Authors Helping Authors discussion

I have just had yet another book published in Amazon after having it had professionally proofread only to have a reviewer say that they found loads of typos.

Can anyone recommend a really great proofreader?

Help.

Scott: You might check to see where the reviewer lives. I had one who lives in Europe, specializes in English-English. They expected the book, sold in England, to be English and not American-English. The same can happen in Canada where they have Canadian-English which is a mixture of all. If you can, ask the reviewer to list some typos...

Thanks for the review idea. I will us that in future. Do you have a proofreader you use?

Scott

I am my own proof-reader. I cannot guarantee to get all the typos, but I think I do pretty well.

I find having American English on the computer when I write in English-English can be a pain, but as I go through the spell check, my first port of call, I've beaten that by adding the English-spelt words to the dictionary. I had a real problem with words ending in -ealise, such as realised, idealised, etc. The computer kept wanting to change them and I ended up with peculiar words that were just 'ealized' until I realised it wanted to spell all those words with a 'z'! I tried switching to British English as the language but it switches back. So I just added all the words to the dictionary.

A second help is to have a good screen. I cannot edit/proofread on the laptop - the screen is too small. I have a large screen on the desktop, and I even zoom in so I can see it clearly.

Of course, it helps that I'm a trained typist and in my day you had to be accurate on a typewriter - no easy corrections there. But, of course, nobody is perfect.

I have a number of different levels of proofing. My own, beta readers, a paid proofreader and me again. Still mistakes get through. I even had someone complain of three typos in a book that was edited by the very professional editors at Penguin/Putnam. You do your best but the best effort must be made.For me, the true editorial help is needed in content editing and I've been using the same freelance editor for 25 years. I used her before I would send to my editor in New York to give my manuscript the best chance of selling. I find readers are gracious is they find a few typos and will send them along to me but if the stories poorly conceived and written they put it in a review :( Merry Xmas everyone. PS Evelyn, I am jealous that you are a trained typist. That is truly a skill that's invaluable in this day and age of computers.

Liked your comment Rebecca. As a trained typist, I am showing my age! Invaluable it is. Especially as I can touch-type at 'lightning speed' as my son-in-law put it! Anyone can learn to do it, all it takes is practice. There are tutorials on line for free. You do have to work at it, but it's not difficult. It's constant use that builds the speed. I'm a stenographer too, but shorthand is less useful these days!

Evelyn, If practice made perfect I wouldn't have to edit so often LOL! I've been writing for 29 years, 29 books (not counting the ones under the bed that were rejected) and, while I seem to type fast, I will never reach your level of expertise on a perfect document. I only wish. I think there are some people who have that talent. I view you the same way I view a piano player: "How do they do that and not miss a note?" You are a writer who is blessed :)

I find it much easier to find mistakes on the ipad than the computer as I find reading easier but that might be because of the ability to change the background colour. I don't know if it helps everyone but it's one of the things that makes a huge difference to me and seems to be encouraged for anyone who's dyslexic. Printing it out also helps but it's way too many pages to realistically print, even double sided.

I have a family member who kindly proofread my last book but she's very busy so I may have to find someone else to do my next one. It's just so expensive (I understand why it's just frustrating) and unfortunately being self published it's one of the biggest costs you will encounter and arguably the most important one not to scrimp on.

I always print out on hard copy. I usually read my work as I go along and then do the whole book 5-6 times. I make huge changes and then work down to the fine tuning. It's tough to find people who will proof. It's not an easy job.

I think Robert may be right in that sometimes it's a country spelling thing - otherwise it's like the others say - reading it through many times and getting as many pairs of eyes on it as possible. So hard to catch every letter/mistake.

Marie, it's impossible to catch them all. What I truly appreciate, though, is a reader who will take the time to send along something they catch. However, I try not to publish until I'm pretty sure they aren't going to find a zillion errors. I actually had an author who wrote me with typo problems in one of my books (original editor was with Penguin/Putnam so it definitely was professionally done) and then she wrote back a few months to admit someone found errors in her book she thought was error free. It happens.

I agree about printing it out--it just seems easier to see things that way. I also advocate having someone else do the final proofread. I can proof someone else's MS and miss very little. But my own--I know it too well, and my mind will fill in and correct without me even noticing. I made the mistake of doing that once, and sent out a book with over 20 errors, a couple of them major. I will never do that again.

With my external proof-reader, the errors have never exceeded 3 very minor ones.

By the way, Rebecca, I am also trained as a typist back on the old non-correcting machines. But I've spent too many years on the computer--I type fast, but not without many, many errors :)