If you think your manuscript is good enough to go to print, think again. Have you used a proofreader to check it?
I am up to my 40th business history book and there’s no way I’d move to the page layout of any of my books without having a proofreader review my manuscript.
If you want to publish a high-quality business book you MUST use the skills and services of a proofreader.
The reality is most people now don’t learn punctuation in school, let alone spelling (but that’s another topic altogether). Auto correct and AI tools can suggest and fix some of the more obvious punctuation errors but it’s still way better to have an expert human to review your final draft manuscript.
When do you need to engage a proofreader?
For clarity, when you have finished writing your book, that’s just your FINAL DRAFT. It’s not the text you should upload into your book design program OR send to your graphic designer if you are using a human to undertake the page layout of your book.
There’s a whole process that takes place after you’ve finished your final draft. And it’s called a final draft because that’s exactly what it is, still a draft.
I still remember the first time I sent my final draft off to a proofreader. I was really chuffed about it. I was pretty sure it didn’t have many typos, that it read well, that I had applied my style guide diligently and that there wasn’t really much for the proofreader to do.
How wrong I was.
When I opened up the document she sent back all I could see was a crammed ‘ladder’ of red track change notifications down the right-hand side column. There literally wasn’t a page that didn’t have 20+changes on it.
My writing ego took a battering. It couldn’t have been that bad? Maybe I’d sent the wrong version? How could it be that bad?
Then I looked at the changes. Many were formatting changes, most were punctuation changes (never my strong point) and only a few on each page were comments about the structure of the sentence/paragraph or commentary about the flow of the text. Phew, I wasn’t a hopeless writer after all that would need to take a remedial writing class.
EVERYONE writing a self published book needs a proofreader, a real person NOT an AI tool. AI tools on the market have improved but they are not a high-enough standard if you want to publish a good quality business book. It’s your reputation on the line here so you want your book to be the best it can be.
What does a proofreader do?
A proofreader corrects ‘surface errors’ in writing, such as grammatical, spelling, punctuation and other language mistakes. For example:
- Are there any spelling errors?
- Are full stops, commas colons, semicolons, etc., used correctly?
- Have en and em dashes been used in the appropriate way?
- Have words that sound like one another but have different meanings, such as there, their and they’re, been used correctly?
- Have quotation marks and apostrophes been used appropriately?
- Are there any double spaces, particularly after full stops?
How to brief a proofreader
It is important to provide your proofreader a clear, written brief as to what you want them to do and not do. This is especially true with business books as you might have a specific preference for the spelling of industry-specific terminology, the application of acronyms and the use or otherwise of technical phrases.
An important consideration is what dictionary you want the proofreader to apply. Are you using US English, UK English, Australian English? There are differences and your book should use one style, not mix them up. A clear giveaway is that US English uses ‘z’ not ‘s’, often deletes ‘u’ and replaces ‘c’ with an ‘s’.
These may seem like minor things, not worth worrying about or taking the time or money to fix, but sloppy writing, punctuation and grammar shows that you don’t really care about the quality of your work, have used AI to ‘write’ for you, or are simply lazy.
Why should someone read a book you have written if you don’t really care about what you’ve written?
Ideally, you would provide the Style Guide that you have developed and used for your writing. IF you didn’t create and use one, now is the time to do so. Unless you are clear about what you want proofreader will use their default preference.
How to find a proofreader
Finding a good, human proofreader can be a challenge. I have a network of proofreaders I’ve built up and used over time. Many of the self publishing platforms have proofreader options…but again, provide a brief and ask for a quote up front. I am an Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors which has a specialist proofreaders and editors. In Australia the Australian Society of Authors is a great resource, and then there’s freelancing sites such as UpWork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com and others. Don’t use ChatGPT as a proofreader and if you want to use AI such as Grammarly, Quillbot, Sribbr check what they provide.
You might have been told that you need a book editor but unsure about what the difference is between a book editor and proofreader. Here’s a link to an article I shared about this that will help you work out whether you need an editor and a proofreader or just a proofreader. One last tip.
When you’re contracting an editor or proofreader it’s a good idea to give them a sample chapter or two and ask them to review it and then give you a quote. Don’t wait till they have completed the job to discuss the fee. AND, be clear about the process they will undertake and the timeframe.
If you need help with your business book manuscript contact us.
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