Services · Proofreading Services
Proofreading services give your finished book a final, careful read to catch the typos, punctuation slips and layout errors that survived every earlier pass. It is the last line of defense before readers see your pages, and it starts from $0.012 per word. Proofreading is one level of our book editing services, and it is the lightest and fastest of the four, and the least expensive per word. Get a free consultation to find out whether it is the right step for your manuscript.
Authors tend to skip this step because the book feels done, or because the deadline is close. It never is. Your eyes, and the eyes of everyone who has helped you, have read these sentences so many times that they see what should be there instead of what is.
Proofreading is a read for mistakes, not for meaning, done slowly and with fresh eyes. The proofreader compares the final text and layout against what it should be and corrects whatever is wrong: misspelled words, missing or doubled words, wrong punctuation, inconsistent capitalization, broken cross-references and similar slips.
The name comes from "proofs," the trial printed pages that were once checked before a full print run. Today, most proofreading happens on a PDF, but the idea is unchanged. You are checking that the finished product matches the approved text, and that nothing has gone wrong in the process of turning a manuscript into a book.
It is a short, focused job. The proofreader does not restructure chapters, rewrite sentences or debate your style. That discipline is exactly why proofreading costs less than any other level of editing.
Proofreaders work against a reference, usually your style sheet from the copyedit or a guide such as the Chicago Manual of Style. Where something is a matter of taste and not an error, they leave it alone or ask you.
Editing improves the text. Proofreading confirms it. If your manuscript still has clumsy sentences, repeated information or inconsistent style, a proofreader will not fix them, and you will be better served by a copyedit or a complete edit first.
The usual order runs from big to small: developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, then proofreading. Each pass assumes the one before it is done. Proofreading works best on a clean, typeset copy, since layout is where new errors appear: a heading stranded at the bottom of a page, a line of text broken in an odd place, a page number that skips.
It helps to remember that proofreading cannot rescue a draft that needs deeper work. It can only polish something that is already close. If you are unsure which stage you are at, the free sample edit comes with a plain recommendation on the type of edit your manuscript needs.
A proofread covers both the words and the way they sit on the page.
This is the core of the job, and it is slower than it sounds because the proofreader reads for each word, not for the story. Spelling, typos, doubled or missing words, punctuation, quotation marks, apostrophes, capitalization and stray spaces. The proofreader also catches wrong-word errors that a spell-checker ignores because the word exists, such as "form" for "from."
Awkward line and page breaks, widows and orphans, inconsistent fonts or spacing, running heads that do not match chapter titles, page numbers out of order, and images or captions that moved. Layout work itself is handled by our book formatting services.
Title page, copyright page, dedication, table of contents entries and page numbers, acknowledgments, author bio and index, if you have one. These pages carry the details readers and retailers notice first, so mistakes here look careless. A wrong ISBN or a misspelled author name on a copyright page is the kind of slip that is easy to miss and expensive to live with.
Book proofreading once your edited text has been typeset and you hold a final PDF or ebook file, and before you upload to a printer or retailer. Changes after that point cost time and sometimes fees, so a late catch is the cheapest catch you can make.
If you only changed a few pages after your last edit, you may not need a full proofread. Ask your project manager, who will tell you honestly. A second proofread is also sensible if a lot of text changed after the first one.
Ebook authors benefit too. Reflowable files can hide broken links, missing images or odd spacing that only show up on a reading device, so a final check of the converted file is worth the small cost.
Proofreading starts from $0.012 per word. At that rate, a 60,000-word book starts from $720. Several things move the number, and we list each one in writing. Your fixed written quote depends on word count, how clean the text already is, how complex the layout is, the number of revision rounds and your deadline.
For small projects of up to 5,000 words, typical turnaround is 3 to 5 business days. For longer manuscripts, the delivery date is confirmed in your written quote and depends on length and on how quickly you return feedback. Rush schedules are available for an additional fee, quoted up front. If you want line editing and copyediting bundled in, the complete edit starts from $0.045 per word. See our pricing page for how the levels compare.
To get the most from it, give your proofreader the cleanest possible file. Lock the layout first, because every later change risks new errors and means paying to check pages twice. Tell us about any unusual spellings, made-up words or foreign phrases up front so they are not treated as mistakes. Finally, plan a day or two to review the marked changes, since your quick approval keeps the schedule short.
Your pages are seen only by your proofreader and project team, and nothing is shared or reused. You own 100 percent of your book, and we keep no copyright, royalty or credit claim. Questions about contracts or rights? The Authors Guild is a helpful resource. For general standards in the craft, see the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.
No. Editing improves the writing. Proofreading only corrects errors in a text that is already final, which is why it costs less.
As the last step. That means after editing and typesetting, once you have a final PDF or ebook file, and before you send it to print or upload it.
From $0.012 per word. The final fixed quote depends on length, condition of the text, layout complexity and deadline.
Projects up to 5,000 words typically take 3 to 5 business days. Longer books are scheduled in your written quote.
Yes. A typeset PDF is the best thing to proofread, because it shows layout problems as well as text errors. Send it with your cover and any notes about deliberate choices, such as dialect or unusual punctuation, and the proofreader will respect them.
No human can promise that, and we do not. Readers will still occasionally find a stray typo in any book ever printed. A careful proofread catches the large majority of errors, and reviewing your own corrections adds one more safeguard.
Want to see what a careful final read finds? Get a free consultation and request a free edit of your first 1,000 words, or submit your manuscript. When your book is clean and ready, our book publishing services can take it to readers.
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Every enquiry is read by a publishing consultant, not a sales script. You'll get an honest view of your project, a recommended route and a fixed written quote.
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