Proofreading

When you need to make sure you didn’t miss any typos or layout issues in page proofs.

Proofreading is the very last step in the publishing process: the manuscript has already been drafted, reviewed (if necessary), and copyedited. It’s likely also gone to a designer, who’s laid it out on a web page or into a PDF file. Basically, you’re ready to press print, and you want someone to go over the completed project to ensure consistency and that there are no embarrassing typos.

Authors often confuse proofreading with copyediting (read about the difference here). While you may feel that your text only needs a proofread, unless a designer has laid out the text into a publisher’s proof (usually a PDF), it likely is not yet ready for proofreading; instead, it may still need a copyedit to address issues like grammar and punctuation. At the proofreading stage, the proofreader should only find the occasional typo that the copyeditor did not catch; they should not be suggesting grammatical revisions throughout.

  • Proofreaders can help you with:

  • Minor typos

    Minor typos that may have been missed by a copyeditor, such as homonyms or common misspellings

  • Incorrect punctuation

    Incorrect punctuation (like a hyphen where an en dash should appear)

  • Spacing

    Stray or missing spaces between words and lines between paragraphs

  • Layout

    Layout issues like blank pages, chapter ordering, and ensuring correct recto/verso placement

  • Typesetting issues

    Typesetting issues like line and word breaks, widows and orphans

  • Illustrations and captions

    Illustration placement and caption consistency

  • Consistency between parts

    Checking the chapter titles against the table of contents, running headers, and page numbering

Proofreading services

Sample

Sample Proofread

Proofreading is only completed on designed page proofs and typically is marked using Adobe’s commenting features, which are easily legible to a book designer.

 

See this sample proofread with markup.

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