Proofreading on the cheap

Laer Carroll · Jan 15, 2015

I agree with Old Hack. The slang term "frig" would have been better spelled "fridge." I've made that change in my master MS.

Why didn't my spell checker catch that? Because the word is correct in standard English. Automated checking tools can only do mechanical corrections, which can give incautious users of them false confidence in their "judgments."

Still, I use a spell checker because I make a lot of typos and misspellings when a scene I'm writing is working well and I'm typing very fast. When I take a breather and reread the last few pages the corrections come in very handy. This saves me a lot of time which I can better use on the creative side of writing.

I also use a grammar checker, but (again) such tools are limited. You have to use them judiciously.

Old Hack · Jan 15, 2015

I use a spell-checker too, Laer. I don't use the grammar checker because I've found the suggestions they make turn most writing into a pompous thing which is simultaneously dead on the page.

But neither is a substitute for a good editor, who will do so much more, and with much greater sensitivity, too.

MartinD · Feb 12, 2015

MartinD said:
I contacted a proofreader a friend recommended. This proofreader offered to go over my 90,000 word manuscript for $150.00. She says it usually takes her about 10 hours to do a read and, if so, her rate is absolutely reasonable.

Since so many kind people followed up on my original post, I thought I'd offer an update. I contacted the reader and she offered to go over the first half of my manuscript for the first half of the fee. If I liked her work, I could send her the rest later for the other half of the payment.

Fortunately, my novel wraps a chapter almost at mid-point (44,000+ words), so I emailed that chunk of the manuscript off to the reader and, three days later, she emailed it back to me. She highlighted her changes and provided tracking so that everything was easy to find and correct.

Two times I failed to add an "s" to the end of a word. Once, I failed to add a question mark, which aggravated me. How did I miss that?

Happily, those were the only mistakes she found. I didn't want any mistakes but that was probably unreasonable.

Lizzie7800 · Feb 12, 2015

I can't imagine doing it without an editor and someone to proofread it. I hope you're able to figure out a way to find one.

Old Hack · Feb 12, 2015

MartinD said:
Two times I failed to add an "s" to the end of a word. Once, I failed to add a question mark, which aggravated me. How did I miss that?

Happily, those were the only mistakes she found.

If she only found three errors in 44,000 words you are either the cleanest writer I have ever encountered, or she hasn't done a full copyedit on the work. That's an astonishingly small number!

slhuang · Feb 13, 2015

Old Hack said:
If she only found three errors in 44,000 words you are either the cleanest writer I have ever encountered, or she hasn't done a full copyedit on the work. That's an astonishingly small number!

Yeah, agreed.

Particularly if your beta mentioned typos being a problem. Personally, I'd actually be kind of worried about a proofreader finding that low a number of errors, and I'm such a clean writer my editor comments on it.

I hope it's just that your writing is supernaturally clean, but since you haven't paid for the second half yet, I wanted to add a word of wariness. Maybe at least follow up with the beta who mentioned the typos and see if they feel like they noticed more than your proofreader caught?

Old Hack · Feb 13, 2015

Martin, you might find it useful to put a segment of your work in SYW. It could give you an indication of how clean your text really is.

Proofreading on the cheap

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

MartinD

Thought I'd stop by

Lizzie7800

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

slhuang

Inappropriately math-oriented.

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman