plan on in one sitting. Include such things as:
- Are all images high resolution?
- All copyright info on text is in the correct year?
- Are fonts embedded?
- The ISBN correct?
- The spine words the right way up?
Many of these aren’t creative effects but simply mechanical verifications. And mechanical verifications require mechanical control systems. The truth is we’re all too lazy and inattentive at this stage, and the process it takes to produce even a modest number of books or catalogs is too complex not to use checklists.
As pilots do. As surgeons do. Use them.
The Real Cost of Errors
At the end of the day, the one thing I have not seen anyone do in publishing or printing that I believe we should, is have the whole process revolve around the detailed system check, so that you catch errors all along the way, instead of one final final of everything. Because the later you fix a problem in this process, the more it costs. During my fifteen years of experience I’ve learned that the most unjust words in the world of production are “I’m sure it’s fine.” Because every production disaster I’ve seen has started with a person being sure.