Every author’s dream of winning their readers’ devotion is the biggest reason why proofreading is important. Here’s the breakdown, plus why skipping over proofreading is costing you sales.
Hallelujah, your next book is ready to go. You’ve read and re-read it, and it’s finally time to hit publish. So you do, then you go to bed with a sigh of satisfaction on your lips and a tingle of nerves in your belly.
This one is good; you know it to the depths of your soul. You just hope your readers will love it the way you do. On that thought, you drift off to sleep, eager to get up in a few hours to see the accolades rolling in.
Except that’s not what the new day brings. Instead of the praises you’d hoped for, the online reviews are awash with criticism about your error-riddled masterpiece.
“Sure,” they say, “the story could have been great. But who can focus on the story with this many obvious grammatical errors? For Pete’s sake, why did I pay my money for this?”
All at once, your stomach plummets, the excitement in your belly congeals, and you face the very real possibility of meeting yesterday’s dinner again.
This, my dear writer, is why proofreading is important.
Proofreading and Editing: What’s the Difference?
Don’t make the mistake of confusing a proofreader with an editor, though. Editing and proofreading are usually done separately because the two play completely different roles in your book’s editing process.
In fact, there are different types of editing services that we won’t get into here, such as developmental, line, and copyediting. But a good general way to understand it is that your editor reviews your work from a more macro level. They look for plot issues, lack of clarity in the story, and continuity problems. Meanwhile, your proofreader sifts through the microlevel grammar stuff.
Understanding exactly what a proofreader does will help you understand why proofreading is important in your book’s journey. So let’s go a little deeper.
Definition of Proofreading
Proofreading is the final step in the editing process for your work. It’s the last thing you have done before hitting publish. And when you employ a proofreader, you give your book its best chance of getting out into the world error-free.
So what is proofreading? Merriam-Webster defines proofread as “to read and mark corrections in.”
To break this all the way down, you should expect your proofreader to thoroughly read your book, checking for
- Spelling errors. Spell-check is great, but it doesn’t know that you meant to write, “lose the attitude,” not “loose the attitude” or “lose the altitude.”
- Punctuation errors. Proofreading software is also great, but it doesn’t know that you missed the period at the end of a paragraph. Or that you accidentally skipped the closing quotation mark when your hero stopped speaking.
- Grammatical errors. Spell-check and proofreading software won’t reveal that you accidentally called your heroine a dude when you wrote, “Jessica rifled through his handbag before finally giving up.” Software also won’t save your reader from tripping and falling over confusing run-on sentences.
- Formatting errors. This covers issues like proper paragraphing, indentation, and spacing. All of these will help you give your reader a professional-grade final product.
These simple examples give you an idea of the value that a proofreader brings to your book’s editing process. Now, imagine a whole book with these little errors all over the place. Errors that slipped past you and your editor, not because you’re careless but because you’re human. Errors that a professional proofreader could easily have eliminated.
A proofreader’s granular focus on issues that aren’t—and don’t need to be— your area of expertise shows you why proofreading is important.
Your Reader’s Experience of Your Writing
Why is it important to proofread your writing? More specifically, why have a professional do the job for you? In order to explain the need to have a professional proofread and check your written work, consider a potential new reader and buyer.
Your name has popped up on her recommendations list. So she opens up the sample of your most recent book, ready to fall in love with a new book boyfriend. Unfortunately, within a minute, she’s exiting the sample and mentally blacklisting you. Because if you couldn’t be bothered to ensure that the first few pages were clean, what must the rest of the book be like?
And what about your loyal fan? The woman whose 1-Click finger is always ready for your latest book?
Imagine her surprise and disappointment as she exhausts herself from the mental effort of navigating around the errors that should never have gone live with your book.
Best case, she puts away her 1-Click finger and waits for the reviews next time. Worst case, she gives you a bad review and returns the book. Because she’s so disappointed in you and what she sees as your lack of care and regard for your audience.
Please don’t let this be you, my dear author. Your readers pay good money for your books; in return, they should receive the cleanest possible version of your work. They deserve that.
Plus, you shouldn’t lose sales or sales opportunities because of simple mistakes that could—and should—have been caught before you hit publish. If only you’d hired a professional proofreader.
Your reputation and pocket are why proofreading is important.
When Is It Important?
So, my dear author, when is proofreading important?
When you produce a written document that’s meant for an audience, then you need a proofreader before releasing your work. This includes everything from an academic or research paper to web content and novels. It also applies in any language.
Proofreading is especially important when you’re asking people to pay for that piece of work or when you’re being judged by it.
Also bear in mind that proofreading your own written work isn’t a great idea. No matter how thorough you think you are, and despite how great you may be at grammar, you’ll still miss stuff. That’s because your brain knows what it intended to write. So when you’re re-reading your own work, that’s what your brain tends to see, not what you’ve actually written.
For example, long before you came across this website, I had someone proofread every page, even though it’s my business to catch errors.
Your writer’s brain is a handicap when it’s time to proofread your own work.
Why Proofreading Matters
Most lifelong readers have suffered through far too many books that they could have loved forever, but for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Don’t let your reader add your next book to that list. And don’t let her add you to her authors-to-avoid list either.
So why is proofreading an important part of the writing process? Because your readers should be able to trust that you always give them the best. When they can trust you for that, then they’ll love you for life, through thick and thin.
My dear author, please have your work professionally proofread before asking your loyal readers and potential new fans to endure simple, avoidable errors. Especially if they’re paying for it.
Then the next time you hit publish, you won’t have to wake up to the internet awash with frustration and derision about one more author who doesn’t respect their readers.
Instead, wake up to the accolades that your polished creative masterpiece deserves.