Many self-published works have the major issue that the content is great, but due to the fact that editors or lecturers are generally not involved in the self-publishing process the text itself is full of typos and oversights.
This is a very common pitfall. Most writers are convinced that their grammar, spelling and punctuation is good, and indeed it is most of the time. However, any author who writes experiences some phases of millions of ideas coming to mind at once, and while putting them down grammar sometimes suffers under style.
Professional proofreading is an option that should be considered by all self-publishers. Proofreaders generally don't change the style you write with (particularly not for books) but they check everything for consistency, oversights, wrong spelling, formatting and the such.
Proofreading gives many advantages to the self-publishing author. It is an easy means to achieving the highest quality possible from a content-side of view while getting all the credits (he or she might be nice to mention the proofreader, but is not obliged to).
Proofreading and content-review is not expensive by any means. However, it is important to use a qualified linguist for this purpose. School teachers or other individuals who have undoubtedly a great command of the language required are not trained to proofread as such and might change style or collocquialisms introduced on purpose. You should always commission a professional proofreader for ensuring your content for self-publishing is reviewed on the most appropriate level.
Other advantages of having your works proofread before self-publishing are the following:
- If the book is a vast success you will need to reprint. In a non-proofread version you will find issues that you might want to change for reprint, and this involves more work then necessary (after all, you want to reprint as quickly as possible).
- If the book is a success you might consider publishing it in other languages, or might even be contacted by individuals who ask you to publish a translation. A proofread version will at all times be easier for a translator to work with, as verifying spelling issues and unsound collocations takes a long time - in this case, a weird collocation might look to the translator as if the author wanted it to sound quirky for this instance, however the author actually didn't and it was just an oversight. This in turn requires the translator to either check back or to create a collocation both creative, matching the source and above all quirky in itself.
Proofreading ensures that creative writing remains creative where intended.
Increase the quality of your content, improve readability for your audience and ease publication in other languages and reprints if your book is a true success story.
