Proofreading is the last gate before a reader decides whether to trust you. It is not about finding clever improvements; it is about ensuring nothing distracts — no stray comma splice, no character who changes eye colour, no heading in a different font. Quiet, precise, unglamorous work, done properly.
What the proofread covers
- Grammar, spelling and punctuation in your chosen variety of English, applied consistently rather than corrected randomly.
- Consistency: names, places, numbers, times, capitalisation of job titles, hyphenation of compound words, and curly versus straight quotes.
- Layout checks: heading levels, orphan headings at the foot of a page, broken lists, spacing before and after em dashes.
- Cross-references: chapter numbers, “see page 42”, figure and table numbers, and the contents page against the actual headings.
- An error list so you can see what was wrong and avoid it in the next book.
How it works
- Send the final text. The version that has already been edited — if it has not been edited yet, we will say so and quote for that first.
- First pass. Full read with tracked corrections and queries flagged rather than guessed at.
- Author decisions. You answer the queries; we apply the choices everywhere they occur.
- Second pass and delivery. A clean read-through of the corrected file, plus the error summary.
Proofreading versus editing
If a sentence is clumsy, a proofreader leaves it alone. If a chapter is in the wrong place, a proofreader leaves it alone too. That restraint is the point: by the time the text reaches proof, the decisions should be settled. If you suspect the structure needs work, order editing first — it is cheaper than proofreading a book twice.
What we proofread
Novels and novellas, memoirs, non-fiction and business books, children’s chapter books, workbooks, translated manuscripts, and the front and back matter most authors forget: copyright page, acknowledgements, also-by list, and the blurb on the back. Fiction and non-fiction both, in British or American English.
Who this is for
Self-publishing authors days away from upload. Authors reissuing a backlist with new covers. Translators delivering into English. Teams producing reports and whitepapers that will be read by people who notice. If you have read your own manuscript eleven times and can no longer see it, this is the service that catches what you cannot.
The errors that cost the most
Readers forgive a comma. They do not forgive a character’s name changing between chapters, a date that contradicts the timeline, or a heading that still says “Chapter 7” on page 90. Those are the mistakes that turn a reader into a reviewer, and they are exactly the ones an author cannot see in their own text after the fourth read. Our second pass exists for them: the whole book read once more with nothing to fix but consistency.
We also check the parts authors forget — the copyright page, the also-by list, the blurb, and the sample chapter at the back, which is often the oldest text in the file.
Pricing
| Tier | Scope | Price | Was | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 ebook — full proofread | $60 | $65 | |
| Professional | 3 ebooks | $160 | $175 | |
| Bulk / Authority | 5 ebooks | $250 | $250 |
Frequent questions
How long does a proofread take?
Three to five working days for a typical 18,000-word book. Bulk orders are scheduled across a week so each title still gets a clean pass.
Do you check the ebook file itself?
Yes — we can proofread in the EPUB or PDF as well as the manuscript, which catches formatting errors that only appear after conversion.
What if you find a plot problem?
We flag it in the error list rather than silently rewriting. Fixing it is your call, or an edit if it turns out to be structural.
Book a proofread — send the final file and the delivery date you need.