This is the last time a literary professional will touch your work before publication. This final check will help reduce (there’s no such thing as perfect, so some will still make their way through) the amount of errors that end up in a reader’s hands.
Proofreading Timing
Now that you’ve had your work copy edited and typeset, it’s time to give your final product to a proofreader.
You wouldn’t hire a proofreader before you’ve done all the other book development steps. You want a proofreader to review a “proof” copy (hence the name) of your piece. Meaning, that it is fully completed and won’t be touched unless the proofreader points something out to be changed.
Many newbie writers confuse proofreading with copy editing. They are not the same service.
Copy editing is about correcting (meaning directly making changes to) the grammatical errors of a piece.
Proofreading is about reviewing the entire product and flagging anything that appears problematic. From a blurry cover image, to missing page numbers, to improper punctuation, to cheap-feeling paper. Anything that might cause a problem for your reader or even keep them from picking up the book in the first place is within the proofreader’s purview.
This is why, in theory, you wouldn’t have a proofreader work on your second draft or a piece that hadn’t been typeset yet. You want to hand your proofreader (physically or digitally) what is essentially a finished product.
Trying DIY
If you don’t think you can afford a proofreader, you may consider trying to proofread your own work.
That’s a decision you have to make as an author. Just know that reviewing something that came from your own brain is never going to be as effective as having a stranger with a professional background and a sharp eye take a look at it.
Doing Nothing
There are authors who don’t do proofreading at all. If you don’t, your book will hit the market with exponentially more errors than it would otherwise. If you can accept that, jump straight to publication!
Take A Break
As explained in Self-Revision Fundamentals, it’s virtually impossible to be objective about anything that came from you: your artwork, your child, your words, etc. This is why it’s so important to get an outside perspective about your work. But, when attempting to proofread with no budget, one of the key factors that can help you is distancing yourself from the work. Just like you did when you were doing self-revisions, set the book aside for at least a week and then come back to it. Read it from beginning to end and flag any problems you see.
Repeat the Process
Going through the process of taking a break, reading, and flagging helps you catch more problems. Though, you don’t want this to go on forever. At this point, you’ve cleaned the piece up as much as you reasonably can. I encourage you to repeat this self-proofing process no more than twice so you don’t get stuck in a rut of doing it.
After Flagging
Once you’ve flagged or made a list of all the problems you’ve found, it’s time to make changes where you want to. For instance, if a corner of a person’s foot got cut off on the front cover, you can have the cover designer adjust the image to show the foot. But, is it important enough to warrant contacting your cover designer again and having them take the time to make the adjustment (especially if you may have to pay them more money)? If you add a missing comma to your file and it screws up the careful typesetting you paid for, do you leave the comma out or contact the layout specialist again to get them to adjust the text so that the comma can be added without so much visual drama?
This is why it’s important for you, or your pro, to simply flag problems instead of jumping in to change them reactively. You can make executive decisions about what’s worth the trouble and what isn’t.
Preparing to Contact Proofreaders
For those of you able and willing to invest in this bit of quality control for your project, there are proofreaders far and wide who can help.
Before reaching out to them, it’s helpful to understand what you’ll be asking them for.
In Go Pub Yourself I discuss the Service Trinity and how it’s important to understand what your top priorities are before you start shopping around for professionals. If you need a refresher, check out the Illustrations lesson.
Figure out what is most important to you between price, speed, and quality.
Generally speaking:
- If cost is most important to you, be prepared to sacrifice a bit of quality or a bit of speed.
- If quality is most important to you, be prepared to pay more or to wait longer for your finished product.
- If speed is most important to you, be prepared to pay more or to get a lower-quality product.
So, what’s most important to you?
Which of these is your second most important consideration?
Based on your budget and preferences, you’ll be looking for a proofreader who can be described in one of these three bullets:
- Fast and cheap (so they’ll produce a lower-quality review of the work).
- Fast and high quality (so they’ll cost more money).
- Cheap and high quality (so they’ll take longer).
Now that you’re clear on what’s most important to you, it’s time to prepare your quote request.
Quote Requests
Based on which of the service trinity components you prioritized, your quote request will look slightly different. But here is a general example:
I am looking for a proofreader for my 151,000-word urban fantasy novel. I will ship a physical proof copy to you.
I just want flags of problems so I can decide what I want to adjust and what I don’t.
I have a budget of $1,700 (firm).
I don’t have a specific timeline, but the sooner the better.
If interested, please reply with your estimated price in the subject line and I will set up a video call.
Thanks!
The format of the quote request doesn’t matter all that much. What’s important is what goes into it. This is an opportunity for you to (1) let the proofreaders know what they’re getting themselves into, and (2) do some early vetting of the professionals you’ve contacted.
Be sure to include the following information in your quote request:
- The type of book you’ve written (manga, graphic novel, children’s book, poetry collection, etc.).
- The service you need.
- How much of the service you need (in this case, how many words long it is).
- What your budget is.
- What your desired completion timeline is.
I encourage you to add a mini-vetting step for the pros like putting a particular word in an email subject line or only submitting quotes via the contact form on your website. Keep it simple! You don’t want people to think you’re a difficult client and not want to work with you for that reason. When you’re working with someone virtually, it is critical that they be able to carefully read and follow written instructions because this will make up most, if not all, of your communication with them. So, giving them a tiny direction to pay attention to and follow is a great way to weed out the people who don’t follow instructions. Not receiving a quote request from them would be like dodging a bullet, so there’s no loss there. They just eliminated themselves from your list of prospects so that you wouldn’t have to!
Take a few minutes to write out your quote request. This is what you’ll be using to contact proofreaders.
Finding Proofreaders
Proofreaders can be found all over the internet. But it can be difficult to find someone to work with who is talented, communicative, and professional. To help narrow down the search, I recommend skipping open forum and freelancer marketplace sites like Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, Upwork, or Craigslist and shooting straight for professional organization sites. At this point, you’re not actually reaching out to your potential professionals, you’re just making note of their contact information so you can dig deeper in the next step.
I recommend finding five proofreaders that you like and noting their name and website to use in the next step.
Here are some options for you:
Just complete the request form and you’ll be contacted with a free quote and guidance customized for where you are in your project.
The Editorial Freelancers Association
A popular professional organization for editors.
This is a site where editors of all kinds gather.
Vetting Proofreaders
My recommendation is to find five proofreaders that you would like to use for your book. From that list of five, you can start narrowing down to the one you’re going to hire. Even though their thoroughness is the top issue for most authors searching for a pro, their ability to behave in a professional manner is important as well.
First Cull
The first round of elimination takes place by contacting each one of your prospects by email or direct message with your quote request. You can also submit a job post to one of the professional organizations noted above. See who gets back to you, how soon, and whether they follow instructions.
As I stated, some people are going to eliminate themselves for you because they won’t follow whatever instruction you left for them at the bottom of your email / message.
Others will eliminate themselves because they won’t respond to you at all for whatever reason (swamped with current clients, aren’t interested in your project, etc.).
So, at this point, you’ll probably be able to cut your list by at least one person and only have 4 left.
If after two business days (not calendar days, not holidays, not weekend days) of waiting, you’ve only heard from a single proofreader, it looks like you’ve found your pro!
But for those who still have 2 or more left on your list, you’ll need to do a second round of eliminations.
Second Cull
Of the pros who remain, you may already be able to see a clear winner based on the quote they responded with. If someone stands out head and shoulders above the rest, you’ve found your proofreader and you’re ready to hire them.
If not, you move into the next round of elimination. You do this by applying the service trinity characteristic you thought was most important.
For instance, if speed is most critical for you, eliminate people who give you a timeline for completion that is the slowest. If you’re focused on price above all else, eliminate people who have quoted you a price that’s over your budget.
At this point, you should only have one person left on your list, OR you see a clear winner based on them following your mini-vet instruction, responding to your quote request in a reasonable time frame, and generally treating you with respect when interacting with them (especially if you got the opportunity to speak to them via phone or video chat).
Now, it’s time to hire!
The One
At this point, you’ve singled out the person who fits you and your project best. Now it’s time to deliver the good news!
Please note that you want to contact the pro that you’ve chosen BEFORE you contact the people you didn’t select. This is because, during the time you were making your decision, the pro you wanted could have been hired for other projects. This could change their projected timeline or even their ability to take on your project at all. So, before you tell everyone else that they weren’t chosen, be sure that the person you want is able to accept your project.
When you contact the person, be sure to repeat and clarify the details of the project. While they may be defined in the contract or service terms, interpretations of words can vary, so you want to make sure that you directly address each of the following:
- The price and how payment will be submitted. This includes their willingness to let you make payments over time instead of making a single advance payment. Many professionals have accounts on various platforms such as Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp so that they don’t miss out on sales simply because of not accepting a payment processor you like to use, but always be sure to ask just to be safe.
- The projected timeline for completion and update frequency. Things can change throughout the project duration, so this will only be an estimate. However, it’s helpful to have some idea of how long it will take for the sake of professional clarity and to help reduce your anxiety. At Writerwerx University, writers are updated automatically via a cloud-based Google Doc. But some professionals only contact clients when a project begins, if there is a problem, and when the project is completed. If you’d prefer more consistent contact, such as a monthly or bi-weekly update email, let them know you’ll be reaching out for updates every couple of weeks / month. I highly recommend avoiding weekly or daily updates for most projects. If a project will be completed in less than a week, there’s no real need for updates anyhow since you’re going to be getting your final product soon (this might be the case for shorter works like poetry books or children’s books). If the proofreading you ordered will take a few months to complete, then a monthly or bi-weekly update makes more sense. You don’t want your pro spending more time updating you than they spend working on your project! Step back and let them do their job.
Delivering the Bad News
For the last two people to get cut from your list, I strongly suggest that you reach out to them and let them know that they weren’t chosen. By behaving professionally, you set yourself up for success in the future. As noted in the example above, you never know when you may need to call on one of these runner-ups instead of the proofreader you originally wanted to hire. If your top pick falls ill, dies, retires, has their hands amputated, or otherwise is no longer able to continue your project, you’ll want to have people available who you can turn to. Since you already like these pros enough to put them on your list at all, hold on to their contact information and do them the courtesy of letting them know that you made a decision.
You may not get responses from them, and that’s okay. They’re busy running a business, so they may not see the need to invest any more time or energy into a project that they didn’t get selected for. But they will appreciate knowing for certain instead of wondering what happened or having to take the time to reach out to you about where you landed.
Seeing how well you carried yourself, they are more likely to be willing to help you if you need it. You come off as reasonable, courteous, and professional. You’ve presented yourself as someone they wouldn’t mind working with in the future.
The contact doesn’t have to be anything lengthy and uncomfortable. A simple message will do the trick. Here’s an example:
Good morning, Mr. Drogo!
I’m just writing to let you know I have selected a proofreader for The Keeper’s Den.
Even though I won’t be working with you on this project, I’ll hold on to your contact info in case I need your services in the future.
I appreciate your time and consideration and hope you have a great rest of the week!