BOOK PROOFREADERThe Book Specialist offers a professional proofreading service to both authors and publishers to ensure the final text is accurate, consistent and of a professional, publishable standard. All editors who proofread for the Book Specialist are trained, experienced and reliable proofreaders. The Book Specialist insists on the highest standards of proofreading (your Aunt Margery may be great at spotting typos in the newspaper, but trust me, she's a long way off being at the level of a trained proofreader). 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 – and I mean every author – needs a book proofreader. No matter how many times you've read and re-read your book, I 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 aren't a trained, experienced book proofreader: Book Specialist clients are frequently astonished by how many corrections the proofreader makes in their books; often small things that had never occurred to them as being incorrect.

In fact, the vast majority of authors aren't experts when it comes to perfecting spelling, punctuation and grammar. As a proofreader, I've worked on a lot of books by top authors and you'd be amazed how many errors I find.

That's why working with a book proofreader is an essential part of the book-writing process. Typos, ugly grammar 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), you need to take book proofreading seriously too.

HOW A BOOK PROOFREADER WORKS Proofreading is the last stage in the editorial process – the final check-through before the text is published. Ideally, to ensure that the material is at its best, the text has already been professionally copy-edited before it arrives on the proofreader's desk.

The book proofreader looks at two areas as they read:

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

• Consistency: A proofreader is a stickler for consistency. They bring the text neatly into line, ensuring a consistent style is applied in areas such as capitalisation, italicisation, hyphenation, punctuation and spelling styles.

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 rewrite clumsy sentences or improve flow. That's the job of a copy editor or development editor. In addition, The Book Specialist proofreading service does not involve working on formatting beyond the basics (we're writers and editors, not designers). If you need some typesetting and/or design support, please see my Resources for authors section.

PROOFREADING SAMPLE To get a feel for how a Book Specialist proofreader works, please view my proofreading example.

BOOK PROOFREADING TERMS Proofreading costs from £6 to £12 per 1,000 words. Standard turnaround ranges from two to four weeks, depending on the length of the material. I offer an express service, for an increased fee, if required.

PROOFREADING OTHER MATERIALS The Book Specialist specialises in providing editorial services within the publishing industry. However, the process of proofreading is the same whatever the text involved, so Book Specialist proofreaders also proofread other materials, such as scripts and screenplays, lyrics, poems, blogs, websites, marketing materials, letters, proposals and reports for corporate, charity and public sector clients (see my client list). So if you're looking for an accomplished, experienced proofreader for your project, please feel free to get in touch for a quote.

In addition, I am the co-director of AcEDemy, a specialist academic proofreading and copy-editing company. If you're seeking a proofreader for academic material, please visit www.acedemy.co.uk.