Proofreading, Paula Shene [i love reading books .TXT] 📗

Proof reading is an absolute must whether you attempt to be published by a ‘house’ or if you decide to take out the middleman and produce your own book.
If you seek a publisher and make it through to an actual acquisition editor, there are many factors that are in play so that editor will stay interested in your work. However, if every other word is misspelled, in ‘text’ form, has no apparent punctuation - it will quickly make itself into the circular file even if the story line is one they are seeking.
Will you know this? Maybe; maybe not. There are a lot of writers and not enough editors. If this is their nine to five job and it does not matter how many books they get through, then you may be told of the rejection and even why. If there are too many books in their pile, your missive will sail under or over hand into the reject land waste without a thought to it being someone’s ‘baby.’
I was an Administrator in my past working life and before that a secretary. As a secretary, my job was to present a perfect finished copy to my boss; as a boss, knowing my name was to be signed on the letter, I expected a perfect copy to sign.
I am on another site where I automatically proof as I read. Most of the stories are short stories or poems; most of them are good. Some of them are good but need editing. Some of them need a refresher course in language.
When I am reading, I take into account the age [we have some writers as young as eight years old], the target audience, whether or not English is their native language and if they are new to the site or just someone who will continually write the way they want, including ‘mistakes’, refusing to take correction.
I do not believe in rejecting a story with worth that needs proofing but if after giving correction, in private, and refusal to correct, I move on and help someone else. This is not to say I do not need help. I do. I am fortunate that I have two proof readers in my home who feel free to ‘slash and burn’ when asked for their help in proofing.
Proofing does not necessarily include changing someone’s story to fit the proofreader’s ideal. Each writer must find their own ‘voice’ and not allow second guessing to stunt their writing because someone else does not like their story. They are not your audience BUT correct spelling and punctuation goes a long way towards a ‘readable’ story and keeping or gaining an audience.
Now, if you are planning to take the middleman out and go straight to Lulu or CreateSpace or a myriad of other self-publishing sites, it is even more important to proofread and correct your work.
This is your creation. Do you want to spend money [lots of money] to have someone do your corrections or worse end up producing it with all its glaring errors and be left wondering why you only sold a few copies? Word gets around and the internet while vast has small pockets of talkers who can and will help you sell or help you be ignored.
There is one more category of writer that I want to address. You who write for this site and/or another or even have your own blog. People will go to a blog and if it is laced with mistakes, they will not return. Blogs do not necessarily need to be flashy but they do need to be literate. The same goes when you submit an article. Yours may eventually be used but will take time to be posted because correction must be made or it may go into the immediate stream because it has been proofread and is ‘ready to serve.’ Your choice, your creation; how will you present it?


originally submitted to Poetic Monthly

Publication Date: 11-13-2010

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