It’s my first time publishing a chapter in an academic book. Last week I received the proofs and while re-reading the text I realized changing a couple words in a paragraph would make the paragraph make more sense. As it is right now, it leads the reader to understand something else from what my intention is.
Is changing the words, at this stage, frowned upon? According to the guide, I’m not forbidden to rewrite a few things or delete, so far as it doesn’t change the paging. But I wanted to know if people usually do that at this stage.
Comments
Swapping the odd word or fixing grammatical issues is exactly what proofs are for. If they have an issue with your corrections then they can always come back to you.
What they don’t want is you removing or adding entire paragraphs, as that changes the pagination of the entire book potentially.
In my experience, depending on the publisher and its process, the first proofs can sometimes require many corrections. So, changing a few words should be absolutely no problem; it’s part of the process. Significant changes, though, like deleting a whole paragraph, are more problematic.