What is proofreading anyway?

One thing I notice as a proofreader is how often the role is confused for copyediting. While there is such a thing as proof-editing (basically a light copyedit carried out on a document that hasn’t been fully laid out yet), when I talk about proofreading, I’m talking about checking for errors in the final layout, after copyediting has been completed.

In British book publishing, this usually means inputting changes on an Adobe PDF document, using the comments pane or, sometimes, inputting changes by hand on a print-out of an Adobe PDF document.

These changes could be made in different ways:

• Using the British Standards Institute (BSI) proof-correction symbols (these symbols help to streamline the process).

  Note that the BSI symbols could be handwritten onto a printed PDF or input to the PDF file using the stamp function (after creating stamps of the symbols, which can then be resized to fit). They could also be drawn onto the PDF file using the drawing tools, though I find that much more difficult.

• Via Adobe’s built-in tools, or a selection thereof (for example, using the Strikethrough and Replace Text buttons).

• Some combination of the above two processes.

• Another method entirely! The way a proofreader makes corrections is down to their individual client’s preference.

As a side point, I should note that besides correcting obvious errors that have made it through to the final page proofs, proofreaders also query when they need to. However, as a proofreader is working on text that’s about to be published, there shouldn’t be any substantive changes being made or suggested at this point.

Now that’s cleared up, I thought it might be helpful to lay out the kinds of errors that proofreaders are looking for.

These include things like:

• Formatting errors. For example: shifting page margins, a missing foreword, or non-consecutive page numbers–page 121 following page 111.

• Inconsistency of chapter titles. Such as: Chapter 1, Chapter Two, Third Chapter, 4th Chapter.

• Chapter headers that may have ended up in the wrong places. This might look like a chapter heading that’s somehow jumped to the end of the previous page.

• Missing pages (or blank pages that have accidentally inserted themselves into the body of the text).

• Visual elements/graphics that aren’t in the correct location/s or haven’t transferred over well. For example, an illustrated map of the story’s world that hasn’t transferred properly to the formatted book, resulting in the edge being cut off.

• Typos that may have snuck through (‘than’ instead of ‘that’, for example, or ‘then’ instead of ‘than’, duplicated words, or missing articles such as ‘the’).

• Inconsistent spellings/styles. For an American author writing in British English, this might include mixing regional spellings such as ‘color’ and ‘colour’, ‘oriented’ and ‘orientated’, for example. It could also include varying the spelling of a character’s name throughout a novel. Maybe your protagonist’s name is Katherine in Chapter 1 and Catherine in Chapter 15, for example.

• Overt, unintentional grammatical errors that slipped past the copyeditor (because even experienced copyeditors can’t catch everything!). This might look like a quote without a closing quotation mark, or a sentence without a verb.

As you can see, there’s quite a lot that can sneak through to the end stages of a book!

It’s important to catch these kinds of errors as they can distract readers from focusing on your story. While almost no book is completely free of errors, greatly reducing them ensures that a book appears professional, and a professional book is more likely to stand out in a busy marketplace.

If you’re a writer who’s preparing your book for publication and you’d like a proofreader to go over it to check for these kinds of errors, I’d love to hear from you! You can get in touch with me by using the contact button below.