BOOK PROOFREADER

Careful proofreading is essential to ensure that a book is accurate and consistent. Every book that goes through a publisher is professionally proofread at least once, and authors who want to succeed need to pay the same attention to quality. Your Aunt Margery may be great at spotting typos in the newspaper, but she's a long way off being at the level of a trained proofreader. Working with a professional proofreader gives you peace of mind that you haven't missed any 'embarrasing mitakes' in your book.

The Book Specialist proofreads for authors and publishers in both UK English and US English. All editors who proofread for the Book Specialist are trained, experienced and reliable proofreaders. We proofreaders are eagle-eyed, we're sticklers for consistency and we can sniff a misplaced apostrophe at 20 paces.

WHY HIRE A BOOK PROOFREADER? First things first: every author needs a book proofreader. No matter how many times you've read and re-read your book, we can guarantee you've missed mistakes because:

• You're too close to the material: Strange but true – when you're very familiar with material, you get blind spots. You know what's there, so your eye fails to read exactly what's on the page and you miss errors. A proofreader has a fresh (and trained) eye.

• • You don't realise that a mistake is a mistake: Few authors are experts at spelling, punctuation and grammar. But a book proofreader's job is to know all the ins and outs of the English language.

Working with a book proofreader is an essential part of the book-writing process. Typos, grammar slips and inconsistencies are extremely off-putting, and they undermine your image as a talented, professional author. If you're serious about your book (ebook or print, self-published or traditionally published), you need to take book proofreading seriously too.

HOW A BOOK PROOFREADER WORKS Proofreading is the very last stage in the editorial process – the final check-through before the text is published. In a publishing house, the proofreader checks the book after it has been copy-edited and laid out, to catch the odd few mistakes that have slipped through the net or been introduced by the typesetter. So, the book should already be in great shape when it lands on the proofreader's desk. The Book Specialist proofreading service is therefore designed for books that are close to a publishable standard. Some authors naturally write at this level, but most need to commission a copy-editing service first to tidy up the text.

The book proofreader looks at two areas as they read:

• Accuracy: A proofreader corrects errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar, catching all the misspellings, spotting that misplaced apostrophe and sorting dodgy verb agreements.

• • Consistency: A proofreader is a stickler for consistency. They ensure that a consistent style is applied in areas such as capitalisation, italicisation, hyphenation, punctuation and spelling.

The proofreader usually works in Microsoft Word, marking up the manuscript using the Track Changes feature. By arrangement, the proofreader can also work with paper proofs, or on a PDF document.

Please note: Proofreading does not involve improving the writing style in any way, so the proofreader will not edit the writing. That's the job of a copy editor. In addition, The Book Specialist proofreading service does not involve working on formatting beyond the basics (we're writers and editors, not designers).

PROOFREADING SAMPLE To get a feel for how a Book Specialist proofreader works, please view this proofreading example. On request, we will perform a free 500-word sample edit on the extract sent over for editorial quotes, so that you get a feel for the service.

BOOK PROOFREADING TERMS

Proofreading usually costs £6 per 1,000 words ($10) for books that The Book Specialist has not previously edited. Standard turnaround ranges from one to three weeks, depending on the length of the material. We offer an express service, for an increased fee, if required.

We offer a discounted proofreading rate of £3 per 1,000 words ($5) for clients whose books have been edited by The Book Specialist. Your book has then been through two separate editors, as it does in a publishing house. We can bundle the editing and proofreading together into one project, or carry out the proofreading as a separate service.