Easy, it’s a mock-up of the final book. See, easy?
Its purpose is to check the formatting, check the story, check the cover, and make sure everything is where it should be.
It is ALMOST the final product. Almost, but it’s NOT for sale yet and it’s not had its last minute tweaks.

Some of you know that I ran the gauntlet to hell and back getting Amazon to send me a proof. No one I spoke to understood what I needed or why. They were certifiable idiots. (Harsh? No, not when I’ve had to deal with their single-minded stupidity as long as I have.)

Anywho, I ordered a proof from Draft2Digital as well … my God what an easy operation that was. They knew I was in New Zealand! They couldn’t have been any more helpful! Amazing. 🙂

The Amazon proof arrived yesterday from Sydney.
The D2D proof arrived today from Melbourne.

Quality wise they are the same or very very similar.

The big difference is the D2D proof doesn’t have a bloody great line through the cover obscuring text on the back of the book. Amazon put a big line (you’ll see in a minute) through the cover stating that the book is not for resale, and that means I cannot check some of the back cover copy. (Lucky I have the D2D proof!)
471 pages makes it quite a hefty book!