The sound of proofreading

First impressions count

Nothing says ‘novice writer’ more than sloppy mistakes.

I can’t tell you how often I’ve cringed because a silly blooper has crept through my work. Usually, it’s because I’ve been a bit blase.

Truly, it’s a form of laziness, not bothering to go back and read and re-read your own words before setting them loose on the world. But sometimes, no matter how careful you’ve been, there’s still an occasional slippery sucker that’s got by you. More often than not, it’s a simple missing article like ‘a’ or ‘an’ or a tense issue like ‘has’ or ‘have’. Super easy to miss. That’s when a fresh pair of eyes comes in handy and our proofreading service is just what you need.

Asking friends or workshop buddies to review your manuscript is a great way to test your writing on fresh eyes, but you should be able to bring your work to a decent standard on your little old lonesome first.

I’m not talking about big picture issues like story and structure here; I’m talking about the actual words on the page.

Have a look at this:

Did you pick up the two mistakes? Maybe you saw one but not the other (look for ‘the the’ twice). This is a great example of how our eyes can deceive us and see only what our mind wants us to see.

Solution 1: Read your work aloud. Nobody has to hear you, so there’s no need to feel embarrassed. Just tuck yourself away in a quiet corner, with a coffee, tea, wine, whisky—whatever does it for you—and verbalise every word on the page. Trust me, it works; mistakes will jump out at you.

Solution 2: Get your computer to speak it for you. How? Have a look at this link: Text-to-Speech Command. It only takes a few minutes to set up this facility and once it’s been added to your Word tool bar, all you have to do is highlight your text and click the ‘speak’ command. Voila! Grab a notepad, relax and listen. Not just for errors but for sentence structure and flow

Solution 3: Use our professional proofreading service. Just let us know your word count and we will provide you with a fixed quote.

Share this to:

Testimonials.

AJ Collins went above and beyond! AJ’s in-depth editing and advice was vital in bringing my manuscript up to a publishable standard. My novel, A Plan Unravelled, will be out in July and I can’t thank her enough for helping me to achieve this.”

I'm so happy to have worked with AJ. She was thorough and knowledgeable. She went above and beyond, highlighting a couple of small plot holes missed in the copy edit, and with helping me format my book for printing! I was so grateful for her patience!

I learnt a lot from AJ when she edited my book Climbing the Coconut Tree. Her attention to detail and knowledge of the editing process was outstanding. She took the time to understand me and the goals for my project and gave me very sound and constructive advice throughout. I can’t thank her enough.

AJ’s work helped me produce my best work so far. I was constantly challenged by her to improve my manuscript, and her hard work and experience made me rise to the challenge. I agreed with ninety nine percent of her assessment. I feel it’s much better now. I look forward to working with her on a sequel.